Month: April 2010

You may have seen or heard recently any of a number of politicians justifying actions taken by government by citing the general welfare clause of the Constitution. It may surprise many to find out that there is no such clause in the Constitution.

“Whaaaaaa????”, you may say. “B-b-but I memorized the preamble and it is most definitely in there” Sorry but you are wrong. Let’s get down to it and learn here and now that the preamble is not legally binding as it is merely an introduction to the finest political document ever penned. If one goes by the preamble, which may be the only part of the Constitution they ever read in school, then they could be led to believe that any of the three branches of government in the United States could be responsible for any of the things written in the preamble. Such a situation would clearly be incredibly confusing and contradictory to the system of checks and balances that was actually established. Using anything in the preamble as justification for government action is clearly not the way our government was established. Although with executive orders, signing statements and Courts using case law and outright activism, the original checks and balances are currently very useless. Regardless of that, the original situation was definitely not one in which a branch of government could pick their favorite part of the preamble and force anything they want on the people willy nilly.

Now for those who can read and have made it to Article 1 Section 8, you may think, “Aha, it has the words ‘general welfare’ in there”. Indeed it does. But it is NOT saying that the government can force citizens to pay for goods and services for other people. It is NOT establishing a system for government to give money away to the citizens of the nation. “Well that is your opinion”, I hear a non-critically thinking voice cry out. The line that has the phrase “general welfare” in it is the line that gives congress the power to tax. If you understand the Constitution then you know that it was established to limit government power and split it up among many different people to keep others in check. The powers of these branches of government were enumerated and given some specific limitations. To further clarify things, at the end of the Bill of Rights we have, of course, the tenth amendment; which says that if a power was not given to the federal government then it is left up to states or individuals. With this limiting purpose in mind let us return to Section 8:

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;

This line is not a “general welfare clause” but rather is a taxation clause. Let’s put on our thinking caps here and really dive in. “Lay and collect taxes, duties imposts and excises” OK I got that part, Congress can tax me. But why? Oh I see, to pay debts (listed second in section 8), have an army/navy or provide for the common defense (listed 12th and 13th in section 8), and general welfare of the United States. With your thinking cap on tight, go for it. You know the answer. No, OK, first of all, it says “of the United States” not “of the citizens of the United States” or “the people”. This is made more clear when someone goes where they have never gone before and reads the rest of the Constitution and they find that there are more references to “the United States” clearly distinguished from “the States” or “the people”. These taxes are not supposed to be collected and used for the general welfare of “the people” but for the general welfare of the “United States” which is a nation. Of course the people will benefit from having national debts paid and having defense but that is not the focus of the enumerated power here in section 8. The end product of having that line written is to say that congress can raise funds through taxes which they will use to take care of their enumerated powers. If you do not agree with that, go read the “Federalist Papers” and find some of the writings of James Madison the Father of the Constitution. Reading such with your thinking cap on should clear that up for you nicely.

Another item to note is that if “general welfare” can be stretched over anything that can be construed as good for our nation, then this one line about taxes inadvertently grants congress all powers of government, thus destroying any checks or balances that may have ever existed. If it is good for the country then congress has power over it. Such “general” terms as “good” and “welfare” (which meant “well-being” in 1789) are relative terms and can be viewed differently in the eyes of different people. This wide-open language gives politicians and the power hungry, plenty of room to work in whatever they want regardless of its relation to the intent of the Constitution. This goes against the whole point of the Constitutional system of limited government with checks and balances. To view the words “general welfare” as granting additional powers besides the power actually being enumerated is to destroy the Constitution.

“Oh now there he is again hating on people. Some people just don’t have insurance and are dying because they don’t have it and you want them to die”, I hear that silly voice crying out again. Wow, for those who still do not get it, wow. First off, no one has ever died because they did not have insurance, ever, in the history of humans. “Oh sweet Aetna come save me, I don’t have any premiums.” People die from disease, bodily malfunctions, accidents, violence or old age. Those are your only options. Not having insurance does not kill you. If you are unlucky enough to have such things happen to you and you require the goods and services provided in the health care industry then insurance might have been a good purchase, but there are ways around not having it. Personally, I was struck ill a few years back and thought I was dying. I was uninsured as I was a college student and didn’t qualify for the oh-so-helpful government programs and I was rejected by private insurance a few months earlier because I get “white-coat hypertension”. I went to the emergency room and incurred thousands of dollars in bills which I, of course, could not pay. The hospital had a charitable donation program that they qualified me for after reviewing some information. For the rest of my life now, I am going to donate to hospital charity programs. Oh what’s that I hear, the non-critically thinking, silly voice doesn’t give much to others? Well if we all chipped in and took care of each other we would do a much better job than anyone in Washington D.C. could do. Last year I had a friend who had been fighting cancer for a while. In fact, I never knew him at a point when he was cancer free. I and several other people donated time, talents and other material possessions to try to lighten the burden on our friend and his wife. He died exactly a year ago today. Our giving and receiving of contributions made us all better people. And people coming together to help one another is the real system that will make our country and even our health care industry better. It is not just pie in the sky either, try it out.

In addition to charity amongst the citizens of our nation there are other ways that are allowed under our Constitution. Take for example the state of Massachusetts. They have a big expensive and deficit bloating health care program all their own. Well guess what, it is perfectly Constitutional. Oh my, who would have ever imagined that a government run health care program could be Constitutional? If it is run by a state or local government, it fits perfectly well with the Constitution and the tenth amendment. The central federal government will not be the solution to any of our problems. In fact, to quote the great Reagan:

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?”

If we can just learn and apply good principles then we will govern ourselves. So many in our society now look to someone else to help others and those who seek power and control (maybe not even for bad reasons) are perfectly willing to be given more power to be in charge of something we should be doing ourselves. It is when we disregard what we know we should be doing for those around us that we have need of masters and there are plenty who will use any reason to be your master.

To sum it up, there is no “general welfare clause” but rather a tax clause with the word “welfare” in it. To apply the term “general welfare” to government health care and retirement plans is to stretch that one line to points of being completely absurd and so all-encompassing as to grant all government power to one branch. There are ways that small groups of people or even larger groups of people such as cities or states can work out such problems without destroying the Constitution and I might add, such things should be tried out as long as they do not put said groups under the bondage of debt. Lastly, just give. Seriously, give. Find people who need your help and give it to them. They are all around you and sometimes find you, but most times don’t. If the government hadn’t taken as much money as they did you might be able to give more, but for now give your time or anything else you can give. Just don’t give more power to control our lives to someone else. If we keep moving the line in the sand, then what is the point of the line?

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UPDATE:
I must post this video here as it was my inspiration for this.

Wow, chairman of the judiciary committee. We are in huge trouble.

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