The General Welfare, Part 1

  We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.       The Preamble

     The general government has for many years used the Preamble to justify its legislative intervention in the domestic affairs of American citizens. Many people have used to it to justify our welfare state. The general misinterpretation is that our government is to provide for all our needs. It is a dangerous misinterpretation. The Heritage Foundation  takes an instructive look at the Preamble of the Constitution in historical context.    

.http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/articles/0/essays/1/preamble    

To summarize.......

1. The Preamble was placed in the Constitution as an afterthought by Gouvernour Morris, independent of the Constitutional Convention. Preambles were declarative statements and neither granted nor limited power.

2. The Preamble was created in light of its counterpart in the Articles of Confederation. It was a general declaration between the states to insure military protection and the security of religious liberty, free trade, sovereignty, etc. It was an agreement among states, not people. That is, it did not involve the private matters of individual Americans. This is what was meant by the "general welfare". 

     The Preamble reads "promote the general welfare" . Provide is not the same as promote. The general government is to  "provide for the common defense", but it is to "promote the general welfare". Promote means to encourage to exist. Provide means to furnish, supply or equip. "General welfare" is applicable to the whole rather than to particular parts. For example, to federally fund the building of a highway in Illinois is beneficial only to the people within Illinois. It has no direct benefit to any other state of the union and therefore cannot be regarded as being in the general welfare. Concerning the domestic affairs of the states and we the people of the states, the general government is simply to promote our welfare by LEAVING US ALONE. But we've been psychologically conditioned to the contrary.
     Our President is quoted as saying  the Constitution, our national law, the very compact he himself studied and swore an oath to God to uphold and protect, is "a charter of negative liberties", and uses the civil rights movement to demonstrate its "flaws". Google it and hear it for yourself. Does this not raise a giant red flag in your mind?