“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” —James Madison (1792)

To properly apply the concept of general welfare to the myriad of issues discussed today, it is appropriate and necessary to understand that term as our Founding Fathers did.  To do that, we must review what Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke believed about this term.  To do that, we must refer back even further to concepts underlying classic republicanism.  In doing that, we find that general welfare strictly means promoting the common good and putting the interests of the more general society over individuals and groups.

James Madison is often referred to as the “Father of the Constitution”.  It was his view that the people of the United States were protected by not giving the government undue authority over every aspect of our lives.  Even Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson believed that the subjects of general welfare meant only those that were spelled out in the Constitution.

Plainly spoken, this means that all other issues than enumerated specifically in the Constitution falls on state and local government.  Clearly, we as a nation have stepped far outside those bounds intended by our Founding Fathers.  The question remains, what to reasonably do about this.