Madison on National Health Care Reform

Here is the letter I wrote that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in response to Erwin Chemerinsky’s article on the constitutionality of health care reform.  Chemerinsky teaches at UC Irvine’s law school.

Chemerinsky argues that according to Supreme Court precedent, the proposed health care reform bills will be considered constitutional.

Unfortunately, he is probably right.

The author of our Constitution, however, would disagree. In Federalist 45, Madison writes, “the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined.”  According to Chemerinsky’s reasoning, Congress’ powers are anything but few and defined.

It is impossible to reconcile the Constitution’s author’s vision of a limited Federal government with Chemerinsky’s interpretation of the Constitution.

Jonathan Moore
Research Associate
Competitive Enterprise Institute