Thousand-page bills, unread and indeed unwritten at the time of passage, are the death of representative government. They also provide a clue as to why, in a country this large, national government should be minimal and constrained. Even if you doubled or trebled the size of the legislature, the Conyers conundrum would still hold: No individual can read these bills and understand what he's voting on. That's why the bulk of these responsibilities should be left to states and subsidiary jurisdictions, which can legislate on such matters at readable length and in comprehensible language.
As a corollary to this, where in the Constitution does the federal government derive the authority to legislate a healthcare mandate?
Re. the Constitution, it occurs to me that of all of the freedoms enumerated in the Constitution, none are economic. That is, none of our God given rights require or have an economic cost. So, indeed, where in the Constitution is the basis for a right to health care? A right to equal access along with the responsibility to pay for the real cost of services I can buy; but, nowhere can I infer the responsibility of others to pay for services simply because one has not the wherewithall to afford the service. Yes, we pay taxes to insure the common defense and domestic tranquility, those are a far cry from an individual's healthcare.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
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