James Bovard, a tireless foe of governmental folly, writes in this column about the history of that horrendous 1942 Supreme Court decision, Wickard v. Filburn. That case pushed the boundaries of federal power to regulate anything remotely connect to interstate commerce and now is the precedent that Obamacare supporters hope will save it.
Federal intervention in the market for wheat set the stage for the regulatory scheme meant to increase prices by driving down production. Bovard notes the similarity between the political meddling in the wheat market that supposedly made it necessary for the feds to punish anyone who grew too much, and the political meddling in the market for health insurance that supposedly makes it necessary for the feds now to add thousands of new pages of statute and regulations.
