By Rebecca DiFede — Not only do we have to eat our peas, but we might have to eat our broccoli as well.
The Obama Administration reached a tyrannical high recently when, during oral arguments before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on the constitutionality of Obamacare’s health-insurance mandate, their lawyer, Beth Brinkmann, was asked whether a federal law requiring all Americans to eat broccoli would be constitutional.
Her reply? “It depends,” but she could definitely see circumstances under which it would be appropriate.
And apparently she’s not alone. As previously reported by NetRightDaily, Supreme Court Justice and notable Obamacare cheerleader Elena Kagan, when asked the same question during her confirmation hearings, stated that she had no doubt that such a law would be constitutional.
This level of power over the people by the government is horrifying. If a law can be passed to require everyone in the country to eat a certain food, what’s to stop them from deciding what clothing we can wear, who we can talk to, and where we can live?
One of the foundational principles of our government is that individual rights are enumerated and protected from the reach of Washington, D.C.. We elect officials who we entrust with certain powers, but those powers are extremely limited under the law. If the people we elected and those who they appoint to help them execute their duties truly believe that it is not an abuse of power to mandate that the entire country must eat a certain food, then I am unsure of what their definition of ‘is’, is.
The Obama Administration has tried to make decisions about the eating habits of Americans before. In another report by NetRightDaily it was noted that Madame Obama launched her Let’s Move initiative earlier this year to try to cure childhood obesity by attempting to increase the amount of stores that sell fresh produce in ‘under-served’ communities.
The First Lady also sought to rid the nation of the cartoon characters that served as the mascots for major cereal brands, (such as Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger and the Trix rabbit), claiming that they encouraged children to make unhealthy food choices and that, upon their removal, children would somehow stop craving Fruit Loops and start begging their parents for Wheatabix.
It is exactly these kinds of decisions that strike fear into the hearts of those opposed to big government. If our illustrious president and his merry band of health nuts can mandate that we purchase health insurance and under the guise of controlling health care costs also mandate what types of foods we can eat, where they can be served and how they are marketed, what else could they take control of?
Apparently, all the healthy food concerns have left the Obama Administration hungry. Unfortunately, they are hungry for more power over the lives of Americans who they presume to know better than.
These ravenous Obama appointees must be closely monitored, lest they bite through the tethers of mainstream constitutionality and begin creating their own tyrannical wonderland.
Rebecca DiFede is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government.
