Reply #23: You are "conveniently" leaving out the view of Alexander Hamilton...

[reACTIONary]

...who considered the general welfare clause as an enumerated power. And his view prevailed in the Washington and Adams administration (chalk up two more founding fathers).

The SCOTUS was not asked or given the opportunity to issue judgement until United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936). They went for Alexander Hamilton:

The clause confers a power separate and distinct from those later enumerated <,> is not restricted in meaning by the grant of them, and Congress consequently has a substantive power to tax and to appropriate, limited only by the requirement that it shall be exercised to provide for the general welfare of the United States. … It results that the power of Congress to authorize expenditure of public moneys for public purposes is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found in the Constitution.

Sorry about that, but that's not only the way it SHOULD BE, that's the way IT IS.