The Hill News

The best place to begin, a wise man once said, is at the beginning â€" which is where the new Congress will begin, with a public reading of the U.S. Constitution.

Critics have condemned the move, along with a new provision in the House rules that requires all proposed legislation to identify its constitutional antecedent, as a shopworn political gimmick designed to appeal to the Tea Party Movement. In fact it is much more.

For far too long members of congress and presidents of both parties have been “making it up as they go along,” proposing, passing and penning their names to laws that are, at best, constitutionally dubious and, at worst, downright unconstitutional. The latest example is the alterations made to nation’s healthcare system â€" known to the general public as “Obamacare” â€" which includes a mandate that each individual either purchase health insurance for themselves and their families or pay what has alternatively been called a penalty, a fine or a tax.

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