What are the limits?

There are 4 Constitutional defects in the new Health Care Law:

These primarily address what Congress has ordered the states to do and what it has ordered individuals to do.

1.  It has ordered the states to increase/collect taxes and to spend the taxes as the Federal Gov't has ordered.

2.  It has ordered individuals to purchase health insurance that is approved and acceptable to Federal bureaucrats.

3.  Transfers regulation of health care from the states to the Federal gov't.

4.  Puts a Federal bureaucrat between patients and physicians.

Can the Federal government tell the states how to spend state-generated taxes?  No.  None of this falls anywhere near the enumerated powers, the "general welfare" clause or the "commerce clause."  When the states created the Federal government they specifically retained for themselves the power to legislate for the health, safety, welfare and morality of their citizens.

Even though the interpretation of the Commerce Clause has been broadly interpreted since the FDR era and used to wedge Federal authority where it doesn't belong that is not its original intent, or even reasonably near it.   The Commerce Clause give Congress the power  "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes."  The power is to REGULATE, to make regular, to standardize, etc.  This clause was added into the Constitution specifically because no such clause existed in the Articles of Confederation and the lack thereof cause certain problems.  For instance, one state could charge a tariff against the other states when certain other states had no tariff, or one state could refuse to allow import of a certain product from a certain state while allowing import of the same product from another.  The idea was to allow Congress to make commerce between the several states REGULAR, or standard.  Given the current interpretation of the Commerce Clause you can literally justify any action whatsoever with it.  I will not take the time to explain that in this posting but most on the left and right, including my leftist Constitutional Law Professor agreed.  However, the Supreme Court of the United States has made mistakes before and corrected them and its high time they start scaling back the scope of authority justified under the Commerce Clause.

The regulation of health care has been done by the states for the past 200 years.  Furthermore, Congress cannot constitutionally order us to do eat or to take our vitamins, they are both beneficial to ourselves and sometimes to those around us, but that is outside the scope of their authority, just like ordering us to purchase health care insurance.  The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has held that the most private of all conversations are the conversations between a patient and physician and between a client and attorney, yet the Health Care law recently signed by President Obama (POTUS) violates that privacy by requiring physicians to share that information with Federal bureaucrats, and allowing those bureaucrats to direct the physician how to administer care to the patients!

Congress can't run the Post Office or Amtrak, it has bankrupted Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  Can our Congress be entrusted to run our health care system?  Of course not.

It seems our current Congress most of all, and past ones, even Republican ones, recognizes no limits to its power or authority.  This is absolutely 180 degrees out of sync with the foundational philosophy which gave rise to our system of government and our Constitution.

If you are of the political mindset that the Constitution means whatever the people, or Congress, the President or the courts say it does -- that it can be molded to meet the times I ask you one question.  What then ARE their limits?

Tom