General welfare includes health

Published 3:10 pm Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A Tuesday letter writer cherry-picked the U.S. Constitution wording to support his dubious claims. (“‘Protection’ means defense, not health.”)

The preamble of the United States Constitution states, “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.”

Enacting laws that protect the people from dangerous products, including drugs, would be covered by the Constitution. Having the government ensure the air we breathe and the water we drink is safe would also fall under the tenets of the Constitution. Having “big government” open our mail, listen to our phone conversations, snoop into our bedrooms, and torture individuals are all activities expressly forbidden by the Constitution, and yet all were done by the current administration.

Providing for the common defense is not limited to preventing attacks by foreign nationals. Promoting the general welfare would by definition include physical as well as economic health. As for establishing justice, rules and regulations must be applied equally to the haves as the have-nots.

Finally, the only nationalizing has been done by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson regarding the banking industry.

Brian Levin