“The Congress shall have Power
....
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nation, and among the several States
....
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
....
—And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers”
Congress has the power to grant patents. Yes?
Even on drugs?
What if the drugs are life-saving and people can’t afford them?
Can Congress indirectly subsidize the purchase of these drugs under the “necessary and proper” power?
Regarding the Supreme Court case excerpts in previous post, if corrupt Congress wasn't stealing dollars from taxpayers' wallets by means of trillions of dollars of unconstitutonal federal taxes, consider that citizens might be able to afford the life-saving drugs that they need.
Can Congress indirectly subsidize the purchase of these drugs under the “necessary and proper” power?"
Since the corrupt feds are effectively stealing trillions of dollars in state revenues by means of unconstitutional federal taxes, the states, not the feds, can subsidize such drugs.
Regarding the necessary and proper clause, again, previous generations of state sovereignty-respecting justices had clarified that the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for INTRAstate healthcare purposes.
But also consider that there is nothing stopping the states from amending the Constitution to give the feds the specific power to regulate, tax and spend in the name of intrastate healthcare.
In fact, former Rep. Jessie Jackson Jr. had repeatedly proposed a healthcare amendement to the Constitution long before Obamacare was wrongly established outside the framework of the Constitution.
"Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the right of citizens of the United States to health care of equal high quality." —H. J. Res. 30.
So former Speaker Pelosi blatantly ignored Sen. Jackson’s proposal for a constitutional healthcare amendment before ramming Obamacare through the House. If Congress had successfully petitioned the states for a healthcare amendment to the Constitution before establishing unconstitutional Obamacare, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
In fact, while I will gladly vote for Trump for president, while I don’t know the details about Trumpcare, he should probably be promoting a healthcare amendment on the campaign trail so that he can establish Trumpcare. Trumpcare is possibly justifiable under the Commerce Clause (1.8.3) but I don’t know.