"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:G2Wij.300291$Fc.57396@attbi_s21...

Actually, it does -- unless you don't believe an Air Force contributes to
the "common defence" of the country:

Article I, Section 8. "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..."


You didn't go far enough:


"...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 a 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
offenses 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, dockyards, 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."


If you wish to gain an understanding of the Constitution, the best sources
are James Madison's "Notes On the Constitutional Convention of 1787", "The
Federalist Papers", and "The Heritage Guide to the Constitution."