Willful Congressional Ignorance

I wish I was making this up. Via Volokh, some of our elected officials in Congress were asked their opinion of the health care law and the constitutionality of the law. Their responses:

Rep. Conyers cited the “Good and Welfare Clause” as the source of Congress’s authority [there is no such clause].
Rep. Stark responded, “the federal government can do most anything in this country.” [Skip to 2:40 mark]
Rep. Clyburn  replied, “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government has anything to do with most of the stuff we do. How about [you] show me where in the Constitution it prohibits the federal government from doing this?”
Rep. Hare said “I don’t worry about the Constitution on this, to be honest [...] It doesn’t matter to me.” When asked, “Where in the Constitution does it give you the authority …?” He replied, “I don’t know.”
Sen. Akaka said he “not aware” of which Constitutional provision authorizes the healthcare bill.
Sen. Leahy added, “We have plenty of authority. Are you saying there’s no authority?”
Sen. Landrieu told a questioner, “I’ll leave that up to the constitutional lawyers on our staff.”

Holy crap, that's some scary stuff. Remember that everyone one of these people took an oath to "Preserve, protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States". And then one guy says that it "doesn't matter" to him? That's galling. At least lie to me a little bro, You're a Congressman, so you should at least be able to do that, right? Just lie to me a little. Say you really really care about the Constitutionality of a law, and at least try to sound convincing.

This is just something to keep in mind when you hear arguments that the Supreme Court is being asked to defer to the constitutional wisdom of another co-equal branch. I'd love to know what our Supreme Court Justices think of the chuckle-heads in Congress.

In defense of our elected officials, YOU voted for these idiots.