My understanding is that general welfare benefits everyone, equally. That’s why it says, the common defense and general welfare. Food stamps, Medicare, and other similar entitlements are not general welfare, but specific or special welfare. That is not what I believe was the intent of the preamble.

Since you mentioned the preamble, I believe that what is even more misunderstood, and worse yet, deleted from most texts, is the preamble to the Bill of Rights. None of my children’s school books have had it. Private schools don’t usually teach it. I don’t think that most home schools teach it. More people need to be aware of it and its intent.

Jay

Davy Crockett served for nine years in Congress before he was killed at the Alamo in 1836. During the time of his congressional service, there was a fire in Georgetown, which he and many other Congressmen helped to put out. The next day, Congress voted to appropriate $20,000 for the victims who had their homes destroyed. Crockett voted for it but was soon afterward scolded by one of his constituents (Horatio Bunce) for using other people’s money as charity. He challenged Crockett to find where in the constitution Congress was allowed to do this and Crockett admitted he could not find it. He returned to Congress and was faced with another similar situation of giving a substantial sum of money to a widow of a distinguished naval officer who had just died. Crockett took the floor with these remarks:

“Mr. Speaker, I have as much…sympathy as…any man in the House, but Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money….Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.” Edward S. Ellis, The life of Colonel David Crockett…(Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1884), pp. 138-39.

The bill was defeated, but none of the Congressmen took Crockett up on his offer. This story reminds me so much of this incident.

Hi Carissa,

I’ve been a follower of Ron Paul since 1988 but I had never heard that story about him. Thank you so much! It was great and it reinforces to me what a principled man he is.

Jay

I think that “USA” ought to stand for “United Socialist America,” just so there’s no confusion……;-)

Maybe we can think this way. If today’s Governments have so many problems, maybe it would be best if we just had individual self governance. Meaning with no central government and the only government that is, is yourself. Or, the Common Man helping the Common Man. Think about it , do you really need someone else, other than your concience telling you what to do, when, where and how? Why can’t we ALL live as common human beings that get along with each other. Bam! no boarders, nationalities, flags, nor one being better than the other. I kind of see that concept as the political Kingdom of God on Earth. Isn’t the Kingdom of God a Government? Does this Kingdom have boarders or anything else that separates each other from another? If not, what in the world is the Kingdom of God? Or is it a Kingdom that everyone judges everyone and strict laws are enforced, like going to jail because one drank coffee or got a tatoo? Please someone explain to me how the Kingdom of God is going to be, compared to any Government or Institution that we have upon this Earth.

Actually the Kingdom of God is a totalitarian dictatorship, in which the vote of one singular being overrules the vote of all others. Abrahamic mythologies aren’t exactly democratic or based on the idea of balance and limitations of powers of government. Have you ever taken a look at the forms of government in ancient Israel, the late Roman Empire, or Europe during the Dark Ages…?

> Why can’t we ALL live as common human beings that get along with each other.

Now that sounds communist…

I love how he can’t even remember the words of the Preamble.

I mean, come on. I may not remember every chapter & verse (excuse me, Article & Section) but at least I remember the words of the Preamble.

I find it disappointing, absurd, & downright (let me check my thesaurus) perverse that those who have taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution should have this much difficulty with what should be known to grammar school children.

And we’re supposed to accept that not only do they represent us, but the intent of the Constitution?

Under your argument then it would be necessary to outlaw all guns that were not around when the constitution was signed. If you go back and look at what the authors of the constitution meant when they wrote it, you would see that they didn’t intend that everyone carry a gun with them everywhere they went and that they were referring to muskets. Also, they clearly state that it is for the forming of a militia as a necessity for the security of a free state.

Actually I am with MSNBC guy who is not Keith Olbermann here. The Tenth Amendment does not contradict or cancel out the rights given to Congress by Article One. The Tenth just doesn’t apply to issues such as healthcare if you consider them general welfare, which I think is reasonable to do, considering you don’t generally fare well when you’re gravely ill.

From what went before what is clear to me that he meant when he said “the Tenth is a bunch of baloney” is that the “Tenthers’” interpretation of it to justify making the government go social Darwinist on people’s butts and ignore their general welfare is baloney.

Actually that was very considerate to provide the context in which it was said, because on its own and misinterpreted it could have been a rather disagreeable statement…

Also if “general welfare” applies only to the government, not to the people, as per your interpretation, does that go for the common defense as well, mentioned in the same article? Would it not matter if individual Americans were killed, and enslaved by invaders if only the government itself is safe and sound…?

Sounds very Vichy France to me, if you ask me…

General welfare applies not to the government, but to the nation it governs.

Isn’t that a bit “the collective is everything, the individual is nothing” communist-like? By which standards would you gauge whether the nation is faring well even though its individual citizens may suffer?

But be that as it may, I think you can make an argument for healthcare and social programs even if you take only the general state of the union into account. All the other developed countries have better systems of providing for their citizens in that manner, and they’re not ailing because of it but prosper rather well, actually, and have done so for decades.

I mean, I’m German and we have a trade surplus over here, meaning me make more stuff than we consume, even though we have insanely generous labor laws, social laws, and healthcare provisions by your standards. We haven’t been going bankrupt because of them yet and we certainly wouldn’t want to switch with you.

So even from the “general welfare is for the faceless, abstract nation as a whole only” point of view it would make sense for the government to become more empathetic and giving. It seems to pay off. I mean, the New Deal resulted in decades of unprecedented prosperity for you. Then you got Reaganomics and Bushonomics and conservatism light under Clinton and Neoconservatism, and look where you are today…!

Great post. I’d like to link to this from my own blog. Conservatives need to be well-versed in what the founders actually said and why. We can win on the basis of reason

Excellent post on the oft misunderstood and very misapplied “general welfare clause”.

I wish they would still teach Constitutional history in high school. As a society, we have forgotten the our nation’s founding document and the provisions (and founders’ intents) thereof. This blind spot in our national education has led us into many of the problems we face today, including the harm to individual rights and freedoms. We have naively watched as government continues to stray further and further from constitutional constraints.

Nice post. I ran across it while researching “general welfare” for my blog. You may be interested since I have linked it to yours.

I realize that the constitution establishes that the federal government pays the salaries of the senators and representatives; however a change to the constitution could shift this to the states. Health care and retirement could also shift to the states. I think it something the voters across the nation would support and once and for all they would know who they really work for!

#19 Glenna, I am for anything that cuts back on the amount of money that we have to cough up into the federal coffers. While we are amending the Constitution, I suggest that we also repeal the amendment that changed selection of senators to a popular vote. Originally, senators were chosen by state governments, a process that prevented the federal legislature from being the product totally of the “dictatorship of the majority.”

You might be interested in my recent post, “The Folly of Political Myopia,” which appears on my blog, and which you can access by clicking on my name.

Liberal’s strategy: Universal healthcare is a 10-step process. The passing of this bill is the first step. Thus, I don’t care if this bill is acceptable because it is “watered-down.” Don’t give those liberals one inch. They think they are helping the poor, but they’re just stroking their own ego with this bill.

Those liberals will never understand this truth by Thomas Jefferson:

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
– By Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816

In reply to bbart76 #10,

“We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles. The constitutions of most of our States assert, that ALL POWER IS INHERENT IN THE PEOPLE; THAT THEY MAY EXERCISE IT BY THEMSELVES, IN ALL CASES to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; THAT IT IS THEIR RIGHT AND DUTY TO BE AT ALL TIMES ARMED.” –Thomas Jefferson

hello? Article one, section eight. Congress was not only given the power to secure funds for this purpose, but such power for “the general welfare of the united states” is specified in… Artile one, section eight. If one is going to blog about the constiution, please… at least READ it.

Richard,

Did you read the post, before accusing the author of having not read the Constitution?

Yes, actually the whole blog entry is about the article you claim it ignores. That is not its weakness and perversion. Its problem lies in the attempt of loftily, philosophically redefining “general welfare” in a social Darwinist and collectivist manner, ignoring pragmatism and historical evidence that a country tends not to do well unless its people do well, because desperate, destitute people, who feel things are not going their way at all based on established rules and values, tend to try anything new, including rather destructive, cultist forms of government.

It’s the same kind of blog entry that would have found a way of explaining how equality under the law does not apply to slaves, back in the day, and accusing Abolitionists as being horribly misguided forces of evil.

Thanks Connor for dissecting the founders’ intentions concerning the “General Welfare” provision in the Constitution.

Our forefathers didn’t want the United States to become a Nanny state, which it now is and may become even more entrenched if this healthcare bill passes.

Our forefathers referred to the “general welfare” of the United States as a nation, not for individuals.

That is why they changed the “Life, liberty and happiness” clause to “Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” They felt they cannot nor would they guarantee happiness, only that America provided the opportunity to pursue happiness. It was left up to the individual to obtain happiness.

This nation is the land of opportunity to people of ambition and industriousness.

Americans are a charitable people and have always privately taken care of those in need.

You are aware, I hope, that it would have been impossible for a gigantic, underpopulated colony such as the ones in America to ever be a nanny state — particularly with the technology available in the late Eighteenth century.

Giving people enormous freedom to acquire property and fend for themselves reflected the physical reality at the time. Taking possession of something didn’t necessarily mean that you had to take it away from someone — at least once the natives were declared eminent domain on.

But the more the continent fills up, the more resources are depleted, and the more population levels are reached resembling those of fertile areas of other parts of the world, the more the people who used to be pioneers in the olden days become thieves in today’s conditions.

So whatever the Founding Fathers may or may not have intended, you can’t seriously expect them to have foreseen what their country would look like over 200 years in the future, in which someone down on his luck can’t just move to another plot of land and start over. Heck, even the Industrial Revolution of a hundred years later changed conditions dramatically.

There is a reason why Europe and other developed countries, while adopting many American principles of freedom and democracy, never abandoned responsibility for people’s welfare completely. And there’s a reason why, now that the US has become a net importer of many vital resources, they’re doing better today.

Ideological purity may have great power of persuasion, but ultimately it is fitness that determines survival, and it isn’t just many American individuals who choose to live unhealthy and wasteful out of a feeling of exceptionalist entitlement. It’s also the nation as a whole not taking care of itself by not taking care of its people.

You’re no longer a young nation, and you can’t just shrug off as trivial those economic heart attacks that you’re getting by trying to live the same way that you did in your country’s youth…