Posting 6
(With apologies to J. Duzarf)
To the readers:
One of the purposes for the Constitution of the United States is to “promote the General Welfare.” Alas, some interpret this as meaning that the United States is to “provide general welfare” to all its people. This writer is justifiably uneasy about such a reading.
According to Article 1, Section 8, Congress has the power to collect taxes and provide for the common defense and general welfare. At the time of its drafting, “welfare” was another word for “well-being.” And, of course, the government had a desire to promote the “well-being” of the nation by various means. The concern was for the health and safety of the citizens of this country. In the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, “general welfare” was defined as “exemption from any unusual evil or calamity, the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government.”
As is inevitable, there are disagreements as to what exactly constitutes “general welfare” today. And while the experts would certainly quibble over the scope of general well-being, there is no question (as this writer as argued many times) that the federal government has some obligation—by virtue of the fact that we are one nation—to promote the “well-being” of its citizens.
But are we then to suppose that Congress can spend unlimited money on anything it deems necessary for the “general welfare?” Inasmuch as the Constitution empowers Congress to enact taxes for such, and inasmuch as such taxes are incurred by “we the people,” it would seem prudent that caution and restraint are in order, lest the Congress cast off all restraint and fund grand programs that some of its citizenry neither wants nor needs.
Indeed, given that certain powers are reserved to the states, many state constitutions have their own, more specific, definitions of what it means to promote the well-being of its citizens. By remembering this, we allow the individual states to tend to their unique needs and leave the federal government responsible for promoting the general welfare of the country.
by Aplo