BLOGROLL

The following originally appeared as a letter to the editor in the Washington Post. -Staff

Alec MacGillis's article about the details of how health-reform legislation would require Americans to purchase health insurance ignored whether the Constitution allows that requirement at all ["If you build a coverage mandate, will they come?," front page, Oct. 26].

The Supreme Court has expanded Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce itself to include "activities that substantially affect interstate commerce."

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed with Senator Jim DeMint in the Wall Street Journal. -Staff

Last week, Chairman Julius Genachowski and his Democratic colleagues on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began rewriting federal regulations governing the Internet and broadband communications. According to Mr. Genachowski, the Internet today is a failed market in which neither entrepreneurs nor consumers are treated fairly.

If this is news to you (especially if you're reading this on a Web site while simultaneously uploading photos to your family blog and streaming music from an online radio station), you're not alone.

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Washington - U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today was honored by U.S. News Media Group and Harvard's Center for Public Leadership as one of the 2009 America's Best Leaders for his work to pass meaningful, bipartisan legislation without compromising his core principles and strongly held ideological convictions. U.S. News Media Group, in association with the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy's School of Government, today released the 2009 edition of America's Best Leaders, available online at www.usnews.com/leaders and featured in the November, 2009, issue of U.S.News & World Report magazine, on newsstands Tuesday, October 27.

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Washington - U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today sent a letter to President Obama to express his concerns regarding the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and request that the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division look into the legality and fairness of the system.

"Mr. President, as you have publicly stated on multiple occasions, the BCS system is in dire need of reform," wrote Hatch in the letter. "Some may argue that the college football postseason is too trivial a matter to warrant government involvement. However, given the amount of money involved in the BCS endeavor and its close relationship to our nation's institutions of higher education, it is clear that the unfairness of the current system extends well beyond the football field.

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed in the St. George Spectrum. -Staff

"If men were angels," James Madison once wrote, "no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." America's founders understood the nature of both human beings and the governments they create and knew that ordered liberty requires limited government. That principle is critical in the current debate over health care reform.

The Constitution both empowers and limits government in general, and the federal government in particular. Congress must have more than just a good idea or a noble intention to legislate. It must also have authority grounded in at least one of its delegated enumerated powers.

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed in Investor's Business Daily. -Staff

The health care bills moving through Congress raise a host of contentious policy issues. But provisions in the bill before the Senate Finance Committee also test whether politics trumps the Constitution.

The liberty we enjoy in America requires limits on government power, and those limits come primarily from the Constitution. Our written Constitution delegates only certain powers to the federal government and Congress must point to at least one of them as authority to pass legislation.

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed in the Washington Times. -Staff

I have always believed one of the major purposes of health care reform is to lower the costs of medical expenses to American families. Therefore, I was dismayed when an already bad health care reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee was made worse by the addition last week of a new tax increase that would largely hit the sick and the elderly.

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed in the Deseret News. -Staff

The greatest opportunity offered by real health-care reform is lower costs facing Americans. At the outset of the health-care debate, members of Congress in both parties, as well as President Barack Obama, held out this promise. Unfortunately, after several months of attempted negotiations and a highly partisan prime-time speech by the president, genuine bipartisan reform has thus far failed. When it became apparent that health-care reform was going to raise the burden on American families, not lower it, I ceased participating in the Senate negotiations.

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed in the National Review. -Staff

On this day, 222 years ago, 12 state delegations approved the new Constitution of the United States and 39 of the 42 convention delegates signed it. They sent it to the states for ratification, the act that would make it the supreme law of the land. It is worth focusing on just what the Constitution actually is.

The Constitution opens by saying: "We the people . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution." Nearly all Americans say the Constitution is very important to them and it requires that virtually all legislative, executive, and judicial officers, both state and federal, "shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution." But what is this thing called the Constitution that the people established, that Americans say is so important, and that public officials swear to support?

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The following originally appeared as an op-ed in USA Today. -Staff

Affordable and quality health care for every American is neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue -- it is an American issue. Unfortunately, the current health care bills before Congress are too partisan, too expensive and too big-government for most Americans to support.

As congressional Democrats inch towards going it alone on health reform, I ask them to do what American families are demanding -- step back, take a deep breath and start over on a truly bipartisan bill. Using a partisan "reconciliation" process to jam a bill that deals with one-sixth of our economy with 20 hours of Senate debate -- less than one full day -- would be one of the most irresponsible actions that the majority could take.

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