Doesn't federal law trump state law? I'm just asking a question, not hijacking c4. We have a wolf problem in minnesota but the state is powerless to manage them because the feds put the wolves on the endangered list. How is this different?
The federal government has no powers enumerated to it other than that which is itemized in the constitution. All other powers are afforded to the states. Since the federal government can find no power under the constitution to mandate that American citizens buy anything, they are over reaching their power and that is unconstitutional. Section 8 (Powers of Congress) of the constitution has no provision for this level of power, reach and mandate of the federal government. Further, the Tenth amendment to the constitution reads as follows “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"
In the case of the endangered species act, there is no violation of personal/individual constitutional freedoms. However, in my opinion, the federal government has no real constitutional authority to mandate any state to follow these species acts. What the feds do is if a state violates federal law, they typically hold back on federal funding to that state. So most states fall in line since they need the money that was stolen from their residents by the federal government in the form of federal taxes to begin with.
To your question, the only differance is that the health care issue is a personal freedom issue were the species acts are just Washington jamming its stupid laws down the states throats but individual freedoms are not at stake.