http://www.fee.org/articles/tgif/the-goal-is-freedom-the-constitution-or-liberty/ Home to freedom and prosperity, and free-market education for over 50 years Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:58:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.fee.org/articles/tgif/the-goal-is-freedom-the-constitution-or-liberty/comment-page-1/#comment-12591 Was the Constitution Really Meant to Constrain the Government? | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:58:17 +0000 http://fee.org/uncategorized/the-goal-is-freedom-the-constitution-or-liberty/#comment-12591 [...] Take the pesky General Welfare Clause. The term general welfare appears in the preamble to the Constitution as well as in Clause 1 of Article I, Section 8, which sets out the powers of Congress. Contrary to what many constitutionalists believe, the clause looks like a general grant of power: “Congress shall have the Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to . . . provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States. . . .” (Emphasis added.) Following Clause 1 are 17 more clauses, each beginning with the capitalized word To like the one above. This suggests that all 18 clauses are coequal, independent items in a list. Clause 1, then, does not look like a preamble introducing an exhaustive list of 17 powers. (For more on this see my The Constitution or Liberty.) [...] [...] Take the pesky General Welfare Clause. The term general welfare appears in the preamble to the Constitution as well as in Clause 1 of Article I, Section 8, which sets out the powers of Congress. Contrary to what many constitutionalists believe, the clause looks like a general grant of power: “Congress shall have the Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to . . . provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States. . . .” (Emphasis added.) Following Clause 1 are 17 more clauses, each beginning with the capitalized word To like the one above. This suggests that all 18 clauses are coequal, independent items in a list. Clause 1, then, does not look like a preamble introducing an exhaustive list of 17 powers. (For more on this see my The Constitution or Liberty.) [...]

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