The Constitution has fatal flaws. The "general welfare clause" and its equally twisted sibling: the "(interstate) commerce clause", have become the goose that lays the golden egg, for government at least. But that egg gets cracked open while government keeps the gold shell and dumps the radioactive yolk on the denizens of America.
Most people have noticed that government uses those two "clauses" to get away with any new violation of individual rights that they dream up. A favorite use is overriding more reasonable local "laws" that are not in line with the federal government's agenda. Notice the uproar over medical marijuana laws and the firearms freedom acts recently in the news.
It has been argued that the way those clauses are misused is not in line with "original intent", so we shouldn't blame the founders or the Constitution. Maybe, but does it matter anymore?
If a burglar steals your bread knife and uses it to cut off the head of someone in the next house he invades, do you say that he can keep the knife but that he just needs to only use it to slice bread from now on? No, you take the knife from him and shoot him if he resists. So it is with the misused clauses.
These clauses have become like machine guns in the hands of drunk and angry teenagers with knowledge of where to steal all the ammo they could ever want, while the local population is disarmed, bound, and gagged by the teens' parents. The difference is that these teens and their parents are worshiped by a large percentage of the population and these "tools" they wield have been misused, more so than any real gun has ever been, leaving a legacy of massive socialism and the resultant death, destruction, and economic ruin.
These clauses need to be taken away now, permanently, and restitution from the pockets of individual government employees should be made to all injured parties.
Comments
Agreed that these clauses are the source of much misery for the decent, who can scarcely believe how far some will twist them. But for my money, the real problem is the "closed loop" which renders the state accountable only unto itself. If you acknowledge the legitimacy of its charter document (a discussion unto itself), then Uncle Sam has the power to make its own laws, enforce its own laws and interpret its own laws.
Given THAT, is it any wonder that Master's courts seem to have a very strict reading of the USC when considering the matter of rights of individuals, but a sweepingly expansive reading of the same document when considering the matter of powers of the state? Any wonder that Master's enforcers seem to consider themselves above the law and those "checks and balances" that are supposed to protect us? Any wonder that legislators seem to consider it their job to continually dream up new business for their brother branches?
Appalling, yes--but also 100% inevitable.
The general welfare clause is misunderstood (widely, and I would say deliberately). It is, in fact, meant to be a limitation on the power to tax - to tax not more than is consistent with the general welfare. The necessary and proper clause is another in this vein, as is the famously elastic "interstate commerce" clause.
But it is vanity to imagine that one could repair the republic by fixing up the constitution. The admonition that no state shall make any thing but gold and silver coins a tender in payment of debt is very clear, and has not been in use since 1933. I think Georgia is working on a bill to possibly put gold and silver into circulation. I suspect they'll face the fate of e-gold's Doug Jackson.
The constitution is based on the fatal flaws of the classical liberalism fallacy. Flaw one: consent was never involved. Those in power don't care if you consent. Flaw two: those in power aren't in it to protect your life, liberty, or property. They are in it to get your
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