This verse really resonated with me. I can't tell you how many people I have talked to who seize upon the "general welfare" phrase to open up the floodgates to federal power and taxation. I believe that he was fearful of a government of elites gradually taking over and using such loose phrases as this as the justification for doing so. And he appears to have been correct.
I hear it all the time, and it really infuriates me. I would recommend Steven Maikoski's Initial Points in Politics for an excellent diagnosis of this problem.