Absolutely moronic.

At an April 5 town hall meeting in Fort Lauderdale (see video below), a constituent asked Wasserman Shultz where the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance. She responded that the new health care law did not require individuals to buy health insurance.

In a written statement to CNSNews.com on Wednesday, her press secretary, Jonathan Beeton, said it was true that the health care law did not mandate that individuals buy health insurance and that Wasserman Schultz stood by her assertion at the townhall meeting.

“We actually have not required in this law that you carry health insurance,” Wasserman Schultz said at the townhall meeting.

“Yes, this is accurate,” Beeton said in his statement to CNSNews.com. “You have a choice of insuring yourself with affordable coverage, or paying an assessment that will offset the burden you place on other insured Americans and taxpayers by not being insured.”

You’re not required to purchase insurance, you see. You’re just punished if you don’t. Which is like saying murder isn’t actually illegal, you’re just going to get thrown in prison for life or executed if you maliciously kill someone. Or, more relevantly:

It’s like saying you’re not “required” to pay your taxes because you can of course “choose” not to pay, in which case the IRS will simply garnish your wages and put a lien on your property.

It’s not a requirement, we’re just going to fine you if you don’t do what we say. So, er, we’re requiring you to purchase health insurance or face the consequences. Which might be why the provision in question is referred to as the “individual mandate” by even Democratic supporters of government-run health care.