I suspect it’s because to our founders, “general welfare” was synonymous with “maximum liberty” and “minimal government intrusion.” When read in that regard, the clauses are not only consistent, but mutually reinforcing.
You can thank Alex Hamilton(another Bastard) for injecting “General Welfare” into the US Constitution.
Yes.
Or as Chief Justice Marshall might observe: “Affirmative words are often, in their operation, negative of other objects than those affirmed, and, in this case, a negative or exclusive sense must be given to them or they have no operation at all.”
Meaning that if there are any delegated Powers for promoting the general Welfare (post office, patents, etc...) than their very existence demonstrates that they are THE Powers ... and there are no others.
Also as an aside, this may easily be the least wall’o’text-like post on this subject that I’ve ever made that still manages to cover the material.