Promoting The General Welfare

The term “promote the general welfare” has been used (successfully) to justify creation of a welfare state and the constant march toward socialism we see accelerating today.  But, what does “promote the general welfare” really mean?  Let us analyze…

The phrase comes from Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution. Article I, Section 8 is that part of our Constitution that enumerates the Powers of Congress. The actual words are part of the sentence: “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;”

It is very clear to me that the above wording refers to the welfare of the country as a whole, not to any specific individuals within it.  I bolster my contention with the words of James Madison, the acknowledged Father of the Constitution:

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

If the gentleman who inspired, indeed who actually wrote much of the Constitution understands it that way, who are we to argue the point?  Yet the point is argued and the argument has resulted in the interpretation of the opening sentence of Section 8 as a mandate to seize and redistribute wealth.

It has long been recognized that the right to one’s own property is one of the cornerstones of freedom.  And there can be no doubt that wealth is property.

Why are property rights so essential to freedom?  Simple.  Our freedom rests on a platform of free enterprise.  Free markets if you prefer that term.  And free markets involve risk.  Risk in the form of investments.  Investments used to build and expand “production engines” – those activities that provide the goods and services that allow us the free lifestyle we enjoy.

So, ask yourself how anyone could afford to make investments, taking the attendant risks, if they were not secure in the rights to their own property?  Why ever would anyone save money with the aim of starting or expanding a business or other entrepreneurial activity if there were a real threat that their saving might, at any moment, be seized, under threat of force, and given to another?  The obvious answer is that most would not.

With only this simple analysis to go on, is it hard to see that the best way to provide for the… general Welfare of the United States is to fiercely protect the free enterprise system upon which our general welfare rests?  Is it not obvious that, a welfare state does anything but provide for the general welfare?  Thus, are Congress and the Executive not in outright violation of the US Constitution when they knowingly move us towards a welfare (socialist) state?  Is the US Supreme Court not remiss in its duty and its oath when it does nothing to hold Congress and the Executive to operating within the Constitution?

The truth is that all three branches of our government routinely ignore the Constitution they are vowed to uphold and protect.  This being the case, what allegiance do we owe such a government?  I love my country and what it once stood for — but I detest what our government has become and what it is doing to my country.

Get angry and stop putting up with it!

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