Whole heartedly agree with your last paragraph but the top three statements are rendered moot by the passage and ratification of the 16th Amendment.
If a bad idea is passed, ratified and in the Constitution, it’s in there. Actions done on it’s basis are by definition Constitutional because it’s in the Constitution.
"Whole heartedly agree with your last paragraph but the top three statements are rendered moot by the passage and ratification of the 16th Amendment."
I respectfully disagree that 16th Amendment (16A) does anything other than to facilitate Congress's limited power to appropriate taxes.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
Please consider that it's actually politically correct interpretations of 16A that are used to try to justify the unconstitutionally big federal government.
For example, it's been pointed out concerning unconstitutional (imo) Obamacare, that the misguided Roberts Court seemingly "overlooked" (blatantly ignored?) that the Supreme Court had historically repeatedly clarified that the states have never expressly constitutionally given the feds the specific power to dictate, regulate, tax and spend in the name of INTRAstate healthcare. This is evidence by excerpts shown in the last part of this post which are from the writings of respected constitutional experts, including Supreme Court justices, who had emphasized that the federal government has no express constitutional authority to dictate intrastate healthcare policy.
Regarding what people claim that 16A does or does not do in the context of today's unconstitutional, unaccountable federal taxing and spending, the following excerpt from Linder v. United States (Linder) shows the following. The Supreme Court continued to clarify that the states have obviously never expressly constitutionally given the feds the specific power to dictate, regulate, tax and spend in the name of INTRAstate healthcare regardless of 16A.
"16th Amendment: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." —Ratified 1913.
“Direct control of medical practice in the states is obviously beyond the power of Congress [emphases added].” –Linder v. United States, 1925.
Pelosi: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." (non-FR; 6 sec.)
No constitutionally enumerated power to establish national healthcare:
"10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
"Many are the exercises of power reserved to the States wherein a uniformity of proceeding would be advantageous to all. Such are quarantines, health laws [emphasis added], regulations of the press, banking institutions, training militia, etc., etc." —Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1807.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added]” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
"They form a portion of that immense mass of legislation, which embrace every thing in the territory of a state not surrendered to the general government. Inspection laws, quarantine laws, and health laws [emphasis added], as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a state, and others, which respect roads, fences, &c. are component parts of state legislation, resulting from the residuary powers of state sovereignty. No direct power over these is given to congress, and consequently they remain subject to state legislation, though they may be controlled by congress, when they interfere with their acknowledged powers." —Justice Joseph Story, Article I, Section 10, Clause 2, 1833.
“Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every description [emphasis added], as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a state and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c., are component parts of this mass.” —Justice Barbour, New York v. Miln., 1837.
From the congressional record, clarification by Rep. John Bingham, the main author of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment:
”Simply this, that the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen, under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Constitution, is in the States and not in the federal government [emphases added]. I have sought to effect no change in that respect in the Constitution of the country.” —John Bingham, Congressional. Globe. 1866, page 1292 (see top half of third column)
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.
“Direct control of medical practice in the states is obviously beyond the power of Congress [emphases added].” –Linder v. United States, 1925.
The definition of insanity is reelecting your beloved career state and federal lawmakers and executives over and over again, expecting those same government “leaders” to find remedies for unconstitutional government policies every time.