[aruanan]

The preamble to the constitution says that one of the duties of the federal government is to promote the general welfare.

That phrase has been used, probably more than any other, to justify all sorts of federal government action directly counter to the Constitution.

But the first thing you have to understand, and what those who use this phrase to promote whatever utopian or venal program they want do not want to understand, is that the sole means by which the federal government is to promote the general welfare is limited to the enumerated powers granted to it by the Constitution. Period. Everything else is left up to the states and to the people.

Again: the promotion of the public welfare by the federal government is to be accomplished through the Constitution, everything else is left to the states and the people respectively.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Did you read the rest of my post or just stop at when I cited the promotion of the general welfare clause? I went on to explain what that means. The federal government certainly has a vested interest in whether it’s citizens are healthy. That does not mean (as I stated in my previous post) that they should be devoting money or enforcement authority to attain this goal. It means they should “promote” it, by informing the public about it and raising awareness. That’s what I see Bill Frist doing here, advocating for a healthy lifestyle and raising awareness to the serious consequences of not doing it (children being too fat to join the military). Besides, he’s not even in the government anymore, but a private citizen.