General Welfare, Part 2

Article 1, Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;.......

Now that I have a better understanding of this clause it astounds me how much we've taken it out of its literary and historical context, completely ignoring words in the text and their meanings, like "common" and "general", "duties, imposts, and excises". "General welfare", for example, means national welfare or benefit, according to the Heritage Guide to the Constitution; not local or regional benefit, but the benefit of the whole.
     To understand the concept of the whole we must understand how the Founders thought, that is, their meaning of  "United States". It may shock you to hear that the United States is not in itself a republic.The United States is a federation or corporation of fifty republics where each state is a sovereign, republican nation. A republic is a self-governing entity. The United Nations (notwithstanding its corruptness) is a federation or corporation of sovereign, self-governing nations. It is not a nation in itself but a governing body. The United States, by statute, is a federal (from the word "federation") governing body representing fifty self-governing nations. Our Constitution does not say that the United States is a Republic, as the Pledge of Allegiance indicates: "I pledge allegiance to the flag....and to the Republic (singular) for which it stands". It says....
   
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of  Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence."  Article 4, Section 4

In other words, the United States, the Federal governing body, shall guarantee to each State of the Union its sovereignty, the right to govern itself. It is the nature of statehood.

Perhaps it's time to revisit the Pledge of Allegiance. According to Constitutional law, the general welfare is to be provided for by the general government only in the context of protecting the States against invasion from foreign nations and violence between themselves. Then, is social security tax under the umbrella of the general welfare? Is medicare tax? Obamacare? Welfare? Anything on that whole liberty-eroding, wealth-stealing list of federal programs?

Man, the truth really has a way of getting you pissed off, doesn't it?