The Lopez case (1995) makes that less likely.
Or did you mean the Welfare Clause? I made that mistake myself, not long ago. Several high-ranking Dems have already tried to cite the Welfare Clause as authority for the Fed to get involved in Health Care.
But the Welfare Clause says nothing of the kind. In full context, it says that the Fed has authority to collect taxes, and to spend them to provide for defense and "the general welfare".
But when the Constitution was written, there were two kinds of "welfare" recognized: "General welfare", which meant the well-being and prosperity of all Americans equally, and "local welfare", which meant well-being and prosperity of isolated groups or individuals over others.
The Framers had long arguments over what the "Welfare Clause" they had just included into the Constitution, meant. They had written the Constitution with the idea that it created the Fed govt, and asigned it its powers; and that the Fed had only the powers it listed and no others. Some said that the "Welfare Clause" meant Congress could spend money on programs that benefitted all Americans equally, even if those programs weren't specifically named elsewhere in the Constitution. As such, the "Welfare Clause" slightly expanded the power of the Fed govt beyond the powers specifically listed. Others said that the "Welfare Clause" did NOT add any powers beyond those already listed.
But neither group of Framers, said that it added the power to run programs that benefitted only some Americans (such as Health care). They all agreed that it did not. 150 years later, the Supreme Court decided that the former group was correct: the Welfare Clause gave Congress the power to spend tax money on programs that benefitted all Americans equally, even if they weren't specifically listed in the Constitution... but not programs that benefitted only certain groups.
The "Welfare Clause" is actually a restriction on the Federal govt, prohibiting it from running things like Health Care (only benefits people who don't have insurance), as well as Social Security, OSHA, Welfare, etc. It is one of the more-violated parts of the Constitution. But thankfully, with the increasing abuse by big-government fanatics, normal people are finally starting to notice that.
