ObamaCare's Unhealthy Expansion of Federal Power

Writing at Forbes, Institute for Justice President Chip Mellor lays out the constitutional case against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's individual mandate:

Congress claimed the power to enact PPACA under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which says in its entirety that Congress shall have the power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." The clause was placed in the Constitution to avoid balkanizing the new nation by giving Congress the power to prevent states from erecting trade barriers….

[This power] was always tied to some activity—some decision made by the individual or entity being regulated that subjected it to Congress' power. That changed with the enactment of PPACA. For the first time Congress attempted to further its goals by compelling activity or, put another way, by regulating inactivity. Until this the government had always said, "You are engaging in commerce, so we can regulate you." PPACA turns that on its head. Now the government is saying, "We are going to force you to engage in commerce so we can regulate you." The result was the individual mandate—Congress' first literally inescapable law.