Sen. Lincoln: Congress Can Force Americans to Buy Health Insurance Because Constitution ‘Charges Congress With the Health’ of the People

Update: Doyle Webb, RPA Chairman issued the following statement today: “Two in three Arkansans oppose the health care scheme Blanche Lincoln supports. You don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to do the math that these numbers point to one thing, a defeat in 2010 for Blanche Lincoln. Arkansans want their elected officials to focus on jobs and the economy, not adding $1 trillion more dollars to our massive debt and mortgaging their grandchildren’s future. Blanche Lincoln needs to come out of her house in Northern Virginia and answer to the people of Arkansas, not Harry Reid and the Democrats.”
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Bill Smith, Editor: What U.S. Constitution Sen Blanche Lincoln is reading? No citizen has to pay any fee or to give any tribute to be a U.S. citizen. Wow - Lincoln advocates for the mother of all poll taxes to be a citizen of the U.S. I guess it is really true, you can take the girl of the plantation, but you can't take the plantation mentality out of the girl. Lincoln has really embarrassed Arkansans. She is so desperate to gain the favor of the liberal elites that she is abandoning her constituents. This is not a gaffe, it is a definitive identification of her personal beliefs.

CNS News Reports: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution “charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.”

The words “health” and “well-being” do not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

The Congressional Budget Office has determined that in the entire history of the United States the federal government has never mandated that Americans buy any good or service. Both the House and Senate health care bills, however, include provisions that require all legal residents of the U.S. to purchase health insurance, a provision whose constitutionality has been questioned by, among others, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At a press conference on Capitol Hill, CNSNews.com asked Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Blanche Lincoln the following question: “What part of the Constitution do you think gives Congress the authority to mandate that individuals have to purchase health insurance?”

Lincoln did not answer the question during the press conference but spoke to CNSNews.com in the Dirksen Senate Office Building immediately afterward. CNSNews.com asked her there: ‘You didn’t respond to my constitutionality question during the press conference, and what was your reaction to, your answer to the question?”

“Well, I just think the Constitution charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people,” Lincoln said.

CNSNews.com then asked the Senator: “So, what area though? You’re saying the health and well-being. What area, though, does that fall under?”

“The health and well-being of the people of the country,” she replied.

During the press conference, Landrieu told CNSNews.com she would let “constitutional lawyers on our staff” answer the question of where the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance. . . .

As a followup to the interview in the Dirkson Building, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Lincoln’s press secretary specifically which Article and Section of the Constitution the senator was referring to when she said the Constitution charged Congress with the health and well-being of the people. The press secretary did not respond by deadline.

The words “health” and “well-being” do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The closest approximations to these words come in the Preamble, which includes the phrase “promote the general welfare,” and Article 1, Section 8, which includes the phrase “provide for the common Defence and General Welfare.” As per the CBO's historical analysis, neither of these phrases has ever been used to justify Congress forcing individual Americans to purchase something. [Full Story included interview and comments by Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)]

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