Health care

Republicans are fully aligned with their Tea Party freshmen's demand that every new bill introduced in the House must state what authority in the Constitution authorizes it. Infuriated by the health care reform requirement that everyone purchase health insurance, they intend not to let such things become law.

The courts are already hearing cases about health care, with conflicting decisions by different courts. Eventually it will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. It hinges, very simply, on the interpretation of the provision in the Constitution for the federal government to regulate interstate commerce. And that's just it: a matter of interpretation of the extent of a vague, general power.

I have a solution for those who oppose this requirement. If the objection is really to being forced to buy something, let's scrap that and design a health care system where everybody is given health care, and it's paid for by taxes. Even Republicans don't argue that Congress lacks the power of taxation. We could call it a single-payer plan, much like what other developed nations have -- even some of the less developed nations.

I would swap the commerce clause argument any day for universal, single-payer, government sponsored health care. It could even be very simple to set up: expand Medicare to cover everyone.

This idea is not new. They already rejected it and screamed "socialism." But it would solve the problem of interpreting the commerce clause and being forced to buy something.

Of course, their real objection is to "big government" that benefits the masses. Big government to benefit big business, the defense industry, and the wealthy is just fine. There's not going to be a meeting of minds on this one, I'm afraid.

Ralph