"This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry -- $70 billion a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance ..."

-- Dennis Kucinich

Erstwhile congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich saw right through the "Affordable Care Act" (aka Obamacare) when he made the above statement on MSNBC in March of 2010. Unfortunately for America, the leaders of the Democratic party were willing to pull a fast one on the electorate by calling the bill a legally authorized government mandate, to avoid the ugly truth: Obamacare is an extensive tax increase as well as government intrusion into our privacy.

Unfortunately, judicial activism -- something normally decried by progressives -- reared its ugly head. Justice Roberts, instead of ruling on the law, as written, abdicated his sworn duty as he wrote in the majority opinion:


Had he stopped there and correctly ruled the law to be invalid, he would have been enshrined in an imaginary conservative hall of fame.

Instead, for extemporaneous reasons, he then continued by declaring that the mandate was in fact a tax, and therefore constitutional under the application of Congress' taxation power.

Regarding the actions of those members of Congress who favored Obamacare, even the watered down version that emerged, one of two things must be true:

* They knew what they were doing, in the sense that it was recognized that failure would result if it was termed a "tax" -- thus the need for deception.

* They believed that the power of Congress to mandate consumer purchases was a wholly appropriate use of the powers granted by we the people.

As long as the people of this country are willing to elect representatives to Congress who will pass unwanted legislation through nefarious methods, including under-the-table deals, exemption of key supporters, denial of the equal protection clause, and -- most importantly -- not reading the bill, there is little we can do about the former.

However, the people of this country, be they conservative, libertarian or that minority of progressive liberals who actually believe in the Constitution, can do something about the latter. One nascent organization is attempting to do so, by proposing a constitutional amendment called the "Mandate Amendment":

"Congress shall make no law mandating the purchase of a product or service from a private company."

We must recognize that this is exactly what was attempted with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, thus we must conclude that a significant number of members of Congress believe that they have the power to order you to buy certain products, if it serves to meet the greater good.

One of the group's founding members, Paul Roy stated, "Unless we change it, we can look forward to more of this. Whether it is health care or green transportation we might be forced to use, the precedent has been set, unless we change it."

Case in point would be government mandated minimum gas mileage requirements for American built cars (Corporate Average Fuel Economy -- CAFE -- standards) which were initially implemented in response to the oil crisis of the '70s. Detroit responded by producing smaller, lighter-weight cars, which few people wanted. The sad and often ignored fact is those standards also increased traffic accident fatalities. According to The NHTSA, Brookings Institution, Harvard School of Public Health, National Academy of Sciences and USA Today, past and current minimum mileage requirements have resulted in thousands of fatalities above those that would have happened without government mandated standards.

The current administration has aggravated the above situation by proudly increasing the CAFE standards.

It is not beyond the realm of belief that further mandates would be considered, unless such limitations are placed upon Congress. Consider these possibilities:

* Personal vehicle requirements -- The purchase of a second family car might be deemed a "luxury" item or classified as a "commuter car," which the government could mandate to be an electric vehicle or other "eco-friendly" vehicle.

* Solar Panel Requirements -- In order to reduce dependency on oil the installation of solar panels, from approved government suppliers could be mandated, in qualifying regions, for new homes or made retroactive in the cases of permitted expansions or upgrades.

The group working toward the proposed mandate is small, but growing with current representation in 49 states.

There are those who would argue that such a step is unnecessary. This concern is addressed Mr. Roy:

"When the coercive power of government is combined with the money making power of business, corporatism is the ONLY result. If the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary branches of the U.S. government are not willing to stop the Obamacare assault on the American public, we will do it ourselves.

"The only way to ensure our children will not live in a society in which the government possesses the right to impose a tax in order to force citizens to buy the products and services of corporations, it is necessary to amend the Constitution of the United States."

Mr. Roy, as well as co-founder John Niewicki, have put forward a challenge to the American people, who can decide if they want to be part of a potential solution, or continue supporting a government that has grown far beyond what was ever imagined by our founding fathers.

The Mandate Amendment is one well worth considering by all fair-minded people opposed to the continued increase in government control over personal decisions.

Go to the web site www.mandateamendment.com for more information.

Dennis Lund