Can The Government Force Me To Buy Broccoli ? Do I Have To Eat It If I Buy It ?

In a nutshell, that is my reaction to Obamacare. I am being forced to buy something simply because I am a live person. The only way I can avoid buying this or paying a fine is to be a dead person. I really don’t like the choice involved.

Yesterday Michael Walsh at The Corner at National Review Online posted a short article that I believe sums up the entire healthcare debate.

Mr. Walsh asks if Obamacare is really about healthcare:

For if it’s about “health care,” aren’t there a myriad of ways in which the system could be improved without a “comprehensive” top-down solution? At a time of extreme economic dislocation, was there a nationwide clamor to make “health care” the top priority of the new administration?

Or is it really about the exercise of raw governmental power, to teach the citizenry an object lesson about the coming brave new world, one that surely will get even worse once Obama is safely past the shoals of his last election? 

Can the government force you to buy something just because you exist (even if it is for the ‘public good’)?

One of the most logical arguments I have heard against Obamacare is that it violates the basic concept of a contract. A contract is an agreement entered into voluntarily by two or more people. If the agreement is not voluntary, it is no longer a contract. Hopefully, the eventual decision of the Supreme Court will recognize the right of Americans to enter into contracts voluntarily. I happen to like broccoli, but I don’t want anyone forcing me to buy it or eat it.

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