Health Care: Where Are They?

The other day a reporter asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about where the Constitution grants Congress the power to require Americans to buy health insurance.

It's a fair question; even the Congressional Budget Office has said an individual mandate "would be an unprecedented form of federal action." Yet Pelosi seemed dumbfounded: "Are you serious?" she replied. Apparently the idea that the Constitution might not permit Congress to do anything it wants is foreign to her.

Both House and Senate bills include such a mandate. It's worth asking Virginia's congressional delegation, and its two Democratic senators, similar questions: Do they believe the Constitution permits this unprecedented form of federal action? If so, then is there anything Congress cannot require a citizen to buy? And if not, then should they vote in favor of an unconstitutional bill?