ARTICLE 1 SECTION 8

The Congress shall have the Power to lay and collect Taxes … to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.


We hear this phrase spoken often by people to defend basic social safety net programs like Social Security.  What you don't hear is that there are 17 specific things that follow this often quoted portion of the Constitution.  Things like; To establish Post Offices and Post Roads. Or this one; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces. Does this mean that the Founding Fathers would not have wanted the government to fund an Air Force? Or is that covered under; To promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

One thing is certain, it is not a great argument to quote "The Congress shall have the power" phrase. My 13 year old daughter told me it was like I said "The cats white socks are dirty brown like his fur." Then she yells, "Look he is so stupid he said, "The cats white", clearly the cat is a dirty brown."Her interpretation was that the Congress could impose taxes for the good of the Government but not for the good of the Individual. I then asked her why the government could help itself but it could not help one of its citizens? She asked me Who decides what helps a citizen? Then said, and I quote,"One mans help is another mans hell."

The question becomes What is the General Welfare? Does Social Security make people more well off? If  people were told at a very young age that they had to save money for retirement because the government was not going to help them when they got older would they be better off? Does the Department of Energy make your life any better?Does the Department of Education make us all smarter? Does Homeland Security makes us safer? If you say yes to any of them, than do you have to say yes to all of them?

Should these agencies have been a States Rights issue as many 10th Amendment supporters have argued?  Article I, section 8, grants the Congress only 18 powers. Nothing for education, or retirement security, or health care: Those responsibilities were left to the states or to the people, as the Tenth Amendment makes clear.What can we do about it now 70 years later? The Federal Government has made promises to its citizens that it likely won't be able to keep. Many states have financial problems of their own. What are the people to make of all this? Will we gut our national defense to pay for these Health Care benefits? Article 1 Section 8 says that Congress will provide for the common Defence. Perhaps, as my daughter contends, the Constitution was written and ratified by the states to start and limit the government created through it.