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Why George Washington would disagree with the right wing about health care’s constitutionality.

Yesterday, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced that he would join a growing list of right-wing attorneys general who are suing to have health reform declared unconstitutional. According to Cuccinelli, the new law’s provisions that require individuals to carry health insurance violate the Constitution because “at no time in our history has the government mandated its citizens buy a good or service.” The truth, however, is that the Second Militia Act of 1792, required a significant percentage of the U.S. civilian population to purchase a long list of military equipment:

This Act became law only a few years after the Constitution was ratified, in President George Washington’s first term. Many of the Members of Congress who voted for the Act also were members of the Philadelphia Convention that wrote the Constitution. In other words, they probably knew a little bit more about the Constitution than Ken Cuccinelli.

Update:

This afternoon, TP’s Ian Millhiser discussed the conservatives’ legal attacks. “If Congress can’t pass laws regulating health care, Medicare is unconstitutional. Medicaid is unconstitutional. SCHIP is unconstitutional,” he said. Watch it:

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