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Conyers: Individual Mandate Has Nothing to Do With Individual Liberty
February 16, 2011
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.)
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that the individual insurance mandate in the Democrats’ health care law has nothing to do with individual liberty.
“[W]e have been hearing that this is all about individual liberty, the right to be let alone. But is it really?” Conyers asked in his opening statement.
“The liberty interests at stake do not change simply because it is the federal, rather than the state government that is imposing the requirement.
“While we can debate whether Congress has the power to impose this requirement – something I believe we clearly do – we should not scare Americans into believing that how we resolve that question says anything about their individual liberty.”
Conyers argued that states require the purchase of auto insurance and that citizens are required to pay taxes, send their children to school, and receive vaccinations.
Conyers made the comments Wednesday in a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining the constitutionality of the insurance mandate.
For the record, a number of Republicans have dismissed the Democrats’ auto insurance argument.
"This is the first time in American history that Congress has passed a law mandating that you buy something simply because you're breathing," Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote in a USA Today op-ed last year. "You don't need to purchase a car. You do need to breathe," he said.
