General Welfare vs. Common Defense

(A WPA poster promoting a public health program. In addition to creating public awareness posters, the WPA operated health clinics and hired unemployed nurses to provide healthcare to low-income Americans. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)

In the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, we see that two of the primary reasons that the United States was created was to "provide for the common defence" and "promote the general welfare." Article I, Section 8 emphasizes this by giving Congress the power of taxation and the power to "provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States."

Unfortunately, there are currents of hatred & fear that run through American culture that have created a massive imbalance between welfare and defense. For example, hatred of the poor has limited our social safety net to one of the stingiest in the industrialized world, while fear has contributed to the creation of America's military & prison systems--the largest in the world. And our plutocratic political system keeps these realities firmly in place, year after year, decade after decade.   

Consider:

General Welfare: "...the United States stands out as the country with the highest poverty rate and one of the lowest levels of social expenditure—16.2 percent of GDP, well below the vast majority of peer countries...peer countries are much more likely than the United States to step in where markets and labor policy fail in order to lift their most disadvantaged citizens out of poverty." (Elise Gould and Hilary Wething, Economic Policy Institute Report, "U.S. poverty rates higher, safety net weaker than in peer countries," July 24, 2012)   

Common Defense: "The United States spent $728 billion on its military in 2010, about 45% of the world’s $1.6 trillion total. U.S. spending amounts to more than the next fourteen largest military spending countries combined." (Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center, George Mason University, "World's Top Military Spenders: U.S. Spends More than Next Top 14 Countries Combined," December 9, 2011). 

(Unlike most of today's national policy-makers, New Deal policy-makers were very concerned about youth unemployment. To help jobless youth, they created the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration. Both agencies provided work and training opportunities for America's young adults. WPA poster, image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)

President Franklin Roosevelt once said: "If, as our Constitution tells us, our Federal Government was established among other things 'to promote the general welfare,' it is our plain duty to provide for that security upon which welfare depends." (From The New Deal: A Modern History by Michael Hiltzik, 2011)