George Will Asks This Week Panel: Can Congress Require Obese People to Sign Up for Weight Watchers?

By Noel Sheppard | July 03, 2011 | 15:37

A A

As NewsBusters previously noted, ABC's "This Week" began its Independence Day weekend program disparaging the Founding Fathers as guys who didn't let women vote and allowed slavery.

What followed was a Roundtable discussion about the Constitution which got quite interesting when the host brought up ObamaCare and George Will marvelously asked the group, "Does Congress have the constitutional power to require obese people to sign up for Weight Watchers? If not, why not?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: We touched briefly on health care. The whole debate about President Obama's health care act is being called unconstitutional in some quarters. So is that going to be challenged at the Supreme Court?

GEORGE WILL: 26 states, more or less, (inaudible) 26 are in various courts around the country in a case absolutely certain to be decided by the Supreme Court.

The question is, has the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce been so loosely construed that now Congress can do anything at all, that there is nothing it cannot do.

Let me ask the three of you. Obviously, obesity and its costs affect interstate commerce. Does Congress have the constitutional power to require obese people to sign up for Weight Watchers? If not, why not?

Fabulous question. After all, if the entire premise of the individual mandate is that everyone has to have health insurance for their own good - and that it's not right that some people opt not to and therefore use emergency rooms that end up costing everyone else money - shouldn't it be constitutional to require people to lose weight?

Will clearly stumped the liberal panelists:

RICHARD STENGEL, TIME MAGAZINE: Justice Vincent's opinion about Obamacare, saying that the government can't regulate inactivity and that we're stretching the Commerce Clause too far. I mean, I think it's kind of silly. Everything having to do with healthcare does cross state boundaries. Even that notion of the Commerce Clause as regulating among the states is a kind of antiquarian idea. The government can ask you to do things. It asks us to --

WILL: It's not asking us, it's mandating.

STENGEL: It asks us to pay our taxes. It asks us to register for the draft. It asks us to buy car insurance if we want to drive our car around.

(CROSSTALK)

WILL: If you choose to buy a car.

Exactly. This is a point it seems everyone on the Left - especially in the media - doesn't seem to understand.

The states that require citizens to purchase auto insurance only require it of those that own cars. They don't require people to purchase cars, though, which means there is no mandate to have auto insurance.

In addition, this is a state requirement not governed by the Commerce Clause because it is not interstate. But Stengel wasn't done making a fool of himself:

STENGEL: If something is unconstitutional, people out there tend to think like some alarm will go off if something is unconstitutional. It's unconstitutional if the Supreme Court decides it's unconstitutional. And by the way, this can go to the Supreme Court, and we can see whether that happens.

Well, that's not necessarily true. It could be constitutional or unconstitutional for the time being as the Court has been known to overturn its previous rulings.

As such, what one group of nine jurists thinks does not necessarily mean they've definitively decided the constitutionality of an issue. But Will wasn't done pressing this one:

WILL: Well, does Congress have the power to mandate that obese people sign up for -- do they have the power to do this?

STENGEL: I don't know the answer to that.

WILL: You don't know.

No, he doesn't know. Yet, like most in the press, he believes Congress has the power to require people to buy health insurance.

Interesting hypocrisy that Will's next victim obviously shares:

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, the beauty of that is, the not knowing -- and we can predict that Rick would say that because he's saying that's the color of the curtain. The basic foundation is set.

WILL: Is that a yes, Congress does have the power to mandate?

DYSON: It's open. If they decide that they will, they will have the power to do so.

"If they decide that they will, they will have the power to do so."

Heaven help us.

About the Author

Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Click here to follow Noel Sheppard on Twitter.

Noel Sheppard's blog
Login to post comments

Comments

YES

Submitted by JPTSO3 on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:03pm.

CLEARLY the last Congress felt so. Let it be written -- and let it be so
If the obese are hereinafter mandated to lose weight (and it has to be if health care is mandated) then the first fatsos required to close their pieholes and slim down should be Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell.

Ths reminds me of...

Submitted by StarAZ on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 3:49pm.

When Obama first came in and was all over EVERYTHING (not that he isn't umming and ahhing about all and sundry now) , my daughter asked me, "Mom, if the president came in here and told us to do something, would we have to do it?"
Not without a warrant I laughed. But then, I wondered...would you have to be a member of the armed forces or something or is this guy the boss of us?

Stengel said

Submitted by UpNorth on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 3:54pm.

"It's unconstitutional if the Supreme Court decides it's unconstitutional". Or, if Obysmal decides it's unconstitutional. See DOMA, for an example of how this administration views unconstitutional.

To re-elect Obama would be like the Titanic backing up and hitting the iceberg again.

Stengel

Submitted by RCB on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:20pm.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstei

rcbCAL

Let's even go further

Submitted by pfurman69 on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 3:55pm.

They have already mandated a consumer commerce. It is called the light bulb. They have forced Americans to give up the incandescent bulb for the twisted looking CFL. Everyone needs to read what is required if this kind of bulb breaks on your carpet (say like you dog knocks over the lamp). The steps it takes to clean up a cfl is like reading a toxic waste clean up guide. Time to start using those hurricane lamps and candles. Next, it will be gov't employees will not be allowed to smoke, then drink, or eat anything that isn't "healthy" in their opinion.

That would be a wonderful irony, if this Obamacare mandate

Submitted by WhoIsJohnGalt on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 8:20pm.

is upheld! That being that the biggest supporters (no pun intended) of this mandate are overweight people who can't control their lives, and are expecting something FREE from Obamacare, and government workers, who by and large are "something for nothing" kind of people.

Can you imagine the fun that the rest of us would have watching obese drains on society having to go on government mandated diets?!?! And Gub'mint workers being told what they can and can't partake of on their own time?!?!

That would be, as Noel would say, a delicious irony!

not even buying a car....

Submitted by dmacleo on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 3:57pm.

here its if registering a car.
I can buy 100 cars and have in driveway with NO insurance on them.
only needed if I register the car.

dmacleo http://www.theconservativevoices.com

Depends on where you are.

Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:52pm.

Depends on where you are. Some locals require all cars to be registered and to get a vehicle registered you must show proof of insurance or put up a bond.

Nuke em til they glow; then shoot em in the dark

Re: car insurance

Submitted by ampul man on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 6:09am.

You might be able to buy 100 cars, but will you be able to (LEGALLY) drive them home from the showroom to your driveway?

You can't in my state. Don't get stopped by a cop.

Why do we keep bringing up the example of auto insurance? It is a mandate of the states and is designed, not for your protection, but to protect the public from harm that you may impose on them.

CNN, the Clinton News Network---Bill decides; Hill reports

Hey--how do they

Submitted by StarAZ on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:00pm.

How do they expect us to die without using too many govt Medicare bucks if they force us to be healthy? Oh--yeah...forgot...most of this is statistics and doesn't work that well for any given person.

maybe Congress can require the ugly to stay indoors during

Submitted by Paarl on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:03pm.

daylight hours as it is quite obvious that having ugly people out and about during daylight hours will affect interstate commerce by diminishing it.....

Paarl of Rhodesia.....not pretty but certainly not ugly !!! at least my dog doesn't think so !!! but then again..I did not have a date to the senior prom !!! ;<(

paarl

Thanks

Submitted by well99 on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:22pm.

Now I won't be able to get the mail till nighttime.

Commerce among the several states-

Submitted by Ashrak on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:05pm.

not commerce among the people of the several states.

The federal government was delegated the authority to regulate commerce between state governments, in order that uniform taxation be upheld.

The federal government was never intended to micromanage, much less via ban or mandate, beforehand individual two party private contracts.

The only authority it was delegated in this area was for the judiciary to be the arbiter, the decider, as to whether or not an agreement had been broken or upheld and to assign restitution if it is proven the contract was not upheld by one party or the other.

Many underestimate just how fundamental a question like Will's really is. Likewise, how profound the proper answer is regarding how it affects Individual Liberty.

Seriously. This question, said another way, amounts to this;

Are we Freemen, Citizens, with inalienable rights to exercise or not, or are we slaves, subjects, with permissions and orders issued by the slave master named government?

That an individual right exists requires that some policy positions be removed from the table of debate.

how about forcing us to speak

Submitted by jkwtrading on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:10pm.

how about forcing us to speak Eubonics?

Libs apparently are

Submitted by Satchmo on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:35pm.

Libs apparently are unfamiliar with nullification.

Ignore this troll.

Submitted by The Vet on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:43pm.

He has abused our trust far too long.

For some reason people seem

Submitted by deerjerkydave on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 4:48pm.

For some reason people seem to flock to centralized authority. In the past it has usually been monarchies. Today it is socialism. I guarantee you that every liberal at that table already holds that the Federal government is all powerful and all it takes is an activist court to let it happen.

------------------------

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. -James Madison

It's not a request, it's a demand.

Submitted by CobraMan on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:00pm.

"It asks us to pay our taxes. It asks us to register for the draft."

Those are not requests, those are demands. You can't be punished for refusing a request. You can be punished for refusing a demand, just like the punishment that ObamaCare will impose upon some, but not all, of the people who refuse the government's demand to purchase federally selected insurance policies.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court

Or Anwar al-Awlaki.

Congress above and beyond the call of the law.

Submitted by Hausmaus on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:00pm.

If the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of Barack Obama's health care law, this will be the first step that will enable Congress to mandate at will any issue it deems necessary to control the citizens of this nation. Let's be perfectly clear on this issue, even if Obama care might seem confined only to heath care, constitutionally enabling Congress on this particular issue erases any possibility to void any future issue attached to the commerce clause. We will not only be held hostage to a Congress that is hell bent on putting a leash on every citizen, but this legislation will be the beginning of the end for our precious Constitution. America could very well start breaking apart into smaller nations in order to hang on to the real purpose of our constitutional government, and avoid desintegrating like a third world nation. If you think this cannot happen here, given the divisive atmosphere that our president has created, and the unpredictability of our future, this nation is more ready than ever to undergo a fragmentation.

Hausmaus

Then it will be time for

Submitted by Satchmo on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:14pm.

Then it will be time for states to leave the union.

Ignore this troll.

Submitted by The Vet on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:43pm.

He has abused our trust for far too long.

I was always a Nutri-system guy myself, lol!

Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 5:20pm.

But seriously, I HAVE lost weight on Weight Watchers-50 lbs! But no one forced me, (my wife did hint once or 100 times!) and no one told me I couldnt use anyone else! Thats just one of the 17 reasons why Obamacare sucks!

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. BEN FRANKLIN

The government asks us, yeah right

Submitted by Jackrv on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 6:00pm.

STENGEL: It asks us to pay our taxes. It asks us to register for the draft. It asks us to buy car insurance if we want to drive our car around.

If the government can fine you, stick you in jail, impound your car, then it is not asking, it is telling/mandating.

Jack

Mandating good health.

Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 6:37pm.

Next: everyone must be happy.

The Big Brother moment is now upon us.

SOMA

Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 11:41am.

SOMA

Nuke em til they glow; then shoot em in the dark

Beware of vague media discussions about the Constitution

Submitted by B. Johnson on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 6:44pm.

Regarding never-ending, meaningless media discussions about the constitutionality of federal Obamacare, please consider the following. To begin with, using terms like "does not extend" and "exclusively," Thomas Jefferson had clarified that the Founding States had made the Commerce Clause to prohibit Congress from sticking its big nose into intrastate commerce.

“For the power given to Congress by the Constitution does not extend to the internal regulation of the commerce of a State, (that is to say of the commerce between citizen and citizen,) which remain exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian tribes.” –Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson’s Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank : 1791.

Next, given that the Constitution, particularly Section 8 of Article I, is silent about public healthcare, the 10th Amendment automatically reserves government power to tax and spend for healthcare purposes uniquely to the states, not the Oval Office and Congress.

In fact, before socialist FDR's puppet justices ignored Jefferson's words about the Commerce Clause so that corrupt Congress could overstep its constitutional limits, the USSC had reflected on the 10th Amendment with respect to the constitutionality of federal healthcare, More specifically, the USSC had established the case precedent that Congress has no constitutional authority to regulate intrastate medical practice.

“Direct control of medical practice in the states is obviously beyond the power of Congress.” –Linder v. United States, 1925.

And heaven forbid should anybody in the media or Congress mention Article V. Although Article V requires Congress to petition the states for a specific grant of power via constitutional amendment in order to regulate something, the power to tax and spend for healthcare in this example, the unconstitutionally big federal government cannot afford for citizens to find out about Article V. After all, once the people find out that it is the states who uniquely control what the Constitution says, not the federal government, then people will know that the states have absolute control over the federal government. Congress and the liberal media have to preserve the phony powers of Congress and the Oval Office so Article V is off limits.

The bottom line concerning problems for the news media actually reconnecting citizens with the Constitution concerning the constitutionality of Obamacare discussions is this. Pro-big federal government news agencies like ABC and Fox News must avoid specific references to the Constitution and its history, essentially keeping the people in the dark about the Constitution with respect to the constitutionality of things like Obamacare, in order to advance their socialistic, centeralized power agenda.

To some extent, the federal government does control...

Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 11:00pm.

....medical practice through CMS reimbursement policies on Medicare and through Medicaid at the state level. Whatever they pay for, how much and why pretty much controls the bulk of physician practices in the country. The problem is that such standards dictate cookbook, algorithm-driven health care with virtually no choices left to the physician, patient or other professionals in health care.

what does congress have the right to mandate?

Submitted by GerryC on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 7:50pm.

A list of things that congress could be allowed to mandate if ObamaCare is deemed constituitional

~ Make all people that drink become AA members. After all, people drive across state lines with drinks
~ Make all people that get Alzheimers get chauffueurs, because they may need to drive across state lines for ice cream or tea.
~ Make all Skinny people under the suggested "Normal weight for height guidlines" Become members of my newly dreamed-up business called "weight gainers for the sake of Rosie O'Donut's self-esteem". Rosie crosses state lines too.
~ Make all people that use up their body joints by playing sports, become members of my other new dream company "You used them, now we will use you". Can't have old sports with bad joints screwing up interstate commerce by throwing footballs in yards ajoined by two states.
~ Make all people that have TV's pay an an extra tax for daring to watch a show that was aired from 1 mile away in another state. Interstate is interstate.

I know someone out there can be more clever than me, but this is my thought for the moment

~Yeah, they can make you join WeightWatchers

Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 8:40pm.

But they sure as hell better not listen in when you call a known terrorist ringleader in Pakistan.

Obama's WTF 2012 campaign slogan: "A dog in every pot"

Tough to watch the Sunday

Submitted by Edhenry on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 9:22pm.

Tough to watch the Sunday shows anymore. Mostly just unchallenged liberal agenda that, after 50 years, is recognized as all the destructive forces in this country. So easy to knock over their drivel, that you can do it in your head as it is spewed (usually loudly).

better to read GW and CK and save rest of time for family

edhenry

STENGEL: If something is

Submitted by GregE on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 11:55pm.

STENGEL: If something is unconstitutional, people out there tend to think like some alarm will go off if something is unconstitutional. It's unconstitutional if the Supreme Court decides it's unconstitutional.

That's a HUGE B...S!!!! Something isn't unconstitutional just because the Supreme Court decides it is. If something is unconstitutional, it's unconstitutional IMMEDIATELY UPON ENACTMENT, and the Supreme Court may or may not figure that out when it is brought to them.

Is the $20 in my pocket only $20 when I count it and say it is? Or was it always $20, even before I counted it?

And just because the Supreme Court says something is unconstitional (or constitutional) doesn't mean it actually is. But it does mean that what they have decided is now the law of the land, whether we like it or not, AND whether they actually ruled correctly on it's constitutionality.

ACLU are always saying

Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 9:08am.

this or that is "unconstitutional" before the justices decide the case. It's kind of ludicrous to say that the Constitution is so arcane as only to be understandable by a majority of 9 at any one time.

That right there is the definition of a government of men, not laws.

Fat people are suffering

Submitted by wiwf on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 10:23am.

Fat people are suffering enough as it is. Do you have to humiliate them further by forcing them to join Weight Watchers?

The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Illustrating Idiocy

I want MSMer Mark Shields mandated to go to Weight Watchers

Submitted by Red Jeep on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 11:39am.

If he can't lose weight and since he is old he should then have to appear before a Death Panel to see if any more procedures on him will be allowed if he becomes ill.

In my experience, the high

Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 1:00pm.

In my experience, the high standards gov't imposes on the private sector do NOT apply to them. In the USN, most of the buildings I worked in were "condemned"

The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan

Car Insurance

Submitted by Question_Assumptions on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 1:50pm.

The car insurance question is a red herring, first, because it's mandated at the state level and, second, because New Hampshire doesn't even mandate it (there is an alternative to having insurance there). Nobody who does not understand the clear English of the 10th Amendment should be opining on the Constitution and Obamacare:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

What that means for the Constitutionally ignorant is that the Constitution does not delegate the power to mandate car insurance to the US government and does not prohibit the states from doing so, therefore the states can do it. Just because the states can do it does not mean that the federal government constitutionally can or should do it.

In NYC the government is

Submitted by eaglewingz08 on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 5:06pm.

In NYC the government is mandating only two sheets of toilet paper in public bathrooms at Coney Island. Sickening. But if the government has that power, then could then mandate only two pieces of broccoli to obese persons, until they get to normal weight?
I congratulate George Will for picking up on the food nazis, and how they have been able to follow in the footsteps of the anti smoking fascists (to liberals-nazis and fascists are NATIONAL SOCIALISTS; they are NOT conservatives or right wingers) and how they will misuse the power of the Government to cripple individual freedom. Ronald Reagan was correct 48 years ago when he noted that national health care was the trojan horse for the totalitarian mindset because once you control people's health decisions, there are no avenues in life that the government would be barred from regulating. He was laughed at by the lamestream media then, but his prescience has been borne out by experience in all democrap socialist countries as well as in our own.

If the government hands out waivers to laws, then are we all

Submitted by VanPastorMan on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 6:30pm.

equal under the law? In my mind if the government gives anybody a waiver to this healthcare law, then they should offer the waiver to every individual or business. If they don't then the government is saying some people are more privileged than others. My fellow Americans this thing stinks to high heaven. Let's hope we can strike down ObamaCare soon before we lose freedom.

Liberals are funny when they aren't in power. But when they have power they become dangerous. Rush Limbaugh

Son's of the Republic, keep your powder dry!

Submitted by PJMan on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 3:12am.

But these son's of, a, a, a, commies, rewrite history in their own minds and textbooks to coincide with their beliefs, I can honestly say, Glen Beck taught me alot about my own Country, from the black and female founders, and soldiers, I was amazed that I was never taught that in parochial school or public, but the Constitution, I have studied for many years on my own, and cherish our Founding Fathers, for their sacrifice, bravery, and forethought of problems to come, these men of wisdom built the greatest Nation on earth, with the minority of like minded peoples in the beginning, and I hate it when the left say, all you right wingers want to go back to the Constitution, you want to bring back slavery, what a bunch of crap, when LBJ was the top Dem in the Senate, he stopped the civil rights movement in it's tracks, {look at the votes} and if you look back in history, it's always the Conservatives that initiate the rights under our sacred paper, the provision after the ratification was after ten years that it would be under subjugation to free the slaves, but then there was no big party Conservatives at the time, and democracy ruled, there's where it started, Woodrow Wilson is what we have today, brought in segregation to the Military, the great private, Federal Reserve, income tax, and the beginning of losing all our freedoms, surfs we become, shout out, vote, and serve our Country with care, we need it, God Bless this Nation on the 4th!!!!!!!!!

Son's of the Republic, keep your powder dry!

Submitted by PJMan on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 3:12am.

I need to save this

Submitted by Model850 on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 5:29pm.

STENGEL: It asks us to pay our taxes.

I need to bookmark this video for next April 15th. I can then use this leftist shill's ranting as justification for saying "Um, no thanks!" when the government "asks" me to pay my taxes.

I know he's just a nobody but hey, he does work for Time so that sort of makes him part of the Obama government, right? So I'll argue a representative of the administration implied taxes are voluntary.

If obamacare is constitutional

Submitted by SueDi on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 1:13pm.

then the government can mandate anything for our good. Birth control, sterilization, e, forced surgeries (like lap bands), restrictions on food, no alcohol, sugar, fats. The list is endless. It's amazing what one little law, the commerce law, can do, isn't it?