Myth: The General Welfare Clause gives the government the power to spend money on anything it wants, such as welfare entitlements, so long as Congress deems their action beneficial for the general public.
Truth: The General Welfare Clause was solely intended to ensure that, when Congress was acting within its enumerated powers, it was also limited by the absolute requirement that its actions would benefit the general public as a whole instead of a special interest group.
It does not allow Congress any more power than had been granted to it by the enumerated powers, but simply tells them to act fairly.
If the founders wanted Congress to do virtually anything it wanted to, they would not have bothered to discuss Congress’s other powers at length, much less written the Federalist papers to ensure that the government remained limited.
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” – James Madison, letter to Edmund Pendleton, 1792
Good sources for more information here and here.
