Firstly, the “necessary and proper” clause appears at the end of list of powers granted to the Congress, and it explicitly refers to “the foregoing powers”and applies ONLY to the specific powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. It does NOT mean that Congress itself may decide whatever it thinks is “necessary and proper” (which would be defined as absolute tyranny — which is exactly what was meant to be prohibited by having a list of enumerated powers).

Secondly, the “General Welfare” clause is NOT a grant of power. It appears in the preamble as one of the reasons for the Constitution, not as a provision of it.

I also note that the preamble also lists other reasons, such as: “to insure the domestic tranquility” — but that does not mean the Federal government has the power to force people to smoke pot. (Nor does it give the Feds the power to outlaw it, either!) The preamble says that, in order to achieve such goal, we the people, “do ordain and establish this Constitution”. The Constitution then goes on to enumerate the powers; the Bill of Rights (Tenth Amendment) makes clear that there are no further Federal powers, beyond those enumerated, and reserves everything else to the people and/or the States.

When quoting the Constitution, please do not cherry-pick and quote out of context — even tho that would be the only way to argue that Congress actually has the right to control health care (or pot).

The Congress, which was created by the Constitution, has no right to EXIST if it tries to exceed the powers given it by its creator — in order to trample on the rights of the people!

Yours, in Liberty,
-/bam/
Bruce Alan Martin
(“Long Island Liberty, with BAM”
Tuesdays at noon, on WUSB 90.1 FM Stony Brook)

Your question regarding the Constitution is patently flawed. Where in the Constitution does it state that DUI should be a criminal offense, that driving while using a cell phone should be illegal, that animals should have rights (or even Rights groups), or that women should be allowed to vote? Wait, about that last one, it didn’t say it in the original Constitution, but someone figured out that the original document left out a few rights that the founding fathers didn’t foresee. Amendments. There are quite a few. You do realize that, don’t you?

The comment regarding the “lazy” versus the “hard-working” lacks intellectual basis as well. There are members of this society that are paid quite well for a minimum amount of effort, and there are those that are compensated poorly for extremely challenging tasks. Professional golfers earn millions. Office clerks, who work 45-50 hours in a standard week, earn significantly less. There’s just no correlation between energy expended and income earned. This doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that not all of the unemployed and uninsured are lazy, or lack ambition. Only an idiot would believe that there is a 1-to-1 relationship between the number of jobs and the number of people in the workforce. Do you believe that? Every seen a game of musical chairs being played? The same concept applies.

Your post contains far more vitriol than facts. I guess that’s what’s great about the Constitution. Even narrow-minded opinions can be stated. This is mine.

Your question regarding the Constitution is patently flawed. Where in the Constitution does it state that DUI should be a criminal offense, that driving while on a cell phone should be illeagal, that animals should have rights (or even Rights groups), or that women should be allowed to vote? Wait, about that last one, it didn’t say it in the original Constitution, but someone figured out that the original document left out a few rights that the founding fathers didn’t foresee. Amendments. There are quite a few. You do realize that, don’t you?

The comment about the lazy versus the hard-working lacks intellectual basis as well. There are members of this society that are paid quite well for a minimum amount of effort, and there are those that are compensated poorly for extremely challenging tasks. Professional golfers earn millions. Office clerks, who work 45-50 hours in a standard week, earn significantly less. There’s just no correlation between energy expended and income earned. This doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that not all of the unemployed and uninsured are lazy, or lack ambition. Only an idiot would believe that there is a 1-to-1 relationship between the number of jobs and the number of people in the workforce. Do you believe that? Every seen a game of musical chairs being played? The same concept applies.

Your post contains far more vitriol than facts. I guess that’s what’s great about the Constitution. Even narrow-minded opinions can be stated. This is mine.

And you’re right…it’s not the Constitution that says “All men are created equal”; it was the Declaration of Independence. You know, the document that inspired our ancestors to create a framework of government where anyone can rise to the top…gay or otherwise.