Citizens or subjects?

Georgetown professor of Constitutional law Randy Barnett, Dec. 13, 2010:

If economic mandates like this one are allowed, however, Americans will be demoted from citizens to subjects. They will have to obey any commands that Congress deems convenient to its regulation of interstate commerce. No more expensive tax credits and subsidies to raise taxes to pay for; Congress can just command you to buy its favored products. Forget cash for clunkers; just make Americans buy cars from G.M. Or make them undergo medical exams to save on health care costs. Gone will be a federal government of limited and enumerated powers established by the Constitution and repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court.

Me, last March 24:

The question has been asked repeatedly since Sunday where in the Constitution is the Congress granted the authority to mandate that individuals buy health insurance. The answer is, of course, nowhere, not even in the Constitution's "good and welfare" clause that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., claimed justified the act. But of course, there is no such clause.

The Constitution does begin by saying that it's purpose is (among others) to "promote the general welfare." The signs have been evident for literally decades, but now it is blindingly clear that Democrat party believes that the preamble - which delegates no powers, that comes later in the document - gives them unlimited authority "to control the people," in the words this week of Rep. John Dingell.

The entire Founders' insight that government has no rights, only powers delegated to it by the people, has been tossed on the ash heap of history. With Sunday night's vote and the self-triumphant signing of bill by President Obama, "we the people of the United States" has been struck through. The operating slogan now is, "You the subjects of the Sovereign Congress."

I wrote in 2003 that this was where we are headed. I never imagined it would come this quickly.

This is indeed the choice before us if we do not reclaim the sovereignty of the people.