[MrB]

I'd appreciate some discussion and links to definitive sources/decisions relavent to this topic.

I believe it to be the ultimate argument in discussing how big the federal government should be allowed to grow.

I'm not prone to vanities, but I felt this was important when discussing the budget.

[sourcery]

The answers to your question can be found in the FR thread titled The General Welfare Clause. What does it really mean?

[GovernmentShrinker]

"General welfare" needs to be interpreted as things which are of obvious benefit to substantially everyone in the United States. Things which are of benefit only to specific groups or individuals have nothing to do with the "general welfare". Thus all government wealth redistribution programs are unconstitutional. But our defense capabilities pass the test, as we all benefit from not having our nation invaded and taken over by Communist dictators or Islamic terrorists.

[Jack Black]

I posted this on another thread today. It is slightly OT but goes to the general point of the futility of worrying about stuff like this.

The Constitution is a quaint anachronism, like the 13 star flag. It long ago ceased to have any effect on our polity. In 1913 the income tax was passed, Constitutional norms were adherred to. Yet at the same time the Federal Reserve Bank was put into place dispite Constitutional prohibitions on it. FDR made clear his impatience with this anachornism and ignored it for the most part. His standing army is with us to this day, and when not busy fighting foreign foes is occassionally called up to deal with domestic ones, like those religious fanatics in Texas a few years ago. While the ammendment process was used to make booze illegal it was ignored when a new hemp and opium prohibition was ushered in. Now the FedGov controls every aspect of life (down to the size of toilet tanks) and apparently all this is permitted via the "interstate commerce clause" or "the leaving breathing Constitution" interpretation or by the simple expediant of putting leftist traitors and idiots like Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the Supreme Court.

Face it, the time to whine about "unconstitionality" of the huge superstructure of law, force and control that is our government was a long time ago. To do so now is an interesting parlor game buy ain't gonna change a damn thing.