Letters to the Editor
Responding to
The Tenth Amendment is the Best Medicine
by James Leroy Wilson
Scott Haley from Sedro-Woolley, WA writes:
August 23, 2007
To Those who would use the "General Welfare" clause as a basis for the constitutionality of national health care---
I would remind everyone that the "promote the General Welfare" (in Article I, Section 8) rationalization for unending intrusions into State-level affairs was argued a long time ago in the Federalist Papers. It was concluded that promoting the General Welfare would be accomplished by Congress fulfilling its duties listed in the remainder of Article I, Section 8, Clauses 1-18. To argue otherwise suggests that Congress has the power to do anything it wishes under the guise of "promoting the General Welfare"...anything... such as implementing the Patriot Act, for example, or the Military Commissions Act, or the REAL ID Act. Today's Congress would argue (and has argued) that all of those are for our general well-being.]
Jeff from New York writes:
March 23, 2010
Mr. Haley makes an interesting point. "To argue otherwise suggests that Congress has the power to do anything it wishes under the guise of 'promoting the General Welfare' ... such as implementing the Patriot Act..." This does not really support your argument since the Patriot Act was in fact implemented.
Maybe this legislation will fail, but I doubt it. As you have pointed out Congress can pretty much get any legislation passed that promotes the General Welfare.
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