It does sound like a dumb law. Dumb, but not impossible.

by TrogloPundit | July 3, 2010 11:43 am

You’ve probably seen this exchange[1] between Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Awesome) and SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan already:

Coburn asks:

If I wanted to sponsor a bill, and it said Americans, you have to eat three vegetables and three fruits every day. And I got it through Congress and it’s now the law of the land. Gotta do it. Does that violate the commerce clause?

Kagan replies:

Sounds like a dumb law.

Well, sure it does. But is it impossible?

Now read this story:[2]

Americans are continuing to get fat, with obesity rates nudging upwards in 28 states over the past year, a new report shows.

“More than two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent,” Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, said during a Tuesday news conference. “Back in 1991, not that long ago, not a single state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. There’s been a dramatic change in a relatively short period.”

“Obesity is one of the biggest public health crises in the country,” Levi added. “Rising rates of obesity over past decades is one of the major factors behind skyrocketing health care costs in the U.S., one-quarter of which are related to obesity.”

A dumb law? Yes. But. Coburn later followed up, asking whether it would matter if eating fruits and vegetables would cut down on health care costs, thus saving the federal government money. Would that save money? Yes, given a few other factors. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, the groundwork for this is laid. The argument is already there.

The federal government already influences what we buy and what we eat with regulations on producers and sellers. With ObamaCare, the feds have gone that one step further: directly requiring that Americans buy a particular kind of product.

Elena Kagan — soon to be Justice Elena Kagan — can say that Sen. Coburn’s hypothetical “sounds like a dumb law,” but there’s very little difference, philosophically, between requiring Americans to eat fruits and veggies and requiring Americans to purchase health insurance. We’ve agreed on the proposal in principle. Now we’re just haggling over price.

(Posted by The TrogloPundit[3])

Endnotes:
  1. this exchange: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/29/coburn-grills-kagan-could-congress-require-people-to-eat-certain-foods-under-the-commerce-clause/
  2. this story:: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100629/hl_hsn/obesityratesjumpin28statesreportshows
  3. The TrogloPundit: http://troglopundit.wordpress.com

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