You have to watch the whole thing because it’s really incredible. Chris Wallace asked the first key question I don’t think anybody else has asked about the new “preventive care” or “contraception” mandate that was handed down as part of Obamacare. The question came early on, and Jack Lew’s answer was stunningly blatant. Here’s the key portion to which I am referring, from the Fox News transcript:

WALLACE: Before we get to the president’s new budget and I promise we will, I want to clear up some lingering question about the president’s revised policy about providing health insurance coverage for birth control to the employees of religious institutions. The president now says that Catholic institutions don’t have to provide the coverage but the insurance companies do.

The question — where does the president get the power to tell a private company they have to offer a product and offer it for free?

LEW: Well, Chris, just to be clear — the president has the authority under the Affordable Care Act to have these kinds of rules take affect.

Wait what?

Please, I want everyone to pay attention to this and pass it along. This interview, en toto, was quite revealing, but this first bit made me hit rewind on my DVR about six times, making sure I heard what he said. His response was not from the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence or even any of the Federalist Papers.

Until Obamacare, a.k.a., the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was passed by Congress, the Executive Branch did not have such broad and overreaching powers. Forget about the individual mandate and contraceptive issues in the news lately…we must focus, folks, on this one glaring (and frightening) fact of this legislation. If Obamacare grants the Executive Branch the power to force indiviudal companies to provide something for FREE to all women everywhere, there is absolutely NO limit to what else this administration can conjure up.

Jack Lew and all the other apologists for this latest heinous power grab seem to be trying to convince us that “studies show” (~rolling my eyes~) providing contraception and “preventive care” for women’s “health” issues actually makes the cost of the insurance premiums cheaper, so there really is no “cost” to the insurance companies; it’s apprently break-even for them. Yes, that’s right… it’s cheaper to prevent a woman from getting pregnant and a baby from being born, so why the heck would ANYBODY be against this mandate? /sarc

What country is this in which we live…China?

And Mr. Lew et. al.; if this will cost the insurance companies “nothing,” why are you claiming it will save women approximately $600 per year? It either costs or it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.

But I digress.

Let’s forget about how much contraception costs; let’s just focus on why I am writing this post in the first place. The most significant and important question whe should ALL be askng today is this: what part of the Constitution grants the President or Congress the absolute right or authority by which they can force a PRIVATE company to give, FOR FREE, any service or product to any American? Just once more for punctuation and clarity, here again is Jack Lew giving his stunning response to Chris Wallace:

After you watch it and hear it, just let that tiny part just simmer and tell me if you think this is just an “access” or “women’s healthcare” issue. And lastly, can we disabuse these folks of this nonsense about “access” to contraception? Did I miss something here? Are birth control pills are now illegal and no longer available by another other method, or through any other manner? Are they prohibitively so expensive that everyday Americans can no longer afford them? If that is the case, how about condoms? Last I heard they are at the point at which they’ll probably just start falling from the sky, courtesy of the condom fairy!

If you think this is anything less than an absolute overreach and power grab from the Obama administration, you are kidding youself.