The
following was written in November 2013 as a response to the
questionnaire for federal candidates seeking an endorsement from the
Liberty Caucus of the Republican Conference (i.e., the Republican
Party).
Here is the link to the original questionnaire:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwi.rlc.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F05%2FFederal-Candidate-Questionnaire.doc&ei=u3B8UqXbBqPiiwL2ioCoDg&usg=AFQjCNHAzM58Dr-APGVchRKzOkVV0TKRyw&sig2=qStOgZ0RAgXVAbnHi2kFtw
This is my answer to Question #12.
12.
C
(Congress's
power to provide for the general welfare means that the federal
government should exercise power over issues that affect the entire
U.S. population; not that business interests, social welfare, nor any
light and transient cause that might help some indeterminate number
or group of people, should justify federal spending)
Congress's
power to provide for general welfare means that (C)
the federal government should exercise power over issues that
jeopardize the safety of the entire U.S. population.
There
is no explicit power of Congress to “provide for the common good”,
and the power to provide for the “general welfare” is often
misinterpreted. “General welfare” does not mean vague
welfare;
that is, it does not mean (D)
any government that can help citizens.
It
does also not mean (A)
protecting, bailing out, and giving favors to businesses and
industries or (B) providing
all citizens with a minimum income. The
“general welfare” means “the good of all (or nearly all) people
in the country”.
This
interpretation of the General Welfare Clause is essential to
preventing runaway federal spending on national projects that benefit
only one area of the nation, or customers and owners of - and
investors in – certain businesses.
A
bridge that would only be used by a handful of people a day in
Alaska, and a public transit system in Madison, Wisconsin that would
be used by a
hundred thousand people a day, et
cetera, do
not benefit all or nearly all American citizens. How those projects
are funded should reflect that fact, as well as the principles of
local and decentralized government upon which our structure of
government was based.
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