The power to lay taxes IS an enumerated power. Providing for the general Welfare is NOT.
“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 creator.”
“If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare,
they may take the care of religion into their own hands; [they did one step better, they have established themselves as a religion] they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress…. Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.” ~James Madison
Madison is saying that general welfare does not give the government the authority over every area of life, but only those specific powers listed or enumerated in the Constitution.
It has been urged and echoed, that the 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,” amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.
Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it… For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power? Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars… But what would have been thought of that assembly, if, attaching themselves to these general expressions, and disregarding the specifications which ascertain and limit their import, they had exercised an unlimited power of providing for the common defense and general welfare? (Federalists #41) ~Alexander Hamilton
The argument he makes is that the general welfare clause gives the government unquestionable ability to do what it wants as long as it is in the general welfare, good for everyone. He even disagrees with himself sometimes as he was the author of many Federalist Papers:
The only qualification of the generality of the Phrase in question, which seems to be admissible, is this–That the object to which an appropriation of money is to be made be General and not local; its operation extending in fact, or by possibility, throughout the Union, and not being confined to a particular spot.
No objection ought to arise to this construction from a supposition that it would imply a power to do whatever else should appear to Congress conducive to the General Welfare. A power to appropriate money with this latitude which is granted too in express terms would not carry a power to do any other thing, not authorized in the constitution, either expressly or by fair implication. ~Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was arguing that the general welfare phrase only applies to the powers authorize to Congress in the Constitution. Again we see the founders had a clear view of this phrase even when they seem to contradict themselves.
Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated. They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.
It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, 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, [good v. evil = religion] it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please…. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.
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. ~Thomas Jefferson
The people who say we don’t know what the Founders meant about any particular phrase in the Constitution are just plain wrong, because they fail to do their research about the matter.
I did not read the thread but whoever agrees with the above I agree with them.
Presently the gubmint has well established itself as a religion, and while the courts do not write law they have the power to construct and deconstruct it outside the purview of the people, and later the guns to enforce those decisions on the people despite those who do not agree.
No where in the constitution are we to expect that we must give up our rights to appease some agenda of democracy outside their legitimate jurisdiction 'commerce'.
Warning lights are flashing down at Quality Control Somebody threw a spanner and they threw him in the hole There's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town Somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down There's a meeting in the boardroom they're trying to trace the smell There's leaking in the washroom there's a sneak in personnel Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze 'goodness me could this be Industrial Disease?
The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post They're refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most The watchdog's got rabies the foreman's got fleas And everyone's concerned about Industrial Disease
There's panic on the switchboard tongues are ties in knots Some come out in sympathy some come out in spots Some blame the management some the employees And everybody knows it's the Industrial Disease
The work force is disgusted downs tools and walks
Innocence is injured experience just talks Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees That these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'
On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse Philosophy is useless theology is worse
History boils over there's an economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean 'Industrial Disease'
Doctor Parkinson declared 'I'm not surprised to see you here You've got smokers cough from smoking, brewer's droop from drinking beer I don't know how you came to get the Betty Davis knees But worst of all young man you've got Industrial Disease'
He wrote me a prescription he said 'you are depressed But I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest Come back and see me later - next patient please Send in another victim of Industrial Disease'
I go down to Speaker's Corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong
There's a protest singer singing a protest song - he says 'they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to keep their factories They wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese They wanna have a war to stop Industrial Disease
They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind They wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind They give you Rule Brittania, gassy beer, page three Two weeks in Espana and Sunday striptease' Meanwhile the first Jesus says 'I'd cure it soon Abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons' The other one's on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets Industrial Disease
Since I am on a roll why stop there huh?
The Courts and the Commerce Clause: Obliterating Original Intent
by D.T. Armentano, Mises.org
Article one Section 8 of the U S Constitution states that the “congress shall have the power to regulate commerce among the several states.” [which means between the states] This so-called “commerce clause” is the legal bedrock for all federal regulation of business activity that crosses state lines. Every piece of federal economic regulation from the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) to all of the 1930s New Deal securities and banking law has been rationalized (made “constitutional”) by reference to the commerce clause.
In Wickard v. Filburn (1942) , the Supreme Court expanded the original interpretation of the commerce clause to cover intrastate economic activity that was said to “affect” interstate commerce. Wickard grew wheat for his own consumption but the court reasoned that the wheat locally consumed could, theoretically, [purely a overlord court invention] have been sold in interstate commerce; so when Wickard “withdrew” that wheat and consumed it, output and prices in interstate commerce were affected.
Hence the Feds could regulate locally grown wheat and the legislation that prescribed that was constitutional. The “logic” of Wickard obliterated two original and important constitutional principles, namely (1) that the states can regulate their own commerce, not the Feds and (2) that the federal Constitution embodies only limited and clearly enumerated powers.
Wickard substantiated the notion that the Feds could now regulate ANY economic activity (with little resistance from individuals or the states) since almost ANY good or service produced and consumed locally could, at least theoretically, affect interstate commerce.
We have all lived in a post-Wickard regulatory world ever since. So in some sense, the medical marijuana case decided June 6th, 2005 (Gonzales v Raich, et al..) in favor of the government (6-3) was an easy slam dunk (see also S. Kinsella’s post on the topic).
Reich and the other defendants in California grew marijuana for their own consumption but the majority asserted, following Wickard, that such private activity “affected” interstate commerce and, thus, could be regulated (prohibited) by the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), regardless of California state law which allowed (with supervision) such activity. If you don’t like the decision, the majority suggested, get the votes and attempt to change the federal drug laws.
There are many problems with the majority opinion written by Justice Stevens. The most obvious is the continued acceptance of the logic of Wickard. As Justice Thomas argues in his brilliant dissent, if growing 6 marijuana plants on your own property for your own consumption is “economic activity” that can “affect” interstate commerce, then there is absolutely nothing under the economic sun (including pot luck dinners) that cannot be regulated by the federal congress. But, clearly, that was not the intent of the framers of the Constitution.
The courts have long destroyed the constitution in the name of commercialized CORPORATE statism the true american religion and exemplifies the inherent problem when any country under any name as a supreme king or a supreme court and demonstrates their hypocrisy when they take actions against the people, and the people can do nothing about it as they are bombarded with these types of rulings on a near daily basis.
First the legislature does not consider themselves under any obligation to produce law in 'strict' conformance with the constitution.
They have staff attorneys that decide if any law they want to pass can somehow be constructed to get it through the courts, the true king ruler of this country.
It takes one quick court case for them to misconstrue, misrepresent, or otherwise violate the contract and its PAID IN FULL with PUBLIC MONEY and the ONLY way to change or correct it it is though an act of congress, and there are no provisions provided to the people to even get it up for a vote where it falls right back in their laps to violate it again.
Worse anyone who disagrees is forced to PAY OUT OF POCKET with PRIVATE FUNDS.
The whole fucking arrangement is government by RICO and designed to prejudice any dissent from the people.
sad state of affairs