[JRandomFreeper]

The founders didn't view the interstate commerce clause as blanket authority to regulate every possible thing bought and sold.

I prefer the more restricted federal government that the founders tried to give us.

You may want more of a nanny state.

/johnny

[Rockingham]

The degree and particulars of federal regulation of commerce between the states under the Commerce Clause is open to debate on policy grounds. What is NOT open to debate is that the federal government has that power.

As to the policy issues, in most cases, when marketing a product on a national scale, businesses prefer to deal with one federal regulator with one standard instead of fifty state regulators with different standards. Indeed, the states themselves usually prefer to let the federal government bear the expense of the research and administrative effort that is needed to regulate consumer products.

Moreover, in the wide sweep of history, the federal Commerce Clause power helped to create the vast national marketplace that is one of the great strengths of the American economy. Again, even if that power is sometimes ill-used, that does not mean that it is always ill-used. And, on the merits, I think that a good hard look at triclosan is in order.