The Washington Post notes, “The decision by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson represents a more sweeping repudiation of the law than the December ruling in a suit brought by Virginia that found the requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance to be unconstitutional. As the judge ruled in the Virginia case, Vinson held that Congress overstepped its authority by compelling nearly all Americans to be insured or pay a fine. But Vinson went further: Likening the law to ‘a finely crafted watch’ in which ‘one essential piece is defective and must be removed,’ he ruled that the insurance mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the statute and therefore the entire law must be voided.”
Importantly, The New York Times points out, “In his 78-page opinion, Judge Vinson held that the insurance requirement exceeded the regulatory powers granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.”
In their amicus brief filed in November in support of the states’ lawsuit against the Democrat health care bill, Senate Republicans focused on the law’s overreach, far beyond what the Commerce Clause allows. “Indeed, in more than 200 years of debate as to the proper scope of the Commerce Power, the Supreme Court has never suggested that the Commerce Power allows Congress to impose affirmative obligations on passive individuals, or to punish individuals for failing to purchase a particular product.” GOP senators pointed out, “As Congress’s own non-partisan research arm noted, the individual mandate ‘is a novel issue: whether Congress can use its Commerce Clause authority to require a person to buy a good or a service.’” They further argued, “If Congress can use the Commerce Power to punish a decision not to engage in a private activity, on the basis that the future consequences of this choice, in the aggregate, would substantially affect interstate commerce, there is seemingly no private decision Congress could not regulate or no activity it could not force private citizens to undertake . . . when, in the aggregate, it concludes that doing so would benefit the economy.”
Yesterday, Judge Vinson wrote, “It would be a radical departure from existing case law to hold that Congress can regulate inactivity under the Commerce Clause. If it has the power to compel an otherwise passive individual into a commercial transaction with a third party merely by asserting — as was done in the Act — that compelling the actual transaction is itself ‘commercial and economic in nature, and substantially affects interstate commerce’, it is not hyperbolizing to suggest that Congress could do almost anything it wanted. . . . It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that “the easiest way to protect the American people from this job-destroying health care law is to repeal it so we can start over with common-sense reforms that lower costs and protect jobs without unconstitutional mandates, new taxes, and costly penalties.”
Voters want it repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms . . . according to a recent Rasmussen survey which found that “58% of Likely Voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care law, including 47% who Strongly Favor repeal.” And a survey by Resurgent Republic found that “A plurality of registered voters (49 to 44%) supports Republican plans to repeal and replace the health care reform bill, including a majority of Independents (54 to 36% support).”
This morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Opposition to the bill continues to build. And when two federal courts in a row rule that this bill is unconstitutional and we learn every day of some other way it’s not only making health care worse but also hurting jobs and the economy, it’s no wonder more Americans support repeal than oppose it, and that the percentage of those who say they support full repeal is higher now than ever.”
“The importance of a repeal vote becomes more evident every day,” Leader McConnell explained. “Americans view it as an important decision point — a marker that shows we’re serious about a return to limited government. On that point, it should be clear where Republicans stand. Every one of us voted against the bill. Every one of us voted for repeal after that. And this week, every Republican reaffirmed his or her commitment to doing it again.”
McConnell is moving today to force the Senate to act on repealing the job-destroying health care law. According to Republican sources, he plans today to offer the same proposal, which has already passed the House by a wide margin, as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration bill that is set for floor consideration, according to Republican sources. The only question is: will Majority Leader Harry Reid allow a vote?
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