Flashback: Pelosi Responds with 'Are You Serious?' to Question about ObamaCare's Constitutionality
When Nancy Pelosi was asked in a 2009 press conference about where in the Constitution Congress has the authority to order Americans to buy health insurance, she responded: “Are you serious?” That week, none of the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network news programs deemed Pelosi’s ludicrous response to the question from CNSNews.com worthy of coverage. The news blackout of the then House Speaker’s response isn’t surprising, given that the liberal news media, as documented in this recent MRC compilation, pushed at every point in the debate process for ObamaCare.
The following are the relevant portions from CNSNews.com’s Matt Cover’s October 22, 2009 article about Pelosi curtly dismissing the Constitution’s relevance to ObamaCare:
When CNSNews.com asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday where the Constitution authorized Congress to order Americans to buy health insurance--a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill--Pelosi dismissed the question by saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”
Pelosi’s press secretary later responded to written follow-up questions from CNSNews.com by emailing CNSNews.com a press release on the “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform,” that argues that Congress derives the authority to mandate that people purchase health insurance from its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.
The exchange with Speaker Pelosi on Thursday occurred as follows:
CNSNews.com: “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?
Pelosi: “Are you serious? Are you serious?"
CNSNews.com: “Yes, yes I am."
Pelosi then shook her head before taking a question from another reporter. Her press spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, then told CNSNews.com that asking the speaker of the House where the Constitution authorized Congress to mandated that individual Americans buy health insurance as not a "serious question."
“You can put this on the record,” said Elshami. “That is not a serious question. That is not a serious question.”
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Comments
Not serious?!
Submitted by nanabanana on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 5:26pm.
ARE. YOU. SERIOUS??!!! I know, that was 2 1/2 years ago, but nothing has changed, in fact has gotten worse. Please, someone tell me there is still hope for change. Yah, real hope, for a change from where this country is going under this administration and Congress. Please.
Jeez, what a photo!!! You've
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 12:52am.
Jeez, what a photo!!! You've got Ms. Botox, cackling like a leathery old rattlesnake who just poisoned somebody..........and the decrepit and brain-dead Stunned Stenny Hoyer, laughing because his hag-crush Ms. Botox told him to..............and then someone who appears to be Keef Richards uglier female twin in the background, also joining the party!!!
And you think the Constitution means anything to any of them????? HA!!!
That woman in the background, Rosa Delauro, just may be...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 4:34am.
the ugliest woman in politics. She reminds me of an even uglier woman named "Lena the Hyena" who was the ugliest woman in the world!
I don't know who the moon faced gentleman is, but it is not Steny Hoyer.
I checked. It is somebody named John Larson.
Yeah, Jim............I didn't
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 4:35am.
Yeah, Jim............I didn't think it was ol' Stenny either, but after a couple of black cherry/vodkas.............who cares???
And, yeah..............that hag makes Keef look good!!!!
and Obama was serious....
Submitted by motherbelt on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 8:12pm.
here he is arguing against the individual mandate....over, and over, and over again.
Well, as Princess Nancy proclaimed: There are a lot of things he was for [and against] on the campaign trail.
You can't hold him to those statements now.
Pelosi........
Submitted by GregE on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 8:39pm.
I guarantee you has never read the US Constitution or any Founding document.
Just like she has no idea what's really in Obamacare. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't care what's in it, doesn't care how much it costs. Cares only about the incentive for companies to drop coverage, for individuals to pay fines, for private insurance providers to get squeezed out, and have government take over the entire system, regardless of what it takes or what it does to our country and it's citizens. She and her ilk are some of the most tyrannical people in America..
If you like your health insurance plan you can keep it? BS. Changes have already been made so much that many of the plans you are in aren't considered to be grandfathered in anymore.
These are some of the sickest people in America.
This woman makes a much bigger political target than any...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 4:09am.
Republican woman, yet Republicans don't attack her like Democrats attack Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Condi Riice, et al. The worst thing Republicans have done with Nancy Pelosi is to sit on a sofa with her!