James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," explained in excrutiating detail that the "general welfare clause" did not grant the federal government authority outside the 17 enumerated powers. Numerous of his writings, including Federalist 41, prove it.
Here's the ammo to use when people claim the "general welfare clause" gives the federal government the authority to do whatever it damn well pleases. It's well-documented that the states that voted for the adoption of the Constitution did not accept that interpretation, but believed they were instituting a government of very limited powers.For the first 150 years of our history, the Congress of the United States conducted its business within the boundaries of seventeen enumerated powers granted under Article I Section 8 of the United States Constitution, and the general welfare clause was understood to be "a reference to the other powers enumerated in the subsequent clauses of the same section." It wasn't until the case of United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936) 2that the Supreme Court decided that a restrictive interpretation placed such substantive limits on the federal government that a broader interpretation was needed to support the massive expansion of the state that Roosevelt's New Deal required.
Hijacking The General Welfare Clause
http://tirelessagorist.blogspot.com/...re-clause.html
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