A Box Of Doughnuts

Floor Speech

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, requiring Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine or even go to jail if the fine tax is unpaid is utterly without constitutional authority. Under the Constitution, a citizen has no affirmative duty to purchase a mandated congressional product. Citizens have the right to do nothing.

The bruisers of the Constitution claim people must buy car insurance. That analogy is flawed. First, States, not Congress, have authority under the 10th Amendment that is not given to Congress. Second, driving is a privilege, not a right, and to exercise that privilege, a driver must buy insurance. But no one is forced to drive a car. Third, car insurance is to protect a third party from the driver. No State requires a driver to buy insurance for themselves.

A better analogy would be, in the name of promoting commerce, forcing all people to buy a car whether they wanted to or not, whether they could afford it or not, or be punished. Congress, by force, requiring all people to buy a product, whether it's health insurance or a car or even a box of doughnuts is unconstitutional and abuse of congressional authority.

And that's just the way it is.

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