I was always told that the power in the constitution that gives congress the right to enact various welfare type programs comes from Article one section eight where the phrase, “provide for the common welfare” is written. With all the new government programs recently proposed I decided to look further into this and much to my surprise I came face to face with the semi colon. This rather innocuous punctuation mark is at the center of the debate over this constitutional clause. Recall that the founding fathers were well educated and considered grammarians and spent days arguing over little things like punctuation marks. They knew that marks like the semi colon could change the meanings of words.
It is in the opening sentence of section eight where the phrase, “provide for the general welfare” occurs and this sentence ends in a semi colon. The plot thickens. The use of the semi colon is used in this case to make a general statement followed by a more detailed understanding.
The general statement is
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 Welfareof the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

After that there follows 18 statements elaborating on the blue items but nothing more in the green (welfare).

Proponents of wealth redistribution often quote the sentence but not the semi colon but others point out the importance of the semi colon and one of these was Sam Adams who said,

The utopian schemes of leveling [wealth redistribution] and a community of goods, are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the crown. These ideas are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional. Famous Quotes on Wealth Redistribution, Class Warfare and Envy Samuel Adams