And if they can, do we still live in a free country?

What's more, the paper says, taxpayers are on the hook for Medicare and Medicaid. "In that respect, health insurance is unlike virtually all other consumer products. Americans are affected by its influence over the healthcare system even if they don't have policies." Finally, forbidding insurers to deny coverage, as Obamacare does, makes it possible for people to "game the system" by waiting until they get sick to purchase a policy. The individual mandate prevents system-gaming.

There are two problems here. First, the state of affairs described is hardly unique to health care. No one can withdraw from the food market, either. (See Wickard again.) Nor can anyone withdraw from the housing market, or the clothing market. So if we accept the notion that the government can compel you to buy a health-care product, then there is no principled reason it could not also compel you to purchase other consumer goods.

Ronald Reagan once noted that a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything away. Pete Stark thinks that's just fine: "The Federal Government can do most anything in this country." Whose America do you want to live in?

(via Glenn)