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1. … and the curse of the welfare statists.

   The Constitution does indeed hang by the slender thread of the ability to understand it.

   Rep. Conyers: ‘Good and Welfare Clause’ Gives Congress Authority to Mandate Health Insurance
   CNS News | 3/23/2010 | Nicholas Ballasy

   House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the “good and welfare clause” gives Congress the authority to require individuals to buy health insurance as mandated in the health care bill. However, there is no “good and welfare clause” in the U.S. Constitution.

   During an interview Capitol Hill Friday, CNSNews.com asked Rep. Conyers, “The individual mandate in the bill requires individuals to purchase health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that never before in the history of the United States has the federal government required any one to purchase any good or service. What part of the Constitution do you think gives Congress the authority to mandate individuals to purchase health insurance?”

   Conyers said: “Under several clauses, the good and welfare clause and a couple others. All the scholars, the constitutional scholars that I know — I’m chairman of the Judiciary committee, as you know — they all say that there’s nothing unconstitutional in this bill and if there were, I would have tried to correct it if I thought there were.”

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2. Asked Where Constitution Authorizes Americans Buy Health Insurance, Pelosi : ‘Are You Serious?’
   CNS News | 10/23/2009 | Matt Cover

   CNSNews.com) – When CNSNews.com asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday where the Constitution authorized Congress to order Americans to buy health insurance–a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill–Pelosi dismissed the question by saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious?” Pelosi’s press secretary later responded to written follow-up questions from CNSNews.com by emailing CNSNews.com a press release on the “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform,” that argues that Congress derives the authority to mandate that people purchase health insurance from its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

   ..

   Then the Supreme Court later said, no, the Commerce Clause doesn’t do it.
   It must be, instead, Congress’ ability to tax — if they just rewrote the law to say “tax” whenever it said “penalty.
   Funny they didn’t just go with the “good and welfare clause” after all, if they’re just going to make things up as they go.

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