• Learn the Constitution, Or Else
  Starting this year, every educational institution receiving federal aid must teach about the U.S. Constitution on the September 17 anniversary of its signing (September 16 in 2005, as the 17th is a Saturday). The requirement is ironic, given that it came from the Senate's leading Constitutional scholar, yet clearly conflicts with the Constitution, and on many grounds. - Gary Galles, September 16, 2005 [Mises]

• Is Social Security Constitutional?
  Given all that, the issue of Social Security’s constitutionality, far from being settled, remains wide open. Somehow I doubt that the Framers, who after all meant the Constitution as a fetter on expansive government and not a blank check for it, intended the Constitution to authorize a tax-devouring engine of dependence on the State like Social Security. - John Attarian, May 23, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]

• America: Ruled by Scoundrels
  Grossly ignorant or conniving politicians tell constitutionally ignorant Americans that it is the general welfare clause that authorizes these programs. - Walter Williams, April 2, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine]

• The Wisdom of Grover Cleveland
  More important than the Trivial Pursuit aspects of Grover Cleveland's Presidencies, however, was his fight to live up to his oath of office, respecting both the intent of the General Welfare clause and the Constitution's bounds on government power. - Gary M. Galles, January 2, 2003

• Tax Revolts and Liberty
  After winning independence, our founders tried to translate the doctrine of man's rights into legal form. The Constitution they created included some compromises, one of which gives Congress the power to provide for the "general Welfare of the United States." - George F. Smith, April 22, 2002 [Strike the Root]

• Taxes and the General Welfare
  The anti-federalists opposed the Constitution on the grounds that its checks on federal power would be undermined by expansive interpretations of promoting the "general welfare." - Gary Galles, April 11, 2002

• Score One for Jesse
  Ventura recently noted that the Constitution doesn't grant the federal government any power to create jobs. No headlines ensued, though they should have. It's real news when a government official gets the Constitution right.

• "A Republic, If you can Keep It" (Statement of the HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS)
  Ron Paul (R) on the state of our Republic and the General Welfare clause. - January 31 & February 2, 2000

• The "General Welfare"
  As you presumably know, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to impose taxes to "provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States." But since the New Deal, this clause has been pretty much boiled down to one phrase: "general welfare." It is now generally assumed that Congress may pass any law it deems in the "general welfare of the United States. - Joseph Sobran, November 23, 1999 [Sobran's]

  But the conservative columnist George Will, instead of applauding, took exception, accusing Ventura of ignorance of the Constitution. He cited the 'general welfare' clause, which, he said, authorizes the federal government to raise money for anything it deems the 'general welfare.' - Joseph Sobran, October 28, 1999 [Sobran's]

• Is Welfare Unconstitutional?
  No less than framers Madison and Jefferson, plus at least five presidents and dozens of prominent statesmen throughout American history thought so... - Capitalist Conservative Republican, 1999

• Why I Hate Social Security
  According to the preamble of the Social Security Act (Act of August 14, 1935), the constitutional power on which Social Security depends is derived from the 'general welfare clause' - Kyle Williams, 1999

• The General Welfare Clause: A Blank Check? - Submitted by Jerry Taylor (Director, Natural Resource Studies - Cato Institute) to The House Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. - April 9, 1997

• Madison on the 'General Welfare' of America: His Consistent Constitutional Vision
  For proponents of a limited central government, the General Welfare Clause has been a source of great mischief. - Leonard R. Sorenson, 1995 [CATO]

• The Confederate Constitution
  One grave weakness in the U.S. Constitution is the "general welfare" clause, which the Confederate Constitution eliminated...The Southern drafters thought the general welfare clause was an open door for any type of government intervention. They were, of course, right. - Randall G. Holcombe, June 1992 [Mises]