DOES THIS GOVERNMENT HAVE THE RIGHT TO MANDATE HOW WE SPEND OUR MONEY?

Where does the government get the right to mandate how the citizen spends his or her money? It's certainly not in the Constitution! Yet, the pending legislation requires that we either buy "government approved health insurance", or buy into the government controlled option! When did the government get the right to prescribe stiff fines and prison sentences for those who choose not to let them dictate how we spend our own money? When did the government get the right to use our tax money to compete against private business? (Can you say "TYRANNY"?) Why does the government prohibit health insurance companies from competing across state lines? Could it be that the health insurance industry's lobbyists bought that arrangement from corrupt government officials, thereby insuring there would be extremely limited competition in any state, thus providing their corporations with maximum opportunities to collaborate and FIX PRICES?

Wouldn't a more responsive (and less costly to the taxpayer) plan be to establish a requirement that any company offering health insurance must offer it nationwide, thus increasing competition and providing the consumer with a greater range of plans and costs from which to choose?

Are "We the People" so gullible as to believe that this continuous and blatant government intrusion into the private sector is anything less than the action of a tyrannical dictator? A dictator so intoxicated by the fumes of his own power that he has forgotten the true power rests with the people? Or, is it we who have forgotten that we are the power - and he is just taking advantage of that fact? I am so embarrassed by this left-wing socialist-progressive government that if I were traveling overseas I'd be telling people "I'm a Canadian, eh!"