Written by Johnathan Mann   

So many candidates claim that many of our programs, some in existence for decades, are unconstitutional. I haven’t heard any explanations why, just that they are not enumerated in the Constitution. This motivated me to actually read the Constitution.

What quickly got my attention relating to this claim of unconstitutionality were two sentences. The first is the Preamble:

“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.”

Beautiful and straight forward: our government was established and ordained to, among other things, promote the general welfare of its people, to include our posterity, all of our children after us. What a broad, far reaching, and incredible concept!
The second is from Section 8 – The Powers of Congress.

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;”

There it is again: “general Welfare,” clearly enumerated, expressly giving the power to Congress to provide for the general welfare of the United States and all of its people. Kind of fits together nicely with the Preamble…
So it looks like Congress has the power to promote and provide for the general welfare of the United States and all Americans. What a great responsibility! This actually makes my heart swell.

How does Congress provide and promote the general welfare of the people of the United States? Laws! Laws that regulate, protect, and promote: food, safety, medicine, businesses, finances, education, health care, the environment, retirement, and all aspects of our society to improve the general welfare of the people. These laws and regulations ensure equal opportunity for health, happiness, and success to all Americans and protect people from those who would take advantage. I seriously doubt that free market forces would or even could come close to this without government guidance. Our recent Great Recession shows how free market forces and unenforced regulation can nearly destroy our economy. Regulations created after the Great Depression protected the economy for decades. Major financial disasters only returned after Reagan began the excessive deregulation of the banking industry. Do we really want less regulation? Smart government and smart regulation could be the better answer.

So what do they mean when they say that it’s unconstitutional?

I’m not sure they really know, but if that law, regulation, or program they are against were enacted to provide for the general welfare, and it is clear Congress has the power to enact such laws, regulations, and programs to provide for the general welfare, then I say it would be constitutional! It looks to me that it could only be considered unconstitutional if it did not attempt to promote the general Welfare of the United States and its people.

Additionally, these laws and regulations form the foundation of our society, providing the proper boundaries between people and businesses in order to create an environment to elevate our standard of living (providing for the general welfare). Without government, or these laws, regulations, and programs, most people’s standard of living might decline. Taxes pay for your government and do come out of your pocket; however, with smaller government, you would lower taxes but could increase the price of the very services and products that support our higher standard of living. Since Reagan claimed the government is the problem, then reduced taxes and financial regulations, middle class income and buying power has decreased and the first major banking failure (S&L) since the Great Depression occurred. The wealthy tend to profit from deregulation and then gain a greater portion of the country's wealth. Slogans like “less government, less spending” sound good, but in reality, society needs strong guide lines to make our country great for all people. Taxes and regulations have been at their lowest level in recent history, yet that still brought on the worst recession in decades. You can argue this point all you want, but the fact is during the last administration there were unenforced financial regulations, tax cuts that profited mostly the very wealthy, and a disastrous loss of jobs.

Laws, regulations, and programs can sometimes be a detriment to society but if we had the help of all our politicians who want to make this country great regardless of who is in control, we could make inadequate laws, regulations and programs into smart laws, smart regulations, and smart programs. That would be smart government!