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Originally Posted by PKFFW
Do you have a problem with the government providing a police service? An education service? A fire department? A defence force? Waste and sanitation services? Roads and rail services?
These are all "socialized" services.
If you have no problem with those services being provided by government I really can't fathom why you would have a problem with socialized health care? Is health care any less of a universal need than any of the above?
Or should everyone be obliged to pay for their own personal security guards, tutors, fire brigade, army etc etc, like, it seems, they are required to pay for their health care?
Cheers,
PKFFW
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The 10th Amendment to the Constitution is the issue here. Bear in mind that the intent of the Constitution is to limit the powers of the federal government. Most of the first 10 amendments (the Bill of Rights) contain language saying "such and such right shall not be infringed" - in other words, the amendments are restricting the government from infringing on a right that is assumed, rather than that right being granted by the government.
The 10th Amendment states:
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The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
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Most of what you list are not services provided in the US by the federal government. They are appropriately provided by state and local governments. Until fairly recently, this amendment was the crux of a lot of the differences between liberals and conservatives in the US. (Recently of course, I'm not even sure that the two main parties know what they stand for - they seem to exist just to kick each other in the face.) To most conservatives, the Constitution contains no language granting Congress the power to manage a health care system. Therefore, Congress has no right to do so.
Congress can write an amendment granting that power, and try to get it through the ratification process.
The States are not limited in this case by the US constitution, but each state has it's own constitution that may (or may not) limit it.