A Message From James Madison, Father of the US Constitution, on Health Care Reform

As 2009 ends in a few short hours, one of my memories this year that could haunt many Americans was Senator Claire McCaskill's definition of the General Welfare clause. Not one of the 18 enumerated powers granted specifically to Congress in Article One of the Constitution, McCaskill and other Democrats (as well as Republicans many times in the history of our country) ripped from the Preamble, simply a mission statement that contains the words General Welfare, and act as if it's the unofficial 19th enumerated power. It's many Democrat's justification for a yes vote to move closer to nationalized health care.

Without reading Federalist Paper #41, politicians like Senator McCaskill lie about the meaning of the General Welfare clause as if it's some kind of elastic power given to Congress that provides the unlimited powers. They are ruining our country in doing so, putting us more in debt, creating more government dependency, and robbing Americans of their freedoms.

Listening to Claire McCaskill's explain the General Welfare clause on her terms and not James Madison's sickened me this summer as she spoke at the Gilloz Theater in Springfield, Missouri. As much as I have begged Senator McCaskill and other members of Congress to read Federalist 41, I know they have not. Heck, they don't even read the legislation they vote on. Why would they care about Madison at this point in the game.

Of course, Madison was a man of great character. Something McCaskill and other members of Congress know little about these days. Considered the father of our Constitution, he understood what those words meant, and he knew the General Welfare clause and what the founding fathers meant by it as they debated the language of the US Constitution. Since members of Congress like Senator McCaskill won't take the time to read Federalist 41 and vote according to what the General Welfare clause means as defined by the Founding Fathers, I would like to share a short story about James Madison as my final blog of the year in hopes we can restore our Republic and kill the leviathan Claire McCaskill and others in Congress choose to create with this health care bill.

In 1794, six years after the ratification of the US Constitution, our Congress already began stretching the limits of their power. Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees who fled from rebellion in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia. James Madison stood up and addressed the Congress. His words powerful--full of Constitutional wisdom, mainly that it's not the job of the federal government to provide welfare.

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

Senator McCaskill and other health care bill supporters, it wasn't there in 1794, and it isn' there today. You can't place a finger on one article can you Senator McCaskill, nor can you prove from reading this lesson in history, that it is the job of Congress to provide welfare. The father of the Constitution clearly states that.

Where is James Madison today? I know one place he is not, and that is the Democratic party.