WASHINGTON - October 23, 2009- When CNSNews.com asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Kalif.) on Thursday where the Constitution authorized Congress to order Amerikans to buy health insurance - a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill - Pelosi dismissed the question by saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

Pelosi's press secretary later responded to written follow-up questions from CNSNews.com by emailing CNSNews.com a press release on the “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform,” that argues that Congress derives the authority to mandate that people purchase health insurance from its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

Pelosi then shook her head before taking a question from another reporter. Her press spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, expressed official disdain for anyone questioning Pelosi on this issue.

“You can put this on the record,” said Elshami. “That is not a serious question. That is not a serious question.”