The Article 1, Section 8 General Welfare Clause that you cite does not grant the government any authority to do anything under the sun it otherwise couldn't do. In fact, the Founding Fathers were very clear that your interpretation was precisely what the general welfare clause does not mean. For example, in Federalist #41, James Madison explains that the General Welfare Clause is most certainly not an unlimited granter of power but rather than it merely means that the Constitution was enacted for the general welfare of the States. It is nota. granter of power at all, rather a statement that shows the intention of the Constitution. Not a single State would have ratified the Constitution had they not had these assurances, and indeed the General Welfare Clause is why many "Anti-Federalists" held out on ratification. Because why would we grant the federal government unlimited authority to interpret the scope of its own powers? Could not anything be claimed to be in the General Welfare? Human nature being what it is, we can expect exactly that and indeed that is what has happened, unfortunately.
The States, as sovereign, independent Republics, specifically delegated enumerated, clearly listed and defined powers to the general government under a compact, or contract, entitled "The Constitution of the United States." They did it much as individuals agree to a contract. And since the powers are listed, whenever the general government deviates from the terms of the contract by doing anything not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, its acts are, as the Kentucky State Legislature said, "null, void, and of no force." Whenever the general (federal) government does anything not mentioned in the Constitution, it thus breaks its contract with the States that ratified and thus each individual State can respond in kind by nullifying the law (refusing to obey it within its own borders) or secede from the Union. In short, the General Welfare Clause is sadly often misconstrued by Statists… Read more
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