"Then what does it mean to you, specificly? Please be precise, and keep in mind that whatever limits are ascribed to "general welfare" must *also* be ascribed to "common defense", as they are both in the same part of the same sentence in our Constitution."
I already did:
"..the enumerated power here is the ability to tax, not the power to care for the general welfare of the nation. In other words, the government uses it's enumerated powers to work for the general welfare of the nation- and pays for it with the taxes collected as allowed for by this clause.
Perhaps it would be more clear if I said that whatever the government does with it's enumerated powers is caring for the general welfare of the nation, and this clause means that it can use taxes to pay for it.
Whatever powers this gives to the federal government concerning the "common defense" are irrelevant since the government's authority to raise a military and defend the nation are enumerated elsewhere.
"Perhaps it would be more clear if I said that whatever the government does with it's enumerated powers is caring for the general welfare of the nation, and this clause means that it can use taxes to pay for it." - Sofa King
And thus, so would go the same for "common defense, such that every aspect of our defense would have to be enumerated in your view by the logic you list above.
"Whatever powers this gives to the federal government concerning the "common defense" are irrelevant since the government's authority to raise a military and defend the nation are enumerated elsewhere." - Sofa King
No, I don't buy your above explanation, as that would mean that whole parts of our U.S. Constitution were REDUNDANT and thereby unnecessary.
Let's not go throwing out whole parts of our Constitution just so that it starts to fit your world-view, shall we...