[quote=markmax33] There’s isn’t that much allowed in Article 1 section 8 really.
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We have a basic disagreement here. This is the beginning and end of Art. 1, Sec. 8:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
snip
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Those two sentences, in conjunction with each other, appear to grant Congress broad powers. I know RP claims that the “general welfare” clause doesn’t mean what the courts have said it means. The problem is that since Madison v. Marbury, the Supreme Court is the final word on what the Constitution means. And beteween the decisions affirming the powers of congress related to both the “general welfare” and commerce clauses, he’s pretty much stuck. He can’t undue what’s been done, and despite your belief that stare decisis shouldn’t have much influence, it does.
No apologies, but both politics and democracy are messy. They are not for the faint of heart.
