Promote the General Welfare & Provide for the General Welfare.

("Promote the General Welfare." Bas Relief in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photo by Brent McKee.)

"A successful social contract has bound us together since the FDR era. The Randian State is an effort to dismantle it, replacing our nation's web of mutual trust and support with a lifelong helplessness and dependence on the whims and generosity of corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals."

--Richard Eskow, Campaign for America's Future

Indeed, should We the People be at the complete mercy of corporations for our livelihood and economic security? And, should We the People be dependent upon the whims of charity when our jobs are eliminated? Or, should We the People be able to craft public policies that create a strong social safety net when we are abandoned by the "job creators" or harmed by economic downturns? In other words, should We the People be able to help We the People by promoting the general welfare and providing for the general welfare?   

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare..."

--U.S. Constitution, Preamble

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States..."

--U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8

"Of course we will provide useful work for the needy unemployed; we prefer useful work to the pauperism of a dole."

--President Franklin D. Roosevelt