On General Welfare

Let's make it simple. Who could believe that the Founders could have POSSIBLY meant, no matter how we try to prove it by their written words ....that they were advocating and implementing INCREASED controls by a Authority (federal govt)?

These, who fought and (many) died in order to remove the shackles of just such an 'authority'? It stretches belief to think so.

Their actions and lives prove that their every intent was to Unite the states by Federal power in order to present a united front to the rest of the world but in NO way become another 'monarchy' against either the individuals of a state or the states themselves.

The 'general welfare' clause has simply been lifted out of context (with history and common sense) in order that SOME might control the few with micro-management insanity. Their motive? Nothing more spectacular than a easier life, respect, power and wealth - by controlling the business and wealth of the people rather than protecting it. Which is their only justifiable purpose.

Exactly. If the government could do anything they wanted under the "general welfare" clause, there would be no need for the enumerated powers. And yes, progressive taxation is illegal.

@Everitt - That's why they had to ammend the constitutuion.

Blogged about the recent TRX radio episode 15 "Unlimited Submission to Washington D.C.?" at http://missouritenth.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/god-or-washington-d-c/

http://williamdbailey.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/the-general-welfare-clause-explained-by-the-framers-of-the-constitution/

Pretty much makes "progressive" taxation illegal and 'tax the rich" doesn't it?

Excellent and very educational article. I think the key to reading the Constitution ins like reading Scripture. It must be taken in context. Since the Constitution limits in almost every way the role and power of the Federal government, an interpretation of this clause must be one which most severely limits the power of our government.

Add this reading as well

the recipient of 'the general welfare' is the various STATES of the union, not the citizens of the states.

Why would they list all the things congress could do in section 8 if "general welfare" is a blank check? Because GW is not a blank check; it mearly says that they must act in the welfare of the several states generally - not any one state, region, group or person - within the scope of those enumerated powers..

But, don't they have the generals and give out the welfare?

There is a big difference between "general welfare" and "the general welfare". That "the" is probably the most overlooked article in the Constitution!

To think - an entire ideology based on a rhetorical flourish.

Very true the elitists existed then as they do now as some of our founders were sure they had opposition and moved in secret as to not be caught for being in opposition to the elitist king of that time by defining A Republic that totally excluded them, to be independent of such a tyrannical abusive Government or Monarchy.

Read the Pre Declaration of Independence before alterations with opposition in the very same room. It declared specifically which group of Elitists to be weary of which no one still today will speak of and these statements were forced to be removed to keep their secrets alive only because of the sure lack of agreement for such a Republic against such tyranny, to stand against openly verses secret which was forced by forceful.

But I swear to you as I sit here if you apply these terms of A Republic into the Constitution a very clear picture emerges. But it is the most resisted, by so many who only wish they were living such a Republic right now. But our own ignorance stagnates our own brilliance.

Investigate the Declaration of Independence thoroughly and start to see the deceptions before your eyes. No better document was written and written in a way as to obscure from such an opposition in tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson and a few others were master minds as well experienced by such tyranny, they had the tools to see the truth and know full well what we were up against. We have yet to get how brilliant they actually were. When I personally spotted it I could not believe my eyes because it has been right before us the entire time. But we have the same odds now as our founders also had.The enormous ignorance of the masses by the constant bombardment of lies and distractions has left us all weak and hard to find agreement to reason and good terms we are certain of.

It all comes down to the lack of specificity in the Constitution which I suspect was on purpose. The wealthy elite, and the bankers wanted to leave things open so as to create the current corporatist regime we see today in the Federal government. If they'd simply been specific about everything to the point of having the Constitution be an extremely huge document, then there wouldn't have been any openings for the corrupt corporatist banking cronies to take over the government. They should have also made the document simple to understand at the same time. Something that a kid could understand so as to enlighten the ignorant masses who vote all the corrupt weasels into office.

I have a very simple philosophy for interpreting the Constitution, and it is really just a short summary of the points made by Mr. Palmer.

The Constitution was intended to limit the power of the federal government. This is evidenced by the restricted list of powers delegated to the federal government and ensconced by the Tenth Amendment.

Any interpretation of the Constitution that tends to increase the power of the federal government ought to be viewed with much suspicion if not outright disallowed.

Also, a distinction needs to be made between clauses -- specific enumerations of powers -- and statements of purpose, such as "promote the general welfare."

It is all too clear that over the course of our history that interpreters of the Constitution have ignored this simple philosophy.

I am baffled by some of the statements made by some here and see it differently entirely.

Article 1, section 8 clause one of the US constitution.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
which refers to Congress shall have the authority to lay and collect taxes, duties, impost and excise, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and General Welfare of the UNITED STATES ( A REPUBLIC!!!) The general welfare of A Republic is the HEALTH of a Republic to continue to exist and GROW, to be allowed, not to be controlled by despotic Governments what so ever. The General health is all of those supporting such a Republic, it does not MEAN ALL! It means those who support the United states of American as A REPUBLIC!!! The common defence is the defence of such a Republic agreed to by STATES who are UNITED as IN STATES by such agreement. It says that all states agreeing to such a Republic will be equally responsible for the support of such a defence and welfare HEALTH of this REPUBLIC!!!

Congress shall base its decisions on the oath of this constitutional Republic and if they are not they have become tyrannical or you did not read and understand at all our Declaration of Independence I assure you.

So may have forgotten why any of this was determined in the very first place, we have forgotten our most basic principals and the direction of life we wish to lead. We became independent as a Republic and our choices are based upon this reasoning or we are done as one.

The only reason there is interpretation is because there is no FOUNDATION in which to stand upon, this Foundation is our Republic and the parts of this whole which resides within it in order to determine what is right for such a Republic. So let me remind you of these very important parts and principals from which we decide and they are; ALL LIFE which chooses such A Republic, LIBERTY Free From any Despotic Governments or poor authority that does actions against such a Republic and which totally allows this 3rd very important essential, The Pursuits of our Happiness, to be allowed to achieve without restrictions and false authority in OUR WAY!!! Or poor control away from our Republic. These are all inclusive and leave nothing out and if one principal is left out the rest will die along with A Republic at all. SEEN ONE AS OF LATE??? !!!!! NO! WHY? Ask yourself and what your foundation is? See anything missing? Get what has gone wrong?

Believe me when I tell you I am done with the tip toeing around the truths of our nation and the poor interpretations by the lack of the basic essentials in order to achieve right from the get go.

Our constitution lacks real authority by the principals that are supposed to reside within each and everyone of us choosing such A Republic. It is time for a mirror and a restructure of self and bad education practices that are not producing the desired results my friends and fellow life. Review you and not all others and what they are not doing, what is it you are not doing to serve and deliver such a Republic? The failure is completely ours should we even be willing to look. You have now been served with the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God, now can you take it and do something with it?

YOU DECIDE!

It seems that "the general welfare of the United States" is also explicit when viewed in context as to the intent of enumerated and limited powers. When viewed from the Tenth Amendment especially, it seems that the "United States" means the government, or the Tenth Amendment would not make sense, since it explicitly states that all powers not granted to the federal government remains with the States and the People.

It certain does appear however, that event the judicial branch has chosen to interpret the Constitution rather than simply abide by its true intent. It starts with the words, "We the People," indicating who is speaking in the form of the Constitution.

Great piece but please understand that it was Hamilton who first started this idea of unlimited power under the “General Welfare” clause with his 1791 Report on Manufacturers. Madison's floor speech was amazing on this exact topic. They defeated it in the house and then included the 10th Amendment in the upcoming Bill of Rights to make their decision last the test of time.....Jason Patrick Sager, FL Member

More from Thomas Jefferson"

"This phrase,... by a mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a claim of universal power. For in the phrase, 'to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide for the general welfare,' it is a mere question of syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed by the first or are distinct and coordinate powers; a question unequivocally decided by the exact definition of powers immediately following." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1817. ME 15:133

"Although the power to regulate commerce does not give a power to build piers, wharves, open ports, clear the beds of rivers, dig canals, build warehouses, build manufacturing machines, set up manufactories, cultivate the earth, to all of which the power would go if it went to the first, yet a power to provide and maintain a navy is a power to provide receptacles for it, and places to cover and preserve it." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1802. ME 10:337

"While we pursue, then, the construction of the Legislature, that the repairing and erecting lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and piers, is authorized as belonging to the regulation of commerce, we must take care not to go ahead of them and strain the meaning of the terms still further to the clearing out the channels of all the rivers, etc., of the United States. The removing a sunken vessel is not the repairing of a pier." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:379

"I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the States, necessary [for certain objects of public improvement], because the objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied." --Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806. ME 3:424

"The interests of commerce place the principal object [i.e., a western exploring expedition] within the constitutional powers and care of Congress, and that it should incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of our own continent, can not but be an additional gratification." --Thomas Jefferson: Confidential Message on Western Exploration, 1803. ME 3:493

I think the best answers come from Thomas Jefferson:

I say... to the opinion of those who consider the grant of the treaty-making power as boundless: If it is, then we have no Constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the definitions of the powers which that instrument gives." --Thomas Jefferson to Wilson Nicholas, 1803. ME 10:419

"To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, "to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare." For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on National Bank, 1791. ME 3:147

"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please... Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on National Bank, 1791. ME 3:148

"It is an established rule of construction where a phrase will bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which would render all the others useless." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on National Bank, 1791. ME 3:148
"The general rule, in the construction of instruments, [is] to leave no words merely useless, for which any rational meaning can be found." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on the Tonnage Payable, 1791. ME 3:290
"For authority to apply the surplus [of taxes] to objects of improvement, an amendment of the Constitution would have been necessary." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:354

"For authority to apply the surplus [of taxes] to objects of improvement, an amendment of the Constitution would have been necessary." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:354
"[If] it [were] assumed that the general government has a right to exercise all powers which may be for the 'general welfare,' that [would include] all the legitimate powers of government, since no government has a legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792. ME 8:397

"Our tenet ever was... that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated, and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action; consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise money." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1817. ME 15:133

"Congress are authorized to defend the nation. Ships are necessary for defence; copper is necessary for ships; mines necessary for copper; a company necessary to work mines; and who can doubt this reasoning who has ever played at 'This is the House that Jack built?' Under such a process of filiation of necessities the sweeping clause makes clean work." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Livingston, 1800. ME 10:165

"If, wherever the Constitution assumes a single power out of many which belong to the same subject, we should consider it as assuming the whole, it would vest the General Government with a mass of powers never contemplated. On the contrary, the assumption of particular powers seems an exclusion of all not assumed." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1814. ME 14:83
"I hope our courts will never countenance the sweeping pretensions which have been set up under the words 'general defence and public welfare.' These words only express the motives which induced the Convention to give to the ordinary legislature certain specified powers which they enumerate, and which they thought might be trusted to the ordinary legislature, and not to give them the unspecified also; or why any specification? They could not be so awkward in language as to mean, as we say, 'all and some.' And should this construction prevail, all limits to the federal government are done away." --Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1815. ME 14:350

Lets assume that 'general welfare' means the welfare for the poor as so many leftist want to think. Under that thinking, the only taxation that is justifiable is taxes that provide for the poor. The next question is how do we fund the other powers of the federal government if the only taxation we can do is taxes that fund social programs for the poor?

The general welfare phrase, as it is used in the Constitution, can be traced to the Articles of Confederation. The third article stated:

“The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare...”

This article, which was in the nature of a preamble or introductory clause rather than a grant of power, stated that one of the objects of the union between the several States was their general welfare.

The general welfare phrase also appeared in the eighth article:

“All charges of war, and all other expences that shall be incurred for the common defence or general welfare and allowed by the united states in congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury...”

This provision granted “the united states, in congress assembled,” the power to pay various expenses out of a common treasury. The authority to defray money was the power while the common or general welfare of the States was one of the stated purposes of the power. Thus, the words “general welfare,” as used in the Articles of Confederation, was a statement of purpose, not an independent grant of power.

When the Founders wrote the present Constitution they copied these provisions from the Articles of Confederation and used them exactly the same way.

The preamble declares that one of the purposes of the Constitution is “to promote the general welfare of the United States” just like the Articles of Confederation. This is a statement purpose not a grant of power just like the Articles of Confederation.

The words also appear in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1. This provision grants Congress the power “[t]o lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.” The power to tax is the power granted by the Clause while the general welfare of the United States is the purpose of the power just like the Articles of Confederation.

As Steve stated, the general welfare is simply one of the stated purposes of the taxing power; it is not an independent grant of power just like the Articles of Confederation. Thus, Congress can tax for the general welfare of the United States but in cannot use this Clause to legislate for the general welfare generally.

From Thomas Jefferson:

"[T]he laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad llbltum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. "