@High Seas,
High Seas wrote:
Is this an argument analogous to United States v Lopez? Made perfect sense in that case.
As a general rule, so long as Congress places the necessary jurisdictional nexus language in the statute, the statute is constitutional under the commerce clause. After the Lopez court declared the Gun Free School Zones Act unconstitutional, Congress merely amended the Act and inserted the magic language (traveled in or otherwise affects interstate commerce) with respect to the firearm at issue -- and the statute was constitutional.
Congress, however, is not relying on the commerce clause. It's relying on the tax and spending
for the general welfare clause to enact healthcare reform legislation.
See, e.g., HELVERING v. DAVIS, 301 U.S. 619 (1937)
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/301/619.html
EXCERPT:
Quote:Congress may spend money in aid of the 'general welfare.' Constitution, art. 1, 8; United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1, 65 , 56 S. Ct. 312, 319, 102 A.L.R. 914. Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, supra. There have been great statesmen in our history who have stood for other views. We will not resurrect the contest. It is now settled by decision. United States v. Butler, supra. The conception of the spending power advocated by Hamilton and strongly reinforced by Story has prevailed over that of Madison, which has not been lacking in adherents. Yet difficulties are left when the power is conceded. The line must still be drawn between one welfare and another, between particular and general. Where this shall be placed cannot be known through a formula in advance of the event. There is a middle ground or certainly a penumbra in which discretion is at large. The discretion, however, is not confided to the courts. The discretion belongs to Congress, unless the choice is clearly wrong, a display of arbitrary power, not an exercise of judgment. This is now familiar law. [301 U.S. 619, 641] 'When such a contention comes here we naturally require a showing that by no reasonable possibility can the challenged legislation fall within the wide range of discretion permitted to the Congress.' United States v. Butler, supra, 297 U.S. 1 , at page 67, 56 S.Ct. 312, 320, 102 A.L.R. 914. Cf. Cincinnati Soap Co. v. United States, 301 U.S. 308 , 57 S.Ct. 764, 81 L.Ed. --, May 3, 1937; United States v. Realty Co., 163 U.S. 427, 440 , 16 S.Ct. 1120; Head Money Cases, 112 U.S. 580, 595 , 5 S.Ct. 247. Nor is the concept of the general welfare static. Needs that were narrow or parochial a century ago may be interwoven in our day with the well-being of the nation. What is critical or urgent changes with the times.
The purge of nation-wide calamity that began in 1929 has taught us many lessons. Not the least is the solidarity of interests that may once have seemed to be divided. Unemployment spreads from state to state, the hinterland now settled that in pioneer days gave an avenue of escape. Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398, 442 , 54 S.Ct. 231, 241, 88 A.L.R. 1481. Spreading from state to state, unemployment is an ill not particular but general, which may be checked, if Congress so determines, by the resources of the nation. If this can have been doubtful until now, our ruling today in the case of the Steward Machine Co., supra, has set the doubt at rest. But the ill is all one or at least not greatly different whether men are thrown out of work because there is no longer work to do or because the disabilities of age make them incapable of doing it. Rescue becomes necessary irrespective of the cause. The hope behind this statute is to save men and women from the rigors of the poor house as well as from the haunting fear that such a lot awaits them when journey's end is near.
