Uhh...I’ve Got a Slight Problem Here
The Constitution, charity, and the national government
"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specific objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
“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.”
The author of both of those quotes above is James Madison, the man given most credit for writing America’s constitution. If anyone should know what the Constitution means, it should be him. Please note his words carefully—“charity is no part of the legislative duty of government.” Indeed, (the second quote), where is the clause in the Constitution that gives the national government the right to spend taxpayer’s money on charity? As Madison said, the states can do it; that’s what the 10th Amendment authorizes. But nothing in the Constitutionally-given powers to Congress says anything about spending taxpayer money on charity.
Republicans—most of them—have been bashing the Biden administration for being slow in responding to the needs of people in southern states due to the damage caused by Hurricane Helene. “They don’t care about red states,” and there is probably much truth to that. Americans now expect, when there is a national catastrophe, that the feds are supposed to jump in with whatever money is necessary. Remember George W. Bush and Katrina? He moved too slowly and was crucified for it. Charity is now an expected response of the national government.
Where did we get that? Certainly not from the Constitution, as James Madison said. But then, 99% of what the federal government does today couldn’t be found in the Constitution if you read it until your eyeballs fell out.
Helping people in distress is obviously a very good, and needed, thing. But it isn’t in the Constitution as a power given to the national government. If we want Washington to do this, the Constitution needs to be amended to add that power, from the states, to the national government. That’s what the Constitution says.
Biden obviously isn’t being slow in his response to the southern states because he believes the Constitution limits his power in matters of charity. I seriously doubt Joe Biden has ever even read the Constitution and wouldn’t believe it if he did.
But...if we want to have a Constitutional government....