When asked where the constitutional authority was for healthcare mandates, Diane Feinstein said she “assumed” it was in the commerce clause

  When Diane Feinstein was asked, where in the constitution is the authority to mandate healthcare coverage, she responded that she “assumed it was in the commerce clause.”

Well, I would assume it would be in the Commerce clause of the Constitution. That’s how Congress legislates all kinds of various programs.

  She “assumes” but she does not “know.” She is making this up, she is either ignorant of the intent of the commerce clause or she just doesn’t give a damn about the constitution. Or both.

 She would be wrong in assuming that the commerce clause gives congress this authority, but right in stating that the commerce clause is how congress legislates various programs.

  The commerce clause does not grant congress the authority to mandate healthcare insurance, and while congress has certainly used this clause to institute various programs, they have done so using a liberal interpretation of this clause that was never the intended meaning of the clause.

  The commerce clause is one of the most abused clauses in all of the constitution, it has been interpretted in various extra-constitutional ways over the years to the point where it is all but meaningless in its original and narrow intent.

  When the constitution was being debated, it came at a time when the states were more powerful than the federal government. Each state had their own currency, were able to negotiate their own separate treaties with foreign nations, and were able to impose duties and tariffs on other states. In an effort to end all of these practices, the commerce clause was inserted into the constitution to standardize the currency, and the mode of trade between the different states with each other and with foreign nations. The commerce clause appears in the very same section of the constitution which laid out the very specific powers that the congress had.

  But over the years the commerce clause has been interpretted to promote liberal social and economic policies which were never granted in the constitution, so it is no wonder that liberals can so easily “assume” that the commerce clause gives them the power to do basically whatever the hell they want to do.