Far Left Activist Judge (George Steeh) Clinton Appointee Says ObamaCare Mandate is Constitutional

Leave it to a Loony Left judge to say it’s okay for the government to force people to buy something they don’t want. Freedom is being kicked to the curb as this country becomes more like Venezuela.



Barack Obama thought mandates forcing people to buy health care insurance was wrong when he was candidate Obama.







But, when he became president…



Politico reports that a federal judge in Michigan has upheld as Constitutional a provision in the health care reform bill requiring uninsured individuals to purchase insurance.



U.S. District Court Judge George Steeh ruled Thursday that the so-called individual mandate — a requirement President Barack Obama opposed during the presidential campaign but later embraced as part of sweeping changes — falls squarely within Congress’s ability under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce.



“The decision whether to purchase insurance or to attempt to pay for health care out of pocket is plainly economic,” Steeh wrote in a 20-page opinion. “These decisions, viewed in the aggregate, have clear and direct impacts on health care providers, taxpayers and the insured population, who ultimately pay for the care provided to those who go without insurance.”



Steeh’s ruling represents a major legal victory for the Justice Department since the decision rejects the central legal argument against the landmark health care reform bill Obama signed in March and a provision that has become a focus of popular anger on the right.



The decision stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a Christian legal group, the Thomas More Law Center, and four individuals who objected to a provision in the law that imposes a penalty on those who fail to buy or otherwise obtain health insurance. The judge rejected their arguments that Congress has no authority to regulate those who opt out of the medical insurance market.



“The health care market is unlike other markets. No one can guarantee his or her health or ensure that he or she will never participate in the health care market. Indeed, the opposite is nearly always true,” wrote Steeh, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton. “Far from ‘inactivity,’ by choosing to forgo insurance, plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now through the purchase of insurance.”



Opponents of the health law say Congress doesn’t have the authority to regulate the purchase of insurance — let alone the act of not purchasing insurance. Steeh agreed with the government’s contention that the clause covers “economic decisions” and not just “economic activity.”



More details here



'>Memeorandum



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