That is not the same in any sense of the word "Welfare". That is a widespread ignorance across our Republic. Fortunately, ignorance can be remedied. The "general welfare" refers to the overall well-being, health, and prosperity of all people within a community or nation. It is a broad constitutional concept, notably found in the Preamble and the Spending Clause, that empowers the government to enact laws and spend money for the common good of the public. In the context of government, especially under the U.S. Constitution, it serves as a guiding principle for legislative action, suggesting that laws and programs should aim to benefit the collective good of the populace.

It means using the later listed enumerated powers to do things states aren't capable of handling, primarily dealing with foreign nations, interstate disputes and issues, ensuring the safety and prosperity of the country as a whole. The term is meant to mean the federal branch is supposed to step in as a safeguard to protect rights and help out if states run into problems they can't solve on their own. The clause is there so that when the government spends money on the items that they are allowed to spend money on, it must be for the general welfare of the US. Meaning, it cannot be used as a detriment to the US and it must be done generally, not just for a small select group.

A great read on this is here: https://www.heritage.org/the-constitution/report/enough-enough-why-general-welfare-limits-spending

“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” ~ James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President

“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association -- the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Note in Tracy's "Political Economy," 1816

“To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

“If a law to donate aid to any farmer or cattleman who has had poor crops or lost his cattle comes within the meaning of the phrase “to provide for the General Welfare of the United States,” why should not similar gifts be made to grocers, shopkeepers, miners, and other businessmen who have made losses through financial depression, or to wage earners out of employment? Why is not their property equally within the purview of the General Welfare?” ~ Charles Warren (1868-1954) American lawyer, legal scholar, awarded Pulitzer Prize in 1923 Congress As Santa Clause, 1932

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” ~ James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President letter to Edmund Pendleton, January 21, 1792

“The nature of the encroachment upon American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer; it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society.” ~ John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

“Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways; hence, there are an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, bonuses, subsidies, incentives, the progressive income tax, free education, the right to employment, the right to profit, the right to wages, the right to relief, the right to the tools of production, interest free credit, etc., etc. And it the aggregate of all these plans, in respect to what they have in common, legal plunder, that goes under the name of socialism.” ~ Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848 Essays, 61

“But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.” ~ Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848 "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat (1848) http://liberty-tree.ca/research/TheLaw

“I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.” ~ Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) 22nd & 24th US President, mayor and governor in New York state In 1887 when vetoing an appropriation to help drought-stricken counties in Texas

“We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not attempt to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” ~ Davy Crockett (1786-1836) American hunter, frontiersman, soldier and politician 1827, spoken on the floor of Congress concerning a proposed relief bill for the widow of a naval officer.

“We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money.” ~ Davy Crockett (1786-1836) American hunter, frontiersman, soldier and politician

“[It is not the purpose nor right of Congress] to attend to what generosity and humanity require, but to what the Constitution and their duty require.” ~ William Branch Giles (1762-1830) American statesman, US Senator and Congressman from Virginia, 24th Governor of Virginia 1796, spoken on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives concerning a proposed relief measure for fire victims.

“If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?” ~ William Drayton (1776-1846) US Congressman for South Carolina (1825-1833), banker, and author

“The Care therefore of every man's Soul belongs unto himself, and is to be left unto himself. But what if he neglect the Care of his Soul? I answer, What if he neglects the Care of his Health, or of his Estate, which things are nearlier related to the Government of the Magistrate than the other? Will the magistrate provide by an express Law, That such an one shall not become poor or sick? Laws provide, as much as is possible, that the Goods and Health of Subjects be not injured by the Fraud and Violence of others; they do not guard them from the Negligence or Ill-husbandry of the Possessors themselves.” ~ John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist A Letter Concerning Toleration [1689], Edited and Introduced by James H. Tully (Hacklett Publishing Company, 1983), p. 35

God Bless America!