Political Quotes

“I am pleased the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the arguments in three cases challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law Congress passed 2 years ago. I appreciate that the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to hear this question. In light of the importance of these cases, I have written to Chief Justice Roberts asking him to provide live audio and video coverage of the oral arguments. The constitutionality of the health care law was the subject of a hearing in the Judiciary Committee last February. Regrettably, the Judiciary Committee would not hold such a hearing until after the bill became law. Those who voted for that law should have given these constitutional questions more attention before they voted for the bill. Today I wish to discuss the issues that are presented in the cases, focusing primarily on the constitutionality of the individual mandate and another recent appellate court ruling on that topic. When Congress passed this law last year, we were told it would be very popular and truly and clearly constitutional. Neither is true. Polls show that the law remains unpopular. The law's individual mandate provision requires nearly all Americans who do not otherwise have health insurance to purchase such insurance or to pay a monetary penalty. That provision also raises serious constitutional questions about the scope of congressional power to regulate interstate commerce.…”