Can the Government Force Fat People to Join Weight Watchers?

Blaze Video Essay
Posted on December 7, 2011
by Will Cain

That’s not just an outlandish headline designed to make you click through to this article. It’s a question George Will once asked on ABC. And it’s a question that nine Supreme Court Justices will be asking themselves next Spring.

Can the federal government force you to eat fruits and vegetables every day? Can the federal government force you to buy a GM car? Can the federal government force you to buy health insurance?

Early next year the Supreme Court will decide whether Obamacare’s mandate, that every American buy health insurance, is allowed under the Constitution. In this 16-minute, mini-Glenn-Beck, monologue (Sixteen minutes? Who does this guy think he is? That’s another legitimate question.) I break down the issues and questions Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan will be debating. Issues like:

- Whether or not the mandate is a tax like Social Security.

- The evolution of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution

- Wickard v. Filburn, the 1942 case that allowed the government to regulate the amount of wheat a farmer grew and fed to his cows.

- Whether this just like the requirement to buy car insurance?

- Can the government regulate, not your activity, but your inactivity?

The debate will be nothing short of whether the government can make the act of…existing…illegal if you don’t have health insurance. And the proper question might soon be…what can’t the government force you to do?