Friday, August 14, 2009

Government Run Health Care Part 3

It amazes me that this Health Care discussion has simply ignored the constitution. This is our founding document and creates the pact between the people, the state governments and the Federal government. In fact, this is what brought the federal government into existence. Its every word and phrase is designed to clearly limit the authority of the federal government to a short, explicit list of functions, leaving all else to the states or the people.

That short list, embodied in Article 1 Section 8 absolutely does NOT contain health care as a federal function. Of course, that has never stopped them from doing the myriad things they do under the "elastic" clause as they have misnamed the commerce clause. Most of the things they have done in this vein have been terrible for the nation and it is time we started demanding compliance with the founding charter of the government. A government that ignores its founding charter is not a legitimate government but just a gang of thieves writ large.

Are the following things appropriate for a nation that considers itself free?
1. Force, at gun point, all employers to buy health insurance for all employees or pay a large penalty fee based on payroll.
2. Force, at gun point, anyone not otherwise covered to buy a government approved health insurance policy or pay a penalty tax.
3. Take money from people, deemed to rich to complain, at gun point, extra taxes, over and above what everyone else pays to supply health insurance to others.
4. Prevent people, at gun point, from spending their own money to buy health care if refused by the government system. Refusal based on something called comparative effectiveness or, in effect, setting a maximum payout per year of extended life. (I think this is what Sarah Palin meant by death panels except there will be no panel to argue with. Just a bureaucrat with a calculator.)

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