Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Fwd: The Warfare Over General Welfare (Paul Jacob finds that reading the Constitution and considering what its drafters said at the time might lead to common sense interpretation)

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred B. Ellison <fbellison@yahoo.com>
To: MLC Google Group
<missourilibertycoalition@googlegroups.com<TYCOA@googlegroups.com>

January 6, 2011
The Warfare
Over General Welfare
Constitutionalists, flush with the attention being paid this very day
in the House of Representatives to the land's highest law, finally get
to hold their conversations outside of seminars and institutes.
Some pundits argue that Tea Party folks will be surprised by how much
power the Constitution gives the federal government. (Sure, I miss the
Articles of Confederation.)
 
But however much power Madison & Co. bestowed upon the Feds, there is a
limit. This comes as a shock to career politicians who envision
government as all things to all people, from world cop to tooth fairy.
 
They like to point to the Preamble of the Constitution which reads:
 
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."
 
Could this mean Congress can do anything it wants, if designed to help
people generally?
 
Yesterday, several Wall Street Journal readers cleared up any
misunderstandings.
 
Michael Hanselman of Maryland cited Thomas Jefferson's 1814 conviction
that "Congress had not unlimited powers . . . to provide for the
general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated."
 
Arnold Nelson of Chicago quoted from Federalist 41, where James
Madison, the Constitution's chief architect, decried an expansive view
of "general Welfare" as "a very fierce attack against the
Constitution." Mr. Nelson and Mr. Madison point to the 18 enumerated
powers in Section 8, which are the only powers Congress has to affect
the general welfare.
 
The intent? Clear. Today's reality? Much different.
 
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.


Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge
Foundation, which sponsors both Common Sense and Paul's weekly Townhall
Column. The opinions expressed in Common Sense are Paul Jacob's and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of Citizens in Charge or Citizens
in Charge Foundation.
 

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