Today’s Wall Street Journal contains a letter from a reader who understands the Constitution and the reason why the massive health care bill is outside the authorized powers of Congress:
In an 1817 letter to Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson said “that Congress had not unlimited powers . . . to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers.”
ObamaCare is not unconstitutional due to the misapplication of the descriptive yet nonempowering phrase “general welfare.” It is unconstitutional because none of the 18 enumerated powers grants Congress the power to be involved in health care. It’s that simple.
J. Michael Hanselman
Frederick, MD
Hanselman is right, and I would add that there are many, many other pieces of legislation enshrined in our statutory law that are similarly unconstitutional. The enumerated powers say nothing at all about education, for example.
