Posted on 12/19/2009 5:27:06 PM PST by Jim Robinson
In the continually harsh public discourse over the President’s proposals for federally-managed healthcare, the Big Government progressives in both the Democratic and the Republican parties have been trying to trick us. These folks, who really want the government to care for us from cradle to grave, have been promoting the idea that health care is a right. In promoting that false premise, they have succeeded in moving the debate from WHETHER the feds should micro-manage health care to HOW the feds should micro-manage health care. This is a false premise, and we should reject it. Health care is not a right; it is a good, like food, like shelter, and like clothing.
What is a right? A right is a gift from God that extends from our humanity. Thinkers from St. Thomas Aquinas, to Thomas Jefferson, to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Pope John Paul II have all argued that our rights are a natural part of our humanity. We own our bodies, thus we own the gifts that emanate from our bodies. So, our right to life, our right to develop our personalities, our right to think as we wish, to say what we think, to publish what we say, our right to worship or not worship, our right to travel, to defend ourselves, to use our own property as we see fit, our right to due process—fairness—from the government, and our right to be left alone, are all rights that stem from our humanity. These are natural rights that we are born with. The government doesn’t give them to us and the government doesn’t pay for them and the government can’t take them away, unless a jury finds that we have violated someone else’s rights.
What is a good? A good is something we want or need. In a sense, it is the opposite of a right. We have our rights from birth, but we need our parents when we are children and we need ourselves as adults to purchase the goods we require for existence. So, food is a good, shelter is a good, clothing is a good, education is a good, a car is a good, legal representation is a good, working out at a gym is a good, and access to health care is a good. Does the government give us goods? Well, sometimes it takes money from some of us and gives that money to others. You can call that taxation or you can call it theft; but you cannot call it a right.
A right stems from our humanity. A good is something you buy or someone else buys for you.
Now, when you look at health care for what it is, when you look at the US Constitution, when you look at the history of human freedom, when you accept the American value of the primacy of the individual over the fleeting wishes of the government, it becomes apparent that those who claim that healthcare is a right simply want to extend a form of government welfare.
When I make this argument to my Big Government friends, they come back at me with…well, if people don’t have health insurance, they will just go to hospitals and we will end up paying for them anyway. Why should that be? We don’t let people steal food from a supermarket or an apartment from a landlord or clothing from a local shop. Why do we let them take healthcare from a hospital without paying for itl? Well, my Big Government friends contend, that’s charity.
They are wrong again. It is impossible to be charitable with someone else’s money. Charity comes from your own heart, not from the government spending your money. When we pay our taxes to the government and it gives that money away, that’s not charity, that’s welfare. When the government takes more from us than it needs to secure our freedoms, so it can have money to give away, that’s not charity, that’s theft. And when the government forces hospitals to provide free health care to those who can’t or won’t care for themselves, that’s not charity, that’s slavery. That’s why we now have constitutional chaos, because the government steals and enslaves, and we outlawed that a long time ago.
* It is impossible to be charitable with someone else’s money.
* When we pay our taxes to the government and it gives that money away, that’s not charity, that’s welfare.
* When the government takes more from us than it needs to secure our freedoms, so it can have money to give away, that’s not charity, that’s theft.
* When the government forces hospitals to provide free health care to those who can’t or won’t care for themselves, that’s not charity, that’s slavery.
Why doesn’t Judge Napolitano run for president?
Great article. Wonder if he’s willing to take the reigns on ‘this truth’ and run with it?
"When is a good not a good? When it's a right?"
"Idiots, 6th Amendment, nuts and abortion, right to life"
are the tag words in response to the Judge's commentary.
An entitlement is where some other party is obligated to provide you with a good or service.
The big Leftist con is to confuse rights with entitlements.
That all sounds great, but it doesn’t matter if the American people are so stupid as to 40-50% of them think that Healthcare is a right and don’t know it is redistribution of wealth. It also doesn’t matter if the 40 Republicans don’t do anything to stop it. Remember, the Fox News audience is already sold, and on the right side. The Left doesn’t even recognize the Constitution...they recognize European laws, “feel good”, reparations, and jury nullification-esque activities as their duties.
We don’t have enough time to wait until Monday to find out what Rush thinks, etc. I wish we had a pulse on the real activities on our side that have merit and possibility from here forward.
That all sounds great, but it doesn’t matter if the American people are so stupid as to 40-50% of them think that Healthcare is a right and don’t know it is redistribution of wealth. It also doesn’t matter if the 40 Republicans don’t do anything to stop it. Remember, the Fox News audience is already sold, and on the right side. The Left doesn’t even recognize the Constitution...they recognize European laws, “feel good”, reparations, and jury nullification-esque activities as their duties.
We don’t have enough time to wait until Monday to find out what Rush thinks, etc. I wish we had a pulse on the real activities on our side that have merit and possibility from here forward.
The Judge nailed it!
HOORAY Judge Andrew Napolitano! (this has got to be your best work ever...so... WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN ON OTHER ISSUES?)
Spectacular!
Thanks for posting this Jim.
This guy sounds like one of those crazy Ron Paul types. Off with his head! < / sarc >
This gives me hope that this law can be thrown out. I just hope that conservatives jump on this, because I expect liberals to also challenge this law in court with the intent on losing and creating bad precedence.
bump
His defense of Christianity at the end was the best I ever heard on TV! 3 cheers for the Judge!
His defense of Christianity at the end was the best I ever heard on TV! 3 cheers for the Judge!
Napolitano’s close is also excellent (2 minute video):
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d46_1261204766
Amen.
BUMP!
Thanks for posting this Jim. The judge nails it as he often does.
Does anyone but the choir listen?
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