What’s constitutional? That’s easy

What’s constitutional? That’s easy

I am writing in response to the David Betras column of Oct. 2.

I have always been intrigued at the lack of understanding by Americans of our U.S. Constitution. The complete document can be read in less than 15 minutes. The writers of the Constitution, in particular James Madison, left a wealth of written opinions about what they believed the Constitution meant, and what they had accomplished. Most of those opinions may be found in the Federalist (Papers).

Another issue that has caught my attention is how political operatives use the fact that most Americans do not understand the Constitution. These political opportunists perversely take passages from the document and bend the meaning to defend a point of view that they are promoting.

We have such an occurrence in a recent column by David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party. He uses a misrepresentation of Article VI of the Constitution to insist that the writers and supporters of issue 3 are extremists. His misguided interpretation of Article VI is that federal law trumps all state law. Mr. Betras believes these people are extremists because issue 3, if it becomes law, would gut the very heart of the Patient Affordable Care Act — a federal law — leaving it a meaningless jumble of words. To Mr. Betras this is constitutional heresy.

Mr. Betras is the heretic. To pluck one article from the body of the Constitution and apply it separately is heretical. The Constitution was written in such a manner so that each piece relates to all of the other components in order to have meaning. So it is with Article VI.

The intent of the writers of the Constitution was to limit the power and scope of the federal government, leaving most authority for governance with the States. As such, the authority granted the federal government in Article VI is limited. This is clearly stated in the 10th Amendment; “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively...”

I challenge anyone to find the words in the U.S. Constitution, which grant the federal government the authority to compel U.S. citizens to purchase health care or any other product or service.

Issue 3 protects the constitutional rights of the citizens of the State of Ohio from unconstitutional encroachment by the federal government on those rights.

Please, vote yes on issue 3.

Mark R. McGrail, Warren