re we re from the government and we re here to help you in article apr isc br isc br com steveh thor isc br com steve hendricks writes in article apr infonode ingr com albeaj jima b d ingr com jim albea writes in article mar isc br isc br com steveh thor isc br com steve hendricks writes steve proposes a system of checking what other nations are in to as criteria for what our government should try i counter that the limits of the constitution might be a better place to check gee jim if you ll check the constitution you ll find in order to promote the general welfare do ordain and establish this constitution i m surprised you missed it it s right there in the first paragraph i would have thought you would have made it at least through the preamble you almost got it right and it was a good try but you should follow your own advice the preamble to the constitution does read as you have quoted but let us not forget that after all it is only the preamble it is not a binding part of the constitution and carries no weight in the law that poor tortured paragraph has got to be one of the most unfortunate passages in the english language witness the legions of blowhards like yourself who think those vague flowery phrases are part of the law of the land do you really believe that a politician only has to give lip service to promoting the general welfare to be within the limits of the constitution sorry buddy but some other blowhards managed to include the general welfare in another portion of the constitution article i section 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 i guess they wanted to make sure everyone understood they meant what they said in the preamble just to make sure you ve got the point let s do a little experiment what if the constitution read as follows preamble we the people to promote the general welfare do ordain and establish this constitution for the united states of america constitution the federal government shall have one function and one function only to provide for the defense of the nation the government would not then have two functions defense and welfare but since it explicitly includes both the general welfare and defense in article i section i guess you ll grant that botha are constitutional functions right steve i m glad to see that you abandoned the preamble thing what did you do a word search to find welfare somewhere else in the constitution my comments and paraphrases in brackets article i section in some ways the guts of the constitution the congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes duties imposts and excises to pay the debts indebtedness as defined in the document and provide for the common defence defence as precisely defined and general welfare as defined through the document mostly in ways that limit the government of the united states but the above taxes shall be uniform through out the u s so far the congress has been given the power to collect taxes uniformly then to borrow money to regulate commerce with foreign nations interstate and indian tribes to do uniform naturalization and bankruptcies to coin money regulate the value thereof and etc to punish counterfeiters to establish post offices and post roads to provide patents and copyrights to constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court to define and punish piracies and etc to declare war and etc to raise and support armies but for no longer than two years at a stretch to provide and maintain a navy notice no time limit on this one to make the rules for the army and navy to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws etc to provide for training of the army except for some state stuff to exercise exclusive legislation in d c to make all laws necessary to execute the foregoing powers your original instinct was right looking to other nations for precedents that support an expansive liberal agenda is much easier than looking to the slim pickins found in the constitution jim albea jwalbea jima b d ingr com
