What Else Will the Feds Force Us to Buy at Gunpoint?
by
Eric Peters
EricPetersAutos.com
This is written
as the Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of ObamaCare
– in particular, it is considering whether the federal government
has the authority under the Constitution to force people at gunpoint
to buy a health insurance policy from a private, for-profit business.
That this is even being discussed – as opposed to dismissed
out of hand – tells us just how far down the slippery slope
we’ve already slid. But what most people – especially
people who support the mandate – may not have considered is
where the precedent about to be established will take us.
In law, precedent
is everything. Because it becomes practice.
Once a given
thing is countenanced by the courts, it becomes the basis for countenancing
other, similar-in-principle things. Some 25 years ago, when the
courts ruled it was within the governmentÂ’s constitutional
authority to stop motorists at random, without even the pretext
of probable cause (as clearly demanded – without qualification
– by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution), a precedent
was established. Today, we are subject to random stops – and
random searches – at any time, just about. It has become a
routine – and routinely accepted – practice.
If the government
has the authority to force each of us to buy a health insurance
policy on the basis of “interstate commerce” or some appeal
to the collective greater good – then a new precedent will
have been established. Why, having gone this far, stop there? Do
you imagine the government will stop there? Has it ever once,
having expanded its authority, failed to expand upon that authority?
Why not also
force people at gunpoint to buy life insurance? As things
stand, there are families left without a breadwinner – and
the breadwinner’s income – following an untimely death.
Perhaps some people cannot afford to buy life insurance.
Surely life insurance is just as vital to interstate commerce –
and the “security” provided by a policy just as much a
“right” as the “right” to health care? Precisely
the same arguments can – and will – be used. You
are a fool if you donÂ’t see it coming. And it will not come
because of the governmentÂ’s concern for you. It will come because
of the concern over the money (and power) to be had –
the two things really driving the individual mandate of Obamacare.
March
31, 2012
Eric Peters
[send him mail] is an automotive
columnist and author of Automotive
Atrocities and Road Hogs (2011). Visit his
website.
Copyright
© 2012 Eric Peters