“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
-Thomas Jefferson
The current health-care debate has reached a fevered pitch across our nation, with defenders on both sides of the issue offering their learned opinions. In the Part I of this blog, I will examine what the U.S. Constitution has to say about the proposed approaches from our legislature. In Part II, which I will post in the next few days, I will use facts, history and logic to expose the deception and hypocrisy foisted upon us by our government's attempt to “reform” health care. I will also offer some concrete suggestions to address the issue of spiraling health-care costs and offer free-market alternatives to ensure access to those unable to afford insurance.
With regard to the Constitution, let's look at Section 8: The Powers of Congress, as a starting point. This sections reads as:
"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States."
Let's be clear about this. The framers of the Constitution undoubtedly wanted the federal government to have access to money through the imposition taxes; this is beyond dispute and was upheld by the Federalist papers, the document created by the Founding Fathers that provides both justification for and elaboration of, the Constitution. However, the proposition underlying this ability to tax has to take into account the historical context. The fledgling United States was a fragile union, beset by powerful real and potential enemies. The need to raise and maintain a vigilant and effective military was the most pressing issue. As Alexander Hamilton stated: “The result from all this is that the Union ought to be invested with full power to levy troops; to build and equip fleets; and to raise the revenues which will be required for the formation and support of an army and navy, in the customary and ordinary modes practiced in other governments.” (Federalist 23) And although the Federalist papers defend this power to tax, the catch is in the last part of Section 8: "but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." This means that the taxation should not favor one portion of society at the expense of the other. The new health-care legislation, regardless of the house it emanates from, violates both the letter and spirit of this clause. By taxing the wealthy to supply for those less fortunate, you are playing favoritism, which ultimately compromises the integrity of the republic because it buys representatives votes from the public, leading to the entrenched political power structures. As Hamilton noted:
"BEFORE we proceed to examine any other objections to an indefinite power of taxation in the Union, I shall make one general remark; which is, that if the jurisdiction of the national government, in the article of revenue, should be restricted to particular objects, it would naturally occasion an undue proportion of the public burdens to fall upon those objects. Two evils would spring from this source: the oppression of particular branches of industry; and an unequal distribution of the taxes, as well among the several States as among the citizens of the same State.” (Federalist 23) And to those who invoke the “general welfare” phrase as evidence of the some inherent right of the government to dictatorially collect taxes at will, consider the words of James Madison, who is considered to be the “father” of the Constitution: "With respect to the two words 'general welfare', I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." Madison also wrote, "If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."
The health care legislation perpetrates these “evils” in several forms: it punishes small business by imposing fees should they not provide health insurance for their employees, whether or not they can afford it; it selectively singles out and penalizes, through the use of fines, insurance companies that do not comply with regulations; it imposes this taxation unequally on the wealthy, and it willfully perverts the intention and the nature of the Constitution. How much longer should we, as a free people, allow the government to violate the Constitution and impose their will upon us in a manner inconsistent with liberty and the principles our national and political identity was founded on?
