There Aren’t 19 Enumerated Powers

Currently in the United States, there are too many politicians in Washington, DC, pretending to be representatives who believe the General Welfare clause gives them power to do nearly anything. They have molested the General Welfare clause and made it something that it’s not. The General Welfare clause is part of the founding fathers’ mission statement. It is not nor has it ever been a power of the Congress. That’s why it appears where it does in the Constitution—the preamble (no, it’s not in the Declaration of Independence Rachel Maddow).

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It’s amazes me so many politicians go to Washington and abuse these two words—general welfare. The thing is, they don’t even have to do much research into what the purpose of these words are. Senator Claire McCaskill, who continues to use the general welfare clause to justify her votes to expand federal babysitting programs like welfare and national healthcare only has to go to Wikipedia. In less time than it takes McCaskill to tweet her nonsense, she could have the preamble explained to her in the Internet’s cheesiest resource tool, Wikipedia.

Here’s what Wikipedia says:

The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a brief introductory statement of the fundamental purposes and guiding principles that the Constitution is meant to serve. In general terms it states, and courts have referred to it as reliable evidence of, the Founding Fathers’ intentions regarding the Constitution’s meaning and what they hoped it would achieve.

That’s it. It describes the role of the Constitution—not the role of Congress. That’s found in Article I of the Constitution. In Article One, there are 18 enumerated powers handed to Congress. Guess what? Providing general welfare is not in there. Deep down inside you know the members of Congress know this, but they think we are stupid and can’t possibly know what that great document known as the Constitution contains. No one reads anymore, or so they think.

When you look at the preamble, there are functions that are provided to the branches of government. One of the powers of Congress is to declare war; therefore, they were given part of the responsibility to provide defense to the states. If the founding fathers wanted a welfare system, don’t you think they would have given Congress those rights in the 18 enumerated powers and turned them into the 19 enumerated powers? Of course they would.

Look at Article II of the Constitution, there is defense listed once again. The President serves as the commander and chief of the armed services. He however wasn’t given the power to serve as the commander and chief of national babysitting services for the states. There is no power granted to the President to promote general welfare.

Too many of these same politicians think the word promote means provide. They are two different words with two different meanings. Our federal government—all three branches are guilty of molesting the Constitution with the general welfare clause.

The Constitution is the only mechanism in government that promotes the general welfare of the people. It does this by limiting the powers of the federal government so states can be sovereign countries brought together as United States with the agreement the federal government provides defense and rules in interstate commerce disputes. It’s really that simple. Unfortunately politicians like Claire McCaskill are power hungry and greedy, and they trample the Constitution every day with their adulterous beliefs towards the Constitution and their lack of knowledge concerning its origins.

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

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