Many of those defending a federal government takeover of the healthcare system have not paused to consider if doing so is even Constitutional. Some proponents, however, cite the “general welfare” clause in the preamble as license for this and virtually every social program that comes along. This is simply wrong, and it’s time to set the record straight.<\/p>\n
The preamble to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:<\/p>\n
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.<\/em><\/p>\n First and foremost, the preamble sets the stage for the Constitution and explains why it was written. The preamble does not define rights, responsibilities, or liberties.<\/p>\n Note the difference between PROVIDE and PROMOTE in the preamble. The founders used the word PROVIDE in reference to the common defense because the federal government would be playing a direct role in funding and control. The founders chose the word PROMOTE in reference to general welfare because they did not envision any such direct control.<\/p>\n Note also the use of the term GENERAL WELFARE. The word GENERAL suggests that government’s role will pertain to society as a whole, not select groups or individuals. In addition, the word WELFARE had a much different connotation when the Constitution was written than it does today. Welfare’s meaning was closer to “well being” at that time. WELFARE was not commonly used in the government context\u2014such as “the welfare state”\u2014until the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n The preamble simply states that part of the purpose of the Constitution is to foster a general well-being. How this might translate into specific activities is discussed in the text of the Constitution itself. In other words, the general welfare clause does not authorize any government activity whatsoever. End of story.<\/p>\n So the next time someone gives you the GENERAL WELFARE argument in support of healthcare “reform” or any social program, be sure to set him straight. You might also wish to ask him how a $12 trillion national debt is contributing to our effort “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many of those defending a federal government takeover of the healthcare system have not paused to consider if doing so is even Constitutional. Some proponents, however, cite the “general welfare” clause in the preamble as license for this and virtually every social program that comes along. This is simply wrong, and it’s time to set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}