Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: the first clause reads, "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States..." (My emphasis added).[
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We also find the phrase "general welfare" in the Preamble to the Constitution: "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."[
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Debate Topic: These two sections of the US Constitution seem to give Congress the power to legislate based on anything they deem to be "the general welfare." Does Congress have this power?
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My response:
James Madison had said, the "general welfare" does not give Congress the power "to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare."[
3] Madison is quoted:
"With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." [4]
When Madison says "qualified by the detail of powers connected with them," he means that Congress has a specific set of powers delegated to it by the Constitution (found in Article I, Section 8).
Therefore, any clause in the Constitution which seems to describe how Congress SHOULD use its power, must be justified by how Congress CAN use its power.
Thomas Jefferson wrote of the dangers of misinterpreting the words "general welfare" in the Constitution in 1791. Jefferson warned the danger was "that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please."[
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So what does "the general welfare" mean? In simplest terms, it means that the powers the government has can not be used to favor special interest groups. This article sums it up nicely:
"There were to be no privileged individuals or groups in society. Neither minorities nor the majority was to be favored. Rather, the Constitution would promote the “general welfare” by ensuring a free society where free, self-responsible individuals - rich and poor, bankers and shopkeepers, employers and employees, farmers and blacksmiths - would enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence."[6]
This is what I believe the "general welfare" was intended to mean. It does NOT write Congress a blank check. What are your thoughts?