One must remember that the constitution was written many years ago and some of its words may have taken on some new and different meanings in the twenty-first century. But the time lag is no excuse for the term “General Welfare” being construed to relate to our present big government liberal welfare state, as Obama’s use of the phrase would indicate.
The words “General Welfare” were meant to serve the population at large and assure their liberty and prosperity. But Obama’s welfare state effectively imprisons the poorest among us and assures their total dependence on big government at the expense and loss of liberty and prosperity for not only those poorest citizens, but for the majority of the nation as well as they try to pay for the government-imposed dependence of the welfare class. In this context, everyone loses, but the poor lose the most because as dependence continues, and the government benefits get more lavish, the chance of becoming a fully functioning, prosperous, self-sufficient citizen begins to diminish, especially when succeeding generations of poor children are trapped in the government run public school system which everyone knows is failing badly to educate our young people.
Our nation has truly lost its way, and the press, which was given specific constitutional protection, assuming it would protect our freedom by impartially reporting on events and making the citizens aware of threats to our liberty, instead sides with, makes excuses for and defends the oppressor in the Oval Office and his liberal Democrat/progressive pals in the House and Senate.
Last night the Democrats had their first debate among the presidential candidates and the whole thing was one big enchilada of promised government handouts. From free college education, to single-payer health care, to the lie of climate change, to the breakup of banks that the government doesn’t like, to a big-government imposed minimum wage, to the dangerous distinction between “black lives matter” (but definitely don’t say “all lives matter”), the Democrats are full-blown fascist-communists and their multi-trillion dollar price tag assures the continued American decline if one of these fool idiots is elected president. The whole program was one give-away promise after another with each candidate one-upping the previous promiser, and no one asked how all of these promises were to be paid for, nor did they ask how a nation can pretend to be free when government issues new rules and regulations on a nearly daily basis as a new aggrieved, dependent class makes its demands.
One of the most repeated claims made by the Democrat candidates last night was that our prisons are too full and we need to incarcerate fewer people. The Dems may have a self-serving point in this regard: the liberal’s theft of tax-payer money and the related denial of the American dream of liberty and prosperity is a greater crime than any small-time crook could commit, so the Dems appear to be trying to make the argument that crooks like themselves should not go to jail for stealing our money through heavy taxation. But I think they should be behind bars right beside the guy who swiped granny’s purse, because the guy who steals property from an individual is not as great a criminal as the politician who legally steals liberty and prosperity from an entire nation. All of this scum should be breaking rocks while doing hard time.
The Federal government role, as defined in the Preamble of the Constitution, is to promote (not provide) for the general welfare.
Sure, in the Commerce Clause later in the Constitution, the Federal Government has the power to provide the general welfare. However, that’s like saying a bulldozer has the power to drive right thru your house if it wants. Normally, this would not be in the interests of the general welfare of your neighborhood to do so. Having the power doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be used all the time, rather only in exceptional circumstances like natural disasters.
However, politicians and burrOcrats and judges have found living within the common sense guidelines of the Preamble not to be compatible with their vision of controlling most everything that goes in in the nation. So they’ve purposefully ignored the Preamble in favor of pushing their own growth of power.
Another favorite common sense part of the Preamble politicians like to ignore is ‘preserve the blessings of liberty to our posterity (future generations)’. In other words, politicians shouldn’t be shackling future generations with mountains of debt to buy favors and votes from current generations. There is no need for a balance budget amendment — there’s already guidelines for how federal budgeting is supposed to work, at least as far as deficits go. According to the common sense of the Preamble, each generation should pay for it’s own way through life. Older generations should not be entitled to enslave future generations to pay for stuff they should have paid for or saved up for collectively and/or individually.
The Constitution without the Preamble’s guidance is like have a lawnmower without an instruction booklet. A lawnmower is not supposed to be lifted up and used to trim a hedge. Sure, it has the power to do that, but such a use is not it’s intended common sense purpose. Ignoring the common sense guidelines of the Preamble is the basic tool for much of the nonsense that has overtaken our nation in the last century.
A fix would seem simple — just have Congress pass a law and the President sign the law that the Preamble is indeed part of the Constitution and it’s role is to provide common sense guidance for how all the powers and law and actions of the Federal Government are done. Minimally, watching such legislation work it’s way thru Congress and the public would seem a worthy and instructional exercise of which side of the common sense fence folks of all sorts stand.