What did our founders really mean when they said “general welfare”?

[rightwinger]

Your kind will not change America. You are as bad as the commies and the nazies.

MAGA

 

[Woodznutz]

We the People get to decide how they are doing

True, and they're not doing very good in the most important areas; health, wealth, and safety.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

MAGA

MAGA

 

[Concerned American]

I am embracing the meaning of the words and how they are used.

America does not used your definitions and understanding.

Your kind will not change America. You are as bad as the commies and the nazies.

There it is, when a democrat is left with no argument, they invariably resort to ad homs and empty insults that clearly have no bearing on anything. BTW, Merriam Webster, and the Oxford dictionary are not my definitions and they aren't ARTIFICIALLY derived from some collection human programmed and biased circuits. Try again.

 

[Harry Dresden]

General Welfare means do what is best for the country

It can mean build a bridge, build a school, help old people, help veterans, subsidize farmers, protect the steel industry……even help poor people

It means do what needs doing

well you said "They think “welfare” means Government aid".....thats what it is....

 

[rightwinger]

well you said "They think “welfare” means Government aid".....thats what it is....

It can mean personal aid……like we give to the poor, disabled, students, military, elderly, farmers…..

But it is much more. It can be aid in terms of roads, harbors, communications, water systems, power grids and many, many other things the government does

General Welfare

 

[80zephyr]

Your definition supports that which the alt, far, and maga right are attacking.

Really? In what way?

 

[HikerGuy83]

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In the 1770s, "general welfare" generally meant the well-being and prosperity of the nation as a whole, encompassing the health, safety, morals, and peace of its people. It emphasized the duty of the government to act in the best interests of all citizens, not just a select few or even a majority at the expense of a minority. This included striving to promote the health, happiness, and prosperity of all members of society, and it was a widely accepted concept that all governments had a duty to do so.

All as applied to the enumerated functions of the federal government..

Never anything like health care.

 

[Concerned American]

Never anything like health care.

Or feeding them or housing them. At some point, personal responsibility has to be enforced.

 

[HikerGuy83]

You do not accept the general definitions of those words.

Here you are, you ignorant ass.

This from the man who put those words in the Constitution as found in Federalist #45.

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.

******************

So no "General Function to provide anything". They had few powers and as, Madison, explained, they had full capability (as he defined general welfare) to accomplish those limited powers.

 

[HikerGuy83]

I am embracing the meaning of the words and how they are used.

America does not used your definitions and understanding.

Your kind will not change America. You are as bad as the commies and the nazies.

It did until the criminal FDR appointed loser judges to the SCOTUS.

More knowledge for you super silly mind:

According to James Madison, “the most important and fundamental question” he ever addressed was the meaning of and relation between the general welfare clause and the enumeration of particular powers. This question is the most “fundamental” because the answer determines the very “idea” or “nature” of the U.S. Constitution. Commentators virtually agree on the answer Madison proposed and defended in Federalist 41, namely, that the general welfare clause is neither a statement of ends nor a substantive grant of power. It is a mere “synonym” for the enumeration of particular powers, which are limited and wholly define its content. From this answer, it follows that the primary meaning of the national dimension of the federal Constitution is limited government, understood as a government with a limited number of powers or means. The thesis of this essay, however, is that, contrary to the commentators' claims, Madison argued that the clause was a substantive grant of power for the generally stated end and that the primary purpose of the ensuing enumeration was to define more particularly the ends alluded to by the phrase “general welfare.” Hence, the meaning of the general constitutional government in the American federal system is a government oriented to a limited number of limited ends.

https://academic.oup.com/publius/article-abstract/22/2/109/1886268

 

[HikerGuy83]

Madison wrote the term into the Constitution.

He didn't expect the king men to twist it the way they did (and the way the assholes of today use it to justfiy their free stuff from Nancy Pelos).

He was quite clear in the role of the constitution before it was ratified and the country followed that (despite John Marshall).

 

[rightwinger]

All as applied to the enumerated functions of the federal government..

Never anything like health care.

Not really
Applied to anything that needs to be done

VA healthcare has been around for 80 years
Medicare and Medicaid 60 years

Why didn’t you sue?

 

[EvilCat Breath]

EOur founders understood that future generations would have different priorities than their own.

That's why Benjamin Franklin predicted that the people would become so corrupted as to prefer a corrupt government.

 

[rightwinger]

That's why Benjamin Franklin predicted that the people would become so corrupted as to prefer a corrupt government.

Sounds like he predicted the election of Trump
What would he have thought of electing a felon?

 

[Harry Dresden]

Sounds like he predicted the election of Trump
What would he have thought of electing a felon?

im sure he would have let everyone know if a president was mentally unable to run the country instead of covering it up...

 

[Etymology gaslight]

If you voted for Trump there’s a good chance you’re a lot like me with regard to why....I voted for him on two policies almost exclusively...First and foremost on how he would deal with illegal Mexicans and the border and second on how he would yank lowlifes off the Democrat induced welfare plantation.
Anyhoo, as we approach the point where welfare reform will be visited I ask for your opinions on EXACTLY what you think our founders meant when they used the phrase “GENERAL WELFARE” in the constitution?

Attention all Smartest Guys In The Room, and legal scholars:
Please spare us the case citations such as the U.S. vs Butler case and the like. I’m interested in YOUR opinions.

Pretty sure they were talking about black lives matter and other marxist
Thugs

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

There it is, when a democrat is left with no argument, they invariably resort to ad homs and empty insults that clearly have no bearing on anything. BTW, Merriam Webster, and the Oxford dictionary are not my definitions and they aren't ARTIFICIALLY derived from some collection human programmed and biased circuits. Try again.

There it is: MAGA gaslighting, accusing me of doing what he is.

The AI definitions are the same as Merriam Webster, etc.

No, C A Muttonhead, you don't get your own definitions.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Sounds like he predicted the election of Trump
What would he have thought of electing a felon?

All his friends were felons and traitors.

 

[rightwinger]

All his friends were felons and traitors.

American Patriots
Franklins own son supported the King and Franklin disowned him