The Constitution's General Welfare

The best place to start when in investigating the government and the roles they play is the United States Constitution. What did the founding fathers originally intend for the government to provide for its people?

The first sentence of the Preamble of the Constitution reads:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Yet what does “promote the general Welfare” mean?

In Article One, Section Eight, Clause One of the Constitution, it states that:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

The United States Constitution and its Amendments can be found here.

Throughout the study of the Constitution and the rulings of the Supreme Court, the founding fathers wanted debate to take place and representation to happen before decisions were made. Much of the constitution uses broad terminology that allows for interpretation. The general welfare of the nation is some of that terminology.

“General welfare” is the welfare of the nation as seen by the general population based on what is right and wrong and supported by actual facts and commonsense.

I may think that what is right for me is to not pay taxes, but the general population that requires the use of roads to travel and promote trade and economy require roads that are paid for by tax money.

So what does the welfare of the nation entail? The needs of an individual. This could include: education, health care, social security, the welfare program, child services and housing for the poor.

Introduction to an Idea

Since Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit the South, the whole nation has stopped and taken notice of what the conditions were in New Orleans and other poor regions. I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, right in the middle of both storms, and the city where many evacuees are staying. Right after Hurricane Katrina, there was a barrage of stories on the news and in the papers about people being stuck in shelters in New Orleans. These people were without food and water, and reports were that the government was failing in its duty to serve these people and evacuate them from the city. It was further reported that those who were evacuated to cities like Baton Rouge or Houston were creating a problem due to the influx of thousands of people.

I initially thought of doing this blog after seeing an interview on Fox News. The interviewee was an evacuee from New Orleans who was transferred to Dallas, Texas. The interview was mainly about him being upset that he had not received his FEMA money yet, and the miscommunications he had had with FEMA. At the end of the interview, the host of the show asked the man what he thinks he deserves from the government. He said in a very matter of fact tone that he deserved a house in a Houston and $20,000. The whole transcript from this interview can be read here.

The reason I mention this is not to illustrate how misled some folks are, but instead to ask the question how much do we “deserve” from the government. The posts following this introduction will look at the different avenues in which citizens can receive money from the government, and the reasons they can receive these funds. To put it another way, this blog is an introduction to the who, what, why and how of government funding focusing specifically on disaster recovery.