Animal Farm

Have you ever run into that lefty loser that claims they understand the Constitution, then tell you that the “general welfare” clause was placed there to take care of the poor and down trodden? I even convinced one moron on the original intent, and he came back with, “the Constitution is a living, breathing document and it changes with the new definition of the words”.

The Preamble -
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense 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.

Article 1, Section 8 -
The Congress shall have 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; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

The “general welfare” clause is the most abused portion of the Constitution since 1937. It has been used to empower Congress with unconstitutional “Powers” to tax ‘We The People’ and spend to their hearts content for the “general welfare”. It’s now an endless cycle, because to stay in power, our Reps and Senators promise to bring home the bacon. When they do, we continue to vote for them. What? You thought this was how it was supposed to be?

To know the meaning of “general welfare” in the Constitution, you have to know the definition and the history of usage (etymology).

Let’s look up welfare at Dictionary.com

wel-fare
-noun
1. the good fortune, health, happiness, prosperity, etc., of a person, group, or organization; well-being: to look after a child’s welfare; the physical or moral welfare of society.
2. welfare work.
3. financial or other assistance to an individual or family from a city, state, or national government: Thousands of jobless people in this city would starve if it weren’t for welfare.
4. (initial capital letter) Informal. a governmental agency that provides funds and aid to people in need, esp. those unable to work.
-Idiom
5. on welfare, receiving financial aid from the government or from a private organization because of hardship and need.

Word Origin & History
O.E. wel faran “condition of being or doing well,” from wel (see well (adv.)) + faran “get along” (see fare (v.)). Cf. O.N. velferð. Meaning “social concern for the well-being of children, the unemployed, etc.” is first attested 1904. Welfare state is recorded from 1941.

The definition of “welfare” in 1787, the year of the drafting of the Constitution, meant you had health, wealth and happiness. Almost 40 years after the Constitutions drafting, Noah Webster 1828 Edition still used this definition.

http://1828.mshaffer.com/

WEL’FARE, noun [well and fare, a good going; German wohlfahrt; Dutch welvaart; Swedish valfart; Danish velfoerd.]

1. 1. Exemption from misfortune, sickness, calamity or evil; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; prosperity; happiness; applied to persons.
2. Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government; applied to states.

The Constitution was written clearly as applies to states.

The Oxford English Dictionary claims the first instance of its use in the sense social effort to improve the well-being of the poor is from the November 1904 issue of Century Magazine: “The welfare manager, who may be either a man or a woman, is a recognized intermediary between the employers and employees of mercantile houses and manufacturing plants.”

The 1904 and Revised 1913 Merriam-Webster Dictionary took this change, which in essence removed the distinction of “applied to persons” and “applied to states” from it’s meaning.

1904 edition:

Welfare, n. [Well + fare to go, to proceed, to happen.] Well-doing or well being in any respect; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; exemption from any evil or calamity; prosperity; happiness.

Webster’s 1913 Revised Unabridged Dictionary:

Wel”fare’, n. [Well + fare to go, to proceed, to happen.] Well-doing or well being in any respect; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; exemption from any evil or calamity; prosperity; happiness.

http://1913.mshaffer.com/

http://machaut.uchicago.edu/websters

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ARTFL/forms_unrest/webster.form.html

In 1929 the stock market crashed. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into office in 1933, he saw a chink in the Constitution’s armor. “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, it was planned that way.” The country was in a depression and FDR asked for “powers similar to those necessary in time of war”. Half written and poorly crafted legislation was rammed through a compliant 73RD Congress. Everything FDR asked for was given to him, with little or no debate. Sound familiar?

In 1935 the legislation reached the Supreme Court for review, and a year and a half later the court decided on ten major cases. Eight out of the ten went in favor of the United States Constitution and against the FDRs new deal. FDR declared war on the Supreme Court.

The Roosevelt administration was confirmed with the Democratic Congressional win in November 1936. FDR attempted to reorganize the Judiciary to fulfill his agenda. The “Revolution of 1937″ had started. The President proposed that each Justice over the age of 70 was to be appointed a new Justice to “help wit their case loads”. The threat was to pack the court so as to get the rest of his agenda passed.

The Supreme Court might lose it’s role as “Guardian of the Constitution”. They decided to take the wind from the sails of the President’s court packing plan and declare the social security cases Steward Machine Co. v. Davis (301 us 548, May 24, 1937) Constitutional. This decision said Congress could tax and spend for anything; so long as it was for “general welfare.” It played right into FDRs game.

The words “General Welfare” in the enumerated powers of Article I Section 8 were never intended to be an object for extension of the power to tax and spend until the case noted above. FDR made the Constitution worth more as toilet paper.

Until 1937 the Congress of the United States conducted its business within the boundaries of enumerated powers granted under Article I Section 8 of the United States Constitution.
Anything not set down in the enumerated powers was considered outside the purview of the national government and hence, a matter for the states according to the Tenth Amendment.

The court said:

The purge of nation-wide calamity that began in 1929 has taught us many lessons. Not the least is the solidarity of interests that may once have seemed to be divided. …Spreading from state to state, unemployment is an ill not particular but general, which may be checked, if Congress so determines, by the resources of the nation. If this can have been doubtful until now, our ruling today in the case of the Steward Machine Co., supra, has set the doubt at rest. But the ill is all one or at least not greatly different whether men are thrown out of work because there is no longer work to do or because the disabilities of age make them incapable of doing it. Rescue becomes necessary irrespective of the cause. The hope behind this statute is to save men and women from the rigors of the poor house as well as from the haunting fear that such a lot awaits them when journey’s end is near.

When money is spent to promote the general welfare, the concept of welfare or the opposite is shaped by Congress, not the states. So the concept be not arbitrary, the locality must yield.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/socsec/course/readings/301us619.htm

As a politician, to be in power you must bring home the bacon in the name of “General Welfare.” It’s a vicious, endless circle.

So now you have more ammo to wage verbal warfare with the lefty losers, but I warn you… when you baffle them with the facts, they babble and blubber. Most likely you’ll not get them to see the truth, but it’s fun to watch them dodder in their drool.

Resources:

http://www.constitution.org/tax/us-ic/schiff/ss_swindle.htm

http://constitutionalawareness.org/genwelf.html

http://www.patriotsaints.com/Branches/Nevada/Henderson/Christopher_Hansen.htm

http://www.sovereignfellowship.com/tos/13.1/

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