Thanks for the clarification.

Brad,

The more I read about Hamilton, the more I tend to agree.

And my earlier post should have included that Hamilton would have been at home in any number of recent administrations.

I assume the quotes you’re referencing are:

James Madison: “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.”

And: “With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”

Thomas Jefferson: “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.”

Thanks for the Hamilton reference, I hadn’t read that one yet.

For me, Hamilton’s view begs the question: If “general welfare” means anything a Congress concludes might satisfy that vague phrase (even if constrained to national issues), why have enumerated powers at all? Why have the rule of law? Why not simply call them Nobles and be done with it?

I know Hamilton tended to favor tighter central control, and even monarchy. I guess he’d be right at home with the Obama administration.

Another interpretation by one of our founders, Alexander Hamilton, in Report on Manufacturers, says that the General Welfare Clause grants a distinct power to Congress to use its taxing and spending powers in areas it was not given direct regulatory control. United States v. Butler and Helvering v. Davis upheld Hamilton’s interpretation. They agreed it gives Congress a distinct power to tax and spend for the national welfare (as opposed to local), or the general welfare, not the welfare of particular parties. The mistake they made was in Helvering, when they granted deference to Congress to determine what the general welfare is.