Legislation is "always based on care for the public," the pontiff pontificated.  Only a naïve child could believe such a thing.

The pope said these things in the context of imploring the Congress to adopt some kind of Soviet-style central planning of the economy in the name of "fighting global warming," while simultaneously exploding American welfare state spending by extending welfare benefits to all welfare parasites from every Third World nation on the planet.  Thus, if "Catholic social teaching" stands for anything these days, it stands for international socialism and egalitarianism gone wild.

In the context of politics there is no such thing as "the common good," for such a concept implies unanimity and politics is never unanimous, especially in a country of over 300 million people.  Moreover, if everyone agrees on a course of action, then there is no need for government to coerce us into doing it.  There is no need for government at all in such instances.

As Ludwig von Mises pointed out in his book, Liberalism, the only sense in which "the common good" or "the public interest" makes any sense is in the case were property rights are well protected.