“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; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;”…..

This general Welfare reference is even in the preamble of the constitution , so it would seem to be a specific item of agenda.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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.”

While indeed one could debate the possible limits (James Madison) , or lack there of (Alexander Hamilton) , neither of these extremes really makes sense.

The James Madison flavored crowd would seem to want to extract “general welfare” from the middle of the first paragraph and some how declare it to be but a preamble / ceremonial phrase to the other enumerated powers that came before it and after it while having no real meaning itself.

The Alexander Hamilton flavored crowd would seem to want “general welfare” to be a blank check with no limits at all , sorta making enumeration pointless.

So since neither of those extremist views make sense , my conclusion would be that the
phrase general Welfare is an enumerated power like those that come both before it and after it , and that since the constitution tends to speak pretty plainly that it
is probably meant to be more reflective of it’s general dictionary meaning than flowery speech.

The term “welfare” is itself not without a dictionary meaning. So indeed lets take a brief look
at some common definitions.
[American Heritage Dictionary] Noun: health, happiness, or prosperity; well-being.
[Merriam Webster] Noun: The health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.
[Cambridge Dictionary] Noun: HEALTH AND HAPPINESS

Strangely , “health” seems to be a very common part of the available definitions.

In researching the history of the time and even further back , the meaning
did not seem to somehow have morphed to something else but rather has always
had a basically similar meaning.

It’s not like the idea of providing social welfare is something some bleeding heart liberal dreamed up one day , as one can trace it’s existence from Roman times all the way forward.

Funny thing is that national health care used to be a Republican cause.Even tricky Dick
championed nationalized health care.

So, since both liberals , conservatives , dictionaries , the constitution and history all the way back to Roman times and even tribal cultures recognize this social need to support the general Welfare, what could possibly be the issue at hand today with the idea of implementing something that would support that general welfare such as a healthcare plan?

Certainly the constitution did not specify the exact programs that might be implemented by congress to support the general welfare , but it did not specify what weapons programs would be used to provide for the common defense either.

Perhaps McCarthy era political rhetoric of religious piety , and capitalistic might under the pressures of nuclear doom overtook it’s typical role as propaganda to become a national personality disorder and a distortion of the American fabric.

Having “Out of many, one” traded in for political rhetoric has indeed left us in a situation of having to explain away our own constitution to support those latter inferior wares.

Behind almost all of the great mis-steps in history there will be found the smoking cigars of those leveraging philosophical
agreement for personal gain with but disingenuous posturing
to those being leveraged.

It’s this realization by this country’s founders and the framers of the constitution that made for the wall of separation between church and state to protect each from the leveraging of the other.

Glenn Beck and his utterances would seem to be a hearkening back to the 50’s and Joseph McCarthy.

McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason to enlist by shock value and peer pressure fear to contradict the perception of a lynch mob mentality of supporters.

Often McCarthyism leveraged both challenges to patriotism and  godliness in a quest to promote an  agenda.

It was in such a climate in 1954 that “Under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance, debasing the constitution and the secular nature of our nation.

Article VI – Debts, Supremacy, Oaths
…
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
…
Treaty of Tripoli
“As the Government of the United States of America isnot in any sense founded on the Christian religion”…

Our founding fathers new the dangers of such mixing of religion and government , which was why the wall of separation between church and state was erect, so as to protect each from the other.

Tis a shame that as fast as these lessons are learned they are forgotten.