“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.”

I wish they had left that "General Welfare" part out. Liberals have used it as an excuse for all of this welfare that has put us all in debt.

Jim, that and the commerce clause that has been twisted to allow government into every corner of our kives. Provide for the common defense...absolutely. But the only way they can promote the general welfare is to stay the hell out of business altogether.

Whoever wrote this left it vague enough to justify any tax on anything without limit.

The "General Welfare" was defined by Jefferson and by others as the "general welfare of the federal government" - not individuals. I'm with Archer except even if it were spelled out in super fine detail it would still have been adulterated - just as the commerce clause was.

I am reminded that the actual legal jurisdiction of the 'United States' is the ten mile square area of Washington DC and federal territories, and thus the taxing authority only refers to government employees and those within the federal jurisdiction. If any tax revenues were to be received, they were to come from the State governments themselves, not individual citizens in the States. See the rest of Article I Section 8 and Article IV Section 3.

It says "... and general welfare of the United States."

It strikes me that the only question raised is the definition of 'United States' and it seems to me that 'United States' means the 'united' 'states' - all of them and 'all' of them.

Then there are the Delusional States but ... it's not referring to them.