Stealth Socialism

[Valin]

WSJ:

JAMES TARANTO
12/17/10

The constitutional ground on which ObamaCare purportedly stands keeps shifting, raising new questions about whether the law can stand--and also, as we shall see, raising potential pitfalls for free-market reforms of New Deal social programs.

Bloomberg reports on an exchange that took place yesterday in the Pensacola, Fla., courtroom where Judge Roger Vinson is hearing a case in which 20 states challenge the constitutionality of ObamaCare's mandate that individuals buy health insurance:

Vinson asked [David] Rivkin [the plaintiffs' lawyer] whether the government's theory would allow regulation of any behavior with an economic impact.

"They can decide how much broccoli everyone should eat each week?" Vinson asked.

"Certainly," replied Rivkin, an attorney in the Cleveland-based law firm Baker Hostetler LLP.

"We've always exercised the freedom whether we want to buy or not buy a product," Vinson told the Obama administration's lawyer.

[Justice Department lawyer Ian] Gershengorn said health insurance is "a financing mechanism," not a product. "It's not shoes," he said. "It's not cars. It's not broccoli."

(Snip)