Health care debate should not ignore fundamental founding principles

“The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right. The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. In monarchies, the interests and happiness of all may be sacrificed to the caprice and passions of a despot. In aristocracies, the rights and welfare of the many may be sacrificed to the pride and cupidity of the few. In republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.”
          — James Madison, speech in the Virginia Constitutional Convention, Dec. 2, 1829

When it comes to fundamentals, it is always wise to consult the Founders.

That’s what I did when I read The Associated Press story declaring that the Democratic legislation on health care reform would make health care a right — at the expense of medical providers, employers and the wealthy. These are the minorities those rights are being denied, not the poor without health insurance.

You cannot have a right that comes at the expense of the rights, property and freedom of another. That defies the natural and divine law embraced by our Founders.

To take the labor of a doctor or nurse or receptionist and demand they give it to someone else is little more than indentured servitude, which, if I recall, was barred by the 13th Amendment. To take the property of employers and the wealthy, however that is defined, is theft.

“I have read the charts and seen the numbers repeated by those who oppose fixing our broken health care system – charts that warn about what it will take to do what we need to do,” The New York Times quotes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as saying. “But it’s as if they haven’t bothered to do the math on the costs of doing nothing. Health care reform is economic reform.”

"There's going to be a major debate over the next three weeks," President Barack Obama said in Warren, Mich., Tuesday. "And don't be fooled by folks trying to scare you saying we can't change the health care system. We have no choice but to change the health care system because right now it's broken for too many Americans."

That debate should include questions about the caprice and passions, about the pride and cupidity that would have us abandon fundamental liberties and principles for an expedience.