Pelosi: Never mind the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence authorizes Obamacare
posted at 4:05 pm on March 22, 2012 by Tina Korbe
OK, so Nancy Pelosi doesn’t actually say “Never mind the Constitution” in this clip, but she practically has before and she might as well have this time, too. While I firmly believe that the Founding documents are best understood in conjunction with each other (as Rick Santorum says, “If the Constitution is the “how” of America, the Declaration of Independence is the “why”), the Constitution is far more relevant to the authorization of Obamacare than, er, the Declaration of Independence, which is not a blueprint for government but a philosophical statement on the origin and nature of the authority to form a new government in the first place.
That’s all irrelevant, though, because the Declaration of Independence doesn’t provide support for Obamacare in the way Nancy Pelosi suggests anyway. Here she is, Ms. Obamacare:
Pelosi actually claims that Obamacare increases our liberty. She says it removes the constraints that a lack of healthcare places on a person. But a lack of healthcare doesn’t constrain a person in the same way that a government mandate does. On the free market, a person can take steps to acquire health insurance if he doesn’t have it. Under Obamacare, we’re no longer free to not have health insurance — ever. The choice is gone.
To listen to Pelosi talk, the nation never boasted photographers, artists or small-business owners before the Affordable Care Act was passed — but that’s surely not fair to Ansel Adams, John Singer Sargent or Sam Walton. They did it without the help of the ACA and other greats could do it without Obamacare, too. Again, the Declaration doesn’t say we have a right to success in all our endeavors. Nobody has the right to make somebody else pay for their health care.
Update: I missed this quote, but, apparently, Pelosi did specifically mention the Constitution today. She said Obamacare is “ironclad constitutionally.”