[View photos from the event here]
To whom it may concern:
Seeds of Liberty represents hundreds of registered voters in Snohomish County. On August 12th 2009 we witnessed Rick Larsen take questions on Healthcare legislation in Everett. He was thrice asked about the Constitutional basis of HR3200, and finally answered.
"Where in our Constitution do you see a mandate for healthcare?"
Representative Rick Larsen conceded that no such mandate exists. Though he, like all elected officials swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution, he went on to defend his support of HR3200's unconstitutionality by citing other examples of the same. "There is no mandate for the Air Force in the Constitution”…but I still want an Air Force protecting the country.” was one argument. He went on to argue that the Supreme Court considers the Constitution and the intent of Congress; thus indemnifying Congress from concerning themselves with questions of constitutionality in legislation.
To Representative Larsen's first point, Article I Section VIII enumerates the powers of Congress, and indeed the Framers didn't enumerate the Air force in 1787. How flattered would the Wright Brothers have been to see our framers anticipate their invention more than a hundred years before! That said, the Enumerated powers do specifically list the power to raise and support armies and navies for the Common Defense. Even the narrowest interpreter of the Constitution must concede that the power of raising and supporting all matters of Armed Forces to protect the nation fell within purview of Congress.
To the second argument, it simply defies itself. Every person serving in a public capacity in our nation swore an oath to the Constitution. The reason we swear an oath to that entity rather than an oath to a person, place, or political party is self evident. The Constitution represents America's supreme law, written in plain English. If a soldier is given an order to carry out an unconstitutional act, then the soldier upholds his or her sacred oath by performing an act of insubordination to their superior in order to refrain from insubordination of Supreme Law. That act requires independent thought. It implies that anyone taking a Constitutional Oath does so grounded in the basis of prudence and reasonable interpretation. It is the individual oath taker who weighs the actions of themselves and those around them as Constitutional, and protects and defends against actions to the contrary. Our Supreme Court exists as a critical part of this equation for the edge cases only. When two sides of a Constitutional issue both bring forward prudent arguments supporting their position, then we defer to a higher authority for interpretation. Simply put, if Representative Larsen disavows all responsibility to work within the bounds of the Constitution, how specifically does he uphold his oath to support and defend the same?
For the record, Article I Section VIII enumerates the specific list of powers available to Congress. The Tenth Amendment rounds this out in writing to state that any power not specifically granted to Congress was reserved exclusively for the states and ultimately the people. The Enumerated powers makes no reference to healthcare; directly or indirectly. The only conclusion we can reach is that Representative Larsen and others in Congress sharing this view consider the application of our Constitution as intermittent and opportunistic. Every member of congress fervently adheres to the earlier sections in Article I; those which stipulate how Congressional officials become elected. Imagine how quickly they would cite those earlier sections of the Constitution if someone told them tomorrow that they could not return to Congress this session! Furthermore, should someone argue with a member of Congress about their authority to pass a law on immigration, currency and coin, or the military, most certainly they would eagerly point out that those subject areas fall within the Enumerated Powers. The dichotomy is plain; and Rick Larsen is right on one thing: Congress has gotten away with it in the past. It is up to We the People to determine if previous encroachments of Constitutional authority set the precedent for our future, or reinforce the importance that We the People only send forth elected officials who are willing to keep the oath they swear.
Ty Balascio
-Seeds of Liberty (.net)
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