When one has occasion to argue with a conservative, or really anyone who questions the government’s ability to tax and spend for the welfare of the American citizen, the chorus most often heard usually sounds like this: “Those damned liberals are violating the Constitution.”

Well, the truth is that both Republicans and Democrats have interpreted the Constitution for their own ends—specifically Article I, Section 8. This section empowered the newly-minted US government to levy taxes, giving the young country the flexibility to provide for the “general welfare” of its people, amongst other things.

The Constitution is quite vague on what sort of taxes and spending constituted the general welfare of the nation, but left it up to future generations to decide what was “necessary and proper.” The last paragraph has become known as the “necessary and proper” clause. It pissed off anti-federalists in its time but has come to be used by conservatives and liberals alike ever since.

So today, Constitution Day, I’ve taken the liberty of pasting Article I, Section 8 below, in the hope that those who engage jackasses of every stripe have ammunition for their arguments. My more ambitious hope, however, is that some conservatives will actually read something for a change that isn’t propaganda, and then understand how something like the Department of Homeland Security could be created at great cost, or how Obama could raise taxes on the 1% to help pay for Affordable Care Act of 2010. Indeed, how Paul Ryan might constitutionally justify his congressional voting record during the Bush years, in which he helped contribute to $6.8 trillion in deficits from 2000 to 2008.

Without further ado, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution:

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 Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.