Yes, providing for the general welfare is a general power not a specific power.
No, it is *NOT* a general power. It is limited to the specific powers given.
The General Welfare clause means you can't make a policy that benefits one group of citizens at the expense of all others. Medicaid, unemployment comp, welfare, and so on, are all in violation of the General Welfare Clause.
Yes, the general welfare clause is a general power; it is as general as providing for the common defense and paying the debts.
"Congress has
not unlimited powers to provide for
the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated" - Thomas Jefferson.
There is nothing 'general' about it. It is specific, and defined.
Yes, providing for the general welfare is a specifically enumerated, general power in much the same manner as providing for the common Defense and paying the Debts. If, the other two powers are general powers, then so too must be the third.
No. It is not. "general welfare" is not an enumerated power. The General Welfare, was a LIMITATION. The Enumerated power in question was the ability to Tax and Spend. The General Welfare, was a limitation on the enumerated power.
James Madison wrote this in 1817.
James Madison Veto of federal public works bill March 3 1817
In this letter to Congress, by then president Madison, he is considering a bill to tax the public, and pay for public works, which includes water ways, roads, and other construction.
Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements," and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the
Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.
So Madison is saying that the bill violates the Constitution, and thus he will object and return it back to the House.
Why?
The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the
Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers.
So apparently general welfare is not itself, an enumerated power, or he would not have said this.
To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for common defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the
Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust.
Well what do you know? So to claim that general welfare was an open power, would in fact completely undermine the entire purpose of having 'defined and limited' powers, which was the purpose of the constitution.
So.... what have we learned? General welfare is not an enumerated power. Madison said it wasn't, and he helped write the constitution.
The General Welfare is not a power, it's a limitation. It was to prevent government from taxing different groups at different rates (like you have to have health insurance, or you pay higher tax), and prevent them from giving out money to specific groups over others (like you are poor, so here's free health care at everyone else's expense).
