Health Care Reform; Fact of Fiction

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the Government wants every citizen to prove they are insured, But people don't have to prove they are citizens". Ben Stein

Here are some of the comments that quote elicited;

"Go Govs Walker and Kasich go"

"After all of the sacrifices the revolutionizes endured we're trashing our freedom"

"The Orwellian part is coming"

"Taxing corporations is an illusion"

"I have worked my whole life and know if you get it free someone else paid for it"

"that's communism and not what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the constitution"

"But taxing my wealth for his benefit is communism"

"I have the right not to subsidize his folly through taxation and government subsidies"

I'm not a Constitutional scholar like some of those who made comments. I'm not a Constitutional lawyer like our President. I've never run for political office of any color. I don't think of myself as a political activist or a religious zealot. I vote against taxes as a principal. If it's a good one, people will know and out vote me. If it's a well sold bad one people will still out vote me. Regretfully, the latter is still in the majority.

I'm not a member of the Republican party, the Democratic party, the Liberal party, the tea party, or the birthday party. I try not to put much stock in pundits' remarks or the remarks of those who agree with them. Or disagree with them. However, I wonder when Mr. Stein last voted. Or renewed his driver's license. Or applied for a passport. Or if he registered with his draft board. In each of those cases the citizen must prove to the government he or she is a citizen. So, can anyone tell me about what government Ben Stein is speaking?

I wasn't there when the Constitution of the United States was drafted. I didn't have a chance to discuss it with the committee members before the final draft was complete and finally signed, so I can't with any certainty tell you what they meant by the phrase, "promote the general Welfare".

Whoa! What was that? Am I trying to tell you the word "welfare" is in the Constitution of the United States of America?! Well, no, I'm not. I don't have to, it's there. If you take a moment to read the preamble, you might see that whole phrase in there along with a couple other interesting ones such as, "form a more perfect union" and "establish justice", and "We the People." I find it intriguing that a comma was not used and the opening phrase is "We the People". I wonder if that means just you and me? How about your wife's family? Not uncle Zebediah, though, because he was a little touched in the head so was just a little bit different from you and me. Nope, he's not one of "We the People". What about the Baptist two blocks over? What about the Shi'ite Muslim and that Sikh that attend the same school as your kids. Maybe they were born here to Americans, but do you think they should be included in "We the People"?

OK, enough of the abstract. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. To quote Robert Heinlein, "TANSTAAFL". There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Free medical care; someone's gong to pay for it. A road in front of your house? You didn't pay for it, or not much more than a couple feet of it. Your house in which you feel relatively safe from attack from outside the boarders of America; you paid for maybe 5 minutes of the safety if that much, and that's all you get for the rest of the year. Don't like subsidies? Well, you'd better get ready for your grocery bill to quadruple over night.

It's just my perspective, but every argument I've heard against the current health care law is made by people who already have adequate health care or who have been bamboozled into believing they shouldn't have it. The arguments run the gamut from the organization of death committees (already in place in every health insurance company who have the power of life and death of the people they insure by controlling what treatments they receive) to raising your taxes to an unholy high, to "it will take away your freedom."

I submit that it is the responsibility of all Americans, as We the People, to stop begrudging help to those in need, food to those who are hungry, or care to those who are unable to care for themselves. If that means my taxes have to go up, then so be it. If you can come up with an unselfish argument against health care reform or even universal health care I'd love to hear it. It is not 1776 and the dynamics of society have changed dramatically. But the basic premise of our Constitution remains to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

Quotes: http://mplamka.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/healthcare-fact-or-fiction/