(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) told CNSNews.com that the health care bill pushed by the Democratic House leadership will “shred the Constitution” and that Democrats have not given Republicans “any time to showcase” their ideas on health care reform.
 
When CNSNews.com asked, “Are you satisfied with what the GOP has proposed thus far to counter the Democrats’ plan on health care?” Hoekstra said, “Well, I mean there’s always arguments that could be made: ‘You’ve got to be out there with a more powerful message’ and those types of things, but you know, we’re out there with a message.”
 

 
“I think people know that we’ve [Republicans] got alternatives, but the important thing now is to point out that what this bill is going to do, it’s going to shred the Constitution,” Hoekstra said. “I’ve got one in here. I’ve got so many papers out of the crowd, but you know it’s going to shred the Constitution and take all of that freedom away from the American people.”
 
“I mean, the thing we need to do right now is just point out how ugly the Pelosi bill is,” Hoekstra told CNSNews.com at a Nov. 5 rally on Capitol Hill to protest the Democrats’ health care bill. “If we can stop that, then we can come back and have a constructive dialogue about the ideas that Republicans have had, and we’ve had them for a long time. They just haven’t given us any time to showcase them.”
 
Democrats such as Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) have said the “general welfare” language in the preamble of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to require that every American purchase health insurance, as mandated in the health care bill.
 
CNSNews.com asked Hoestra if he agreed with Burris.
 
“This is about what’s going to work, and this is going to be about what decisions are going to be made by the American people and which ones are going to be made by government bureaucrats,” said Hoekstra. “They can come up with a legal justification for what they’re doing, but fundamentally this program is wrong.”
 
He continued: “I think there’s a lot of question about whether at a federal level we can make those kinds of mandates, and I’m sure that if they do pass that kind of a mandate that there will be many of us that will challenge that in the courts to get an official ruling and an official interpretation from the courts as to whether that’s legal or not.”