The Individual Mandate: Ensign, DeMint to Force Vote on Health Care Bill Unconstitutionality
Following up my earlier post, The Individual Mandate: Targeting The Bullseye, there is more news from Michelle Malkin.
GOP Sens. Jim DeMint and John Ensign announced this afternoon that they’ll force a vote on the constitutionality of Demcare’s individual health care mandate.
This is the press release from Senator DeMint’s website:
Ensign, DeMint to Force Vote on Health Care Bill Unconstitutionality
December 22, 2009 – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and John Ensign (R-Nevada), raised a Constitutional Point of Order on the Senate floor against the Democrat health care takeover bill on behalf of the Steering Committee, a caucus of conservative senators. The Senate will vote tomorrow on the bill’s constitutionality.
“I am incredibly concerned that the Democrats’ proposed individual mandate provision takes away too much freedom and choice from Americans across the country,” said Senator Ensign. “As an American, I felt the obligation to stand up for the individual freedom of every citizen to make their own decision on this issue. I don’t believe Congress has the legal authority to force this mandate on its citizens.”
“Forcing every American to purchase a product is absolutely inconsistent with our Constitution and the freedoms our Founding Fathers hoped to protect,” said Senator DeMint. “This is not at all like car insurance, you can choose not to drive but Americans will have no choice whether to buy government-approved insurance. This is nothing more than a bailout and takeover of insurance companies. We’re forcing Americans to buy insurance under penalty of law and then Washington bureaucrats will then dictate what these companies can sell to Americans. This is not liberty, it is tyranny of good intentions by elites in Washington who think they can plan our lives better than we can.”
Americans who fail to buy health insurance, according to the Democrats’ bill, would be subject to financial penalties. The senators believe the bill is unconstitutional because the insurance mandate is not authorized by any of the limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government. The individual mandate also likely violates the “takings” clause of the 5th Amendment.
The Democrats’ healthcare reform bill requires Americans to buy health insurance “whether or not they ever visit a doctor, get a prescription or have an operation.” If an American chooses not to buy health insurance coverage, they will face rapidly increasing taxes that will rise to $750 or 2% of their taxable income, whichever is greater.
The Congressional Budget Office once stated “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”
A legal study by scholars at the nonpartisan Heritage Foundation concluded: “An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party, with tax penalties to enforce it, is unprecedented– not just in scope but in kind–and unconstitutional as a matter of first principles and under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.”
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H/T: Michelle Malkin, Senator Jim DeMint News Room.
[1]
This is great!
However, as a practical matter, how can the R “force” a Senate vote on anything?
I thought Reid had closed down the amendment process to the HC bill?
Another awesome post and research MRS. INC!
[2]
We’ll see–I don’t know about the procedure and haven’t seen anything on it. At least DeMint is fighting every step.
[3]
That is an awesome statement by the two Senators…..
Kinda brings a tear to the ole coyote’s eyes lol
It took a while but heck, at least we have a couple of them who want to fight!
Probably, the Democrats will all fall in with violating the Consitution, but people will know CLEARLY who STOOD WITH THE PEOPLE FOR LIBERTY AND WHO STOOD WITH THE $$$$ LOBBIES!
[4]
I am so clueless about some of this stuff…it would seem to me that all along that the senate/house should have been consulting constitutional lawyers to see if it passed muster. I know they don’t listen to the unwashed masses, but they hold lawyers in such high esteem…(a little tongue in cheek there) didn’t they run any of this up the legal ladder???
That’d be too much common sense, I guess….
[5]
Can this actually hold the bill up? Put it in a holding pattern sort of until it’s cleared??
Wishful thinking…
[6]
beej, I don’t think the Dems have cared about consulting with constitutional lawyers.
Wylie in #3 is probably right, but at least they’d be on record with a clear violation of their oath of office.
[7]
#5 It depends on the vote – I am not even clear if the Senate can hold one unless Reid agrees to it as he shut down the amendment process….
If it does occur….its likely the Democrats will vote to KEEP it because they would have NO BILL without it!
However, this would EXPLODE the politics/public option even more against them and the bill….
It would put them on record as:
(1) Violating the Consitution and your Individual Rights
(2) On record as offically being in the pocket of “big health insurance” after lied about their collusion all along with their BS rehtoric!
(3) Plus, it puts the KOS and DEANs of the world on display as the liars and hypocrtics they are since then ran around all week saying the Bill needed to be killed and the Individual Mandate was Unconsitutional – ok, leftiest – here is your chance to join the team and kill this if you are REALLY opposed!
[8]
#6 It would also expose their hypocracy and phoney attacks on private insurance!
After spending most of the year cutting deals with them behind doors then atttacking them in public….
This would show who really lines up with the $$$$ lobbies (Democrats) and who is defend the people (Republican)
Polls are out today – 71% oppose the individual mandate – even if it fails its just plain smart politics!
[9]
PALIN/DEMINT 2012 !!!
[10]
From the AmSpecBlog on Ensign and DeMint:
[11]
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGJjZTFlYzhhMzdkODU3ODM2M2Y0NmNjODAxN2YwMTc=
Maximum Achievable Damage
“The Democrats have not achieved their goal of completely lassoing one-sixth of the economy, but their mammoth legislation (the House and Senate bills both top 2,000 pages) will apply heavy-handed regulation that will further gum up a system already choking on bureaucracy. Americans will be forced to buy health insurance. Insurance companies will be forbidden to price their services according to actuarial tables. And no aspect of medical care will be free of political interference. (One section of the Senate bill reinstates coverage for DXA scans, which measure bone density, because two senators insisted upon it. Another requires breastfeeding breaks in the workplace.)
The Democrats will create, among others, the following new bureaus: The Grant Program for Health Insurance Cooperatives, the Telehealth Advisory Committee, the Community Based Medical Home Pilot Program, the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research, and the Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman. In short, Democrats have done the maximum amount of damage to our system that they could manage under the circumstances.”
[12]
Reid’s Midnight Rule Change [Daniel Foster]
Following up on Bob’s post on the potentially “unrepealable” Medicare board. A senior Republican Senate aide is telling us that the major rule change surrounding the creation of the Medicare “Independent Advisory Board” is nowhere to be found in the health-care bill that came out of the Finance Committee, and seems to have been snuck into Reid’s substitute amendment in the last few weeks.
The change would bind future Senates, make it more difficult for them to dismantle the Advisory Board. More problematic still, the Senate parliamentarian has dubiously ruled that the changes made in the Reid bill are merely “procedural” and therefore require only 60 votes for cloture instead of the 67 required for amending the Senate’s rules.
So it may well be that as part of his health-care blitzkreig, Harry Reid has rammed through a major change to the way the Senate does business—in the dead of night and at a seven vote discount.
[13]
So will this one point being questioned (ind. mandate) possibly mean the whole thing is scrapped? How much of the bill is tied to ind. mandates? Or will it only touch the ind. mandate portion and leave the rest of the bill intact?
soooo many questions….
[14]
They don’t need no steenk’n rules….
[15]
According to Conservatives4Palin Sarah will make a statement about the Senate Health Care plan later today via Facebook.
? will be listening…..hmmmmm, hmmmmm, hmmmm!
[16]
just read that Mitch McConnell is going to concede defeat early, so everyone can go home for Christmas. Touching.
[17]
Reid’s Midnight Rule Change
~~~~~~~~
They do this whenever they can’t get what they want ‘legally.’ Votes from the dead sound familiar?
Voter registration from Mickey Mouse?
Multiple votes from non-registered?
Discounting military votes?
Why should mere parlimentary rules or senate rules or the constitution get in their way?
[18]
You can’t get through in D.C. to McConnell. I’ve called his office in Kentucky 3 times. Twice they wouldn’t verify, third time they did. I let them know my ire.
I’ve also called DeMint’s office. After a short wait you can get through to him in D.C. That’s how you know the good guys-their phones aren’t ringing off the hooks.
DeMint’s office said they would fight no matter who supports them. I’m not sure how that will translate or what he can do with the schedule, but I don’t think he will go gentle into that good night.
[19]
beej, Reid is a traitor.
Via Hot Air–it looks as if DeMint continues to fight them on the beaches, landing grounds, fields, streams, hills :
[20]
Jim Demint is the most impressive legislator in Washington. He is smart, thorough, and fearless. Thank God he is an uncompromising conservative.
He seems a reluctant leader, but a leader nonetheless.
Go Demint.
[21]
Disgusting is little mitchie’s action.
Popuplar decision at HHR.
LOL
[22]
constitutional points of order are debatable, and require cloture
[23]
The Connie Chung clone must be waiting for mitchie.
[24]
I tried to call Senator Webb’s office all day … only busy and mailbox full… Warner’s office could only leave a message… all I could do was say how angry we are… and we will not forget.
[25]
#15 DeMint is on Facebook as well. He is pretty vocal on there too!
[26]
I don’t understand the two Virginia senators. Following the off-year election, they have to be dense not to know how the political winds are blowing in their state.
[27]
#13 Here is why the Individual Mandate is the MOST CRITICAL component of the bill:
- Provides all the $$$$ for the bill; the government needs the MILLIONS of uninsured to be FORCED to pay into the insurance pot or get their $$$ in fines to fund the scheme. The fines are about $20 billon per year but the government really needs the $$$$ in private insurance so that they can keep underpaying doctor/hositpals for medicare medicade ie its a stealth tax on private insurance to the tune of about $50 billon per year!
- It provides the “stick”/force to get you in to a government dictated plan ie you cant opt out and the government sets the rules
- Its the rationale for creating the DEPENDECY on government for HC the left wants. Since they are MAKING you BUY INSURANCE we gotta be “kind” and have one group of citizens (the politcal unpopular) pay for another groups bill. Its medical welfare run thru private firms!
- Most importantly, it establish the principle that the FEDS CONTROL HC. Since government must define what hoops/regulations that you the individual, the employers, insurance companies, and even government medical welfare programs MUST comply with it puts them FIRMLY IN CHARGE! This is what makes CrappyCare a de facto Nationalization/government run HC……
You kill the mandate, you simply have an unworkable mess that even the worst leftist cant rationally depend…..
More importantly, you gut the power grab/dependency aspects – it isnt worth it to sustain the short term politcal damage as their is NO LONG term politcal payoff for the left!
As we have unfortunately learned (and I claimed all along), the government option wasnt the center of the takeover – this is. The governement option could be dropped and CrappyCare would live on (as we now know unfortunately) as once they get this in place, the government option or much worse could be added with subsequent “tweeks” (especially as this scheme bankrupts insurance over the long run due to the other overregulation like “preexsisting conditions”)
Its a the centerpiece and a dagger right at the evil heart of CrappyCare!
[28]
#21 Yes, the McConnel fan club was out in force this whole week.
There are alot of RINO (or plant) and RNC “talking points” spinners on HHR….
I read their posts then hear stuff repeated on talk radio all day lol
In this case, McConnell useless show has served its purpose….I am no fan but so what, a few hours would change the outcome or undo past bad calls (people wont forget; I wont anyways)…..what I am concerned with is if the Republican back up DeMints attack….
Its far too late IMHO – McConnell should have had this Individual Mandate amendment voted on right off the bat…..so again, his creditablity on this is still shaky (and that being very much generous in the Christmas sprit lol)
[29]
WEC, its not anyone thing, that he has done, its the summary of things he has done badly.
[30]
Demint should be the majority leader.
[31]
That raises the important question, does McConnell step down in the future?
[32]
#22 Cool, so as a minium, the D will be forced to defend there UnConstituional power grab as well as line up and be exposed as “evil” health insurance lobby cronnies they are!
If they vote to take it out, they kill off their own plan….it will unravel swiftly into, well Crap lol
I look for the D to all sustain and keep it in – thats what all 13 voted that way in the Bacus committee….an NO D has ever gone on record against it…..so I look for DeMint to lose…..but its the CORRECT THING TO DO….and it ups the political pressure on CrappyCare and D considerably as the mandate has 71% against it in the latest poll!
[33]
#29 Yeah, I understand you POV…..like I said several times, I question why this was not attacked in the Amendment process if not alot sooner in the fall….
Running around attacking the “government option” when you had Lincoln, Liberman, etc all out against that provision back in AUG and taking that sucker ploy into DEC was…..well you figure the rest out….
This Individual Mandate was ALWAYS the centerpiece of the scam Obama and the left wanted since they hatched this plan…..and they didnt just do that overnight…..the left crafted this for years in order for it to be as underhanded and dishonest as possible to fool the American people!
http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTlmYWM0YWEyZjYxNGM3Zjc2YjQ3NWI4YjI5NDM3YmE=
[34]
WEC, I a gree with your line of attack. It may not just be what he did, but what he did not do. I tried indicating that at HHR, but the Lobby for McConnell just does not see it that way, do they?
[35]
#31 I have been as hard on Mr. Mitch as any this months…but todays “surrender” is a huge waste of energy at this point….there was enough practical and symbolic delay to suffice at this stage….
more useless hothair and political theater was not going to do anything for me but make me puke…..
Question is, when they get back after Christmas, is their gonna be a real fight or more useless posturing for the 10 election like we saw for much of DEC….
I am much more interested to know what the GOP will do with the DeMint/Ensign statement…..that needs to be the point of attack over the next few weeks as we are “rallying” to beat this….
At least I hope we are really “rallying” to beat CrappyCare…..the line from the RNC on all the talk shows about us “calming down” and “accpeting this” so Sh&thead WhiteSnake wont “label” us (yeah, Democrats and the left NEVER use baseless slander against conservatives) was gonna make me puke worse….
DeMint/Ensign are pursuing the correct course of action – I just hope this is not just a short political grandstanding to appease us “ranters” who actually want to defeat CrappyCare lol
[36]
Time will tell, and thanks for your posts here and over there.
[37]
#34 No the do not lol
I guess, not being anything but a concern citizen who follows politicals, our “uninformed rantings” get looked down upon lol
I am not sure where most of those folks on HHR come from, but its evident that many are from the political class in some form (pollsters, bloggers, KOS Plants lol) or have deep experince in traditional politics….
And I respect and learn from that experince….but they dont understand that this hard left/Obama crowd arent bound by trandional CW politics…..the tried and true tricks/rules didnt stop them….
And they don get that the HC is THE DECEIVE FIGHT!
The Obamaites put this #1 on the agenda BECAUSE ITS A VAST AND DEEP CHANGE BETWEEN THAT FUNDMENTALLY ALTERS THE RELATIONSHIP EACH AND EVERY CITIZEN HAS WIHT THE GOVERNMENT!
And they know their is NO GOING BACK!
If the GOP really belives in their principles they have to fight like those guys at Bastonge as CrappyCare is a long term nuetron bomb designed to wipe them off the face of the planet!
You have to go for the juggular – and this Individual Mandate is/was it!
[38]
#36 Well, I am not superconfident the GOP establishment will fully back DeMint…..we will see….
But I agree with all others on here – DeMint is da MAN!
[39]
They all want to go home for Christmas. It is so hard to be in Washington voting and legislating and attending cocktail parties.
Wonder how they would all like to be in a forward fire base in Afghanistan instead of home for Christmas?
[40]
Can’t they get the vote postponed instead of throwing in the towel?
[41]
Harry Reid controls when the vote comes up.
[42]
Stay and fight you bastards!
[43]
? IS ON SUIDICE WATCH !!!
[44]
…IS ON…
[45]
McConnell is a waste. Remember how he sat back during the Amnesty debate. Did not get involved until it was very late in the game. Remember his wife was in Commerce in the Bush administration (I always thought McConnell was in favor of it).
McConnell needs to go. He is a DC insider more concerned about how he is perceived then fighting for conservatives and conservative causes.
The fact he called Reid his friend after all the mean and nasty things Reid and other democrats said about Republicans. McConnell should have said “Sorry, friends don’t say those type of things about each other. Plus, how do you expect to have polite discourse when you attack the character of the person and not content of the issue.”
[46]
The surreal absurdity of it. McConnell plays nice with a guy who said our party is a bunch of slavers.
[47]
Why is it always the right that must “calm down and accept it..” and the left never seems asked too, if they want us to accept it why the fk are they still hanging in DC, there is no need for the gop to show up then.
FK that – fight it at every step.
McConnell needs to step down as minority leader during the holidays in my view, he didn’t get it done, that’s not to say the job done was horrible (just unsuccessful), but in the new year we need new leadership, it’s time to get bloody and Mitch doesn’t have the temperament for what’s going to be needed to block and tackle the next 12 months.
[48]
I think it is time for at least 30 of the 40 Republicans in Senate to leave — along with all of the 60 jackasses….
[49]
heartbeat optional.
[50]
MN6: Bachmann Cruising To Re-Election
Michelle Bachmann (R-inc) 55%
Tarryl Clark 37%
Michelle Bachmann (R-inc) 53%
Maureen Reed 37%
—
Suicide watch I’m sure.
[51]
in the new year we need new leadership, it’s time to get bloody and Mitch doesn’t have the temperament for what’s going to be needed to block and tackle the next 12 months.
I agree. I told his office we needed a new leader.
I also told them that Washington didn’t decide at Valley Forge that he wanted to go home to Mt Vernon on Christmas Eve.
MCConnell would have been partying with the Hessians, his “good friends”, I suppose.
Honestly…steam coming out of my ears.
[52]
JM, Reid had the entire thing timed retroactively from Christmas Eve.
That’s why all the 1 am votes–to get in cloture vote before then.
The final vote won’t matter as they easily have 51.
[53]
The amazing thing is how the 9 most vulnerable Senate Dems will vote against it, then go home and run ads saying they opposed it, while voting for it for cloture.
[54]
I actually voted for it… before voting against it.
[55]
It won’t work. The polling is going from 2008 in reverse, to total apocalypse for the Dems.
They have 22 up, might lose half of those, but we can’t get Rudy to run in NY, nor Hoeven to run in ND which would be easy pickups.
Hopefully, some decent Rs can run instead and the polls will be so bad, they win anyway.
[56]
Yeah I saw that RAS R+8 … jesus.h… you know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that high, if it stays that way (which I doubt) a massacre in coming… but seriously they are in serious trouble even with R+4. A good R year is D+2 – R+1 R+8 …oh my. Still can’t the senate I don’t think, not even with R+8, could get real close though.
[57]
From RedState:
“No kidding, Ace. Mitchie talked all about his
eburke Tuesday, December 22nd at 4:45PM EST (link)
‘messaging strategy’ but never bothered to bring up all day, every day, the #1 message from this whole debacle – the fact that this bill will *mandate* that Americans buy something whether they want to or not.
Talk about a winning message to the average American that you can fit into a 30 second soundibite. For the love of God!!
Ya know Ace, there is something that truly befuddles me. I understand that, unfortunately, most of these people are nothing more than whores who will do anything to maintain power and wouldn’t know a principle if they found it in their pants. But what absolutely defies my comprehension abilities is when they leave something like this on the table. I mean, screw whether or not it’s the right position constitutionally and intellectually. For heaven’s sake, from a sheer *power* standpoint, this is the kind of stuff to ‘run on’ that you couldn’t *buy* enough ad time for. Talk about an issue to maintain your power with!
And these guys, apparently, are too clueless and brain-dead to realize that even if they could give a rat’s ass about the Constitution, jumping on this issue would help them regain their coveted power. And they *still* don’t do it.
They’re not only spineless, they’re as dumb as a box of rocks.”