Posted on 01/20/2011 8:03:18 PM PST by The Looking Spoon
CNS News quotes Democratic Congressman from Georgia, John Lewis...
"Well, when you start off with the Preamble of the Constitution, you talk about the pursuit of happiness," said Lewis. "You go to the 14th Amendment--it's equal protection under the law and we have not repealed the 14th Amendment. People have a right to have health care. It's not a privilege but a right." More here
Maybe he's right, if the pursuit of happiness is the burden we place on whether or not something should be a right then there are a few other things we should mandate as rights under the happiness clause.... Food
Those would be a good start...
Wait a second, if the government forces me to have anything, am I actually pursuing or is it being forced down my throat. Maybe we should change the preamble of the constitution, to make Congressman Lewis happy, to say "Life, Liberty and the guarantee to be Righteously Gagged."
The only obstacle to this change is the fact that " Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is in the Declaration of Independence.
Is this what Ezra Klein meant when he said the Constitution was hard to understand?
Clothing
Houses
A Harvard education
Cell phones
Video games
A date with Megan Fox
Free pizza when Michelle isn't looking
Forcing Biden's resignation
The View, starring Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and....that's it.
Banning the use of "reform," "progressive," "dollar," "America" and any other word liberals have ruined.
Wipe out the remainder of Chris Matthews's audience by hiring them to be cameramen for some other show
Legally changing Joy Behar's name, because she isn't one.
Abortion on demand if doctors can determine the fetus isn't actually alive, aka Larry King Syndrome
Allowing hardware stores to having a broom purchased by Pelosi to check for a valid pilot's license.
Not allowing Congress to convene until they win a round of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader
Sarah Palin going green if liberals can push her into becoming the Hulk
I believe is the way Jefferson wrote it.
If it’s your right, someone else has to be forced to provide you that care, i.e. a slave.
No, it’s not a right.
Might have been better if he stuck with “persuit of property” as I heard he first thought.
What a bunch of ignoramuses.
The phrase “the pursuit of happiness” is in the Declaration of Independence, not the Preamble to the Constitution.
Illiterate and ignorant is no way to go through Congress.
Is that near Judiciary Chairman Conyers good and welfare clause?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0VYOa2BRbg
What happens when someones pursuit of happiness interferes with someone else’s? Like robbing a bank?
Idiots, swore an oath to the Constitution and haven't even read it much less understood it. These people are too stupid to be voting much less “governing” or legislating. Next thing you know they will tell us Hawaii tipped over and Obama’s birth certificate floated out to sea...
The ignorance in getting the reference wrong aside; Jefferson wrote of the pursuit of happiness not the guarantee of happiness. We are intended to have an unfettered chance at pursuing our own happiness, charting our own course. Whether or not we catch it is up to our own abilities and determination.
read
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/01/06/house.constitution/index.html
Really? There is a pursuit of happiness clause?/sarc
I therefore demand a shampoo boy.
You can’t have a Right for one Citizen that enslaves another Citizen. (Unless you are a Democrat enslaving a Republican of course).
“...By ‘liberty,’ as thus used, is meant something more than freedom from physical restraint or imprisonment. It means freedom, not merely to go wherever one may choose, but to do such acts as he may judge best for his interest not inconsistent with the equal rights of others; that is, to follow such pursuits as may be best adapted to his faculties, and which will give to him the highest enjoyment....”
I don't believe that a right to receive health care from the public purse is consistent with the traditional definition of the pursuit of happiness.
“Life, Liberty and Property” is part of the Due Process clause in the Fifth Amendment. Too bad our elected officials are so ignorant of the document they have sworn to uphold.
If health care is my right, do I also have the right to choose my practitioners?
Can I choose myself, and write my own prescriptions, without state boards and DEA quibbles about licenses?
Can I prescribe hunting therapy for my frazzled nerves?
Will the pharmacist have to provide me with the necessary license, tags, weapons, and ammo; all with no interference from BATF or state game departments?
Oh, and it would make me ever so much happier if I had some of those nifty camo clothes & accessories for all seasons....
This really opens up some interesting possibilities, Mister Congressman!
I demand an olympic sized pool of cherry jello and an endless supply of Playboy playmates. That, and multiple orbital mind control satellites plus remote control interface.
(and that’s only the appetizer necessary for my happiness)
:-P
A “right” is something you are entitled to as long as no one else is forced to obey.
Try exercising your right to health care on a desert island.
Our first mistake was not picking our own cotton.
Exactly.
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