Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
It's right there in the preamble to our Constitution: "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
(Please forgive my adding emphasis to lines I feel to be especially relevant to this discussion.)
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Actually, the word "perfect" in the Constitution means "complete." It's an archaic usage.
As for "promoting the general welfare," that's a moving target, and our idea of what the general welfare is today is quite a bit different than it was back then. So things change, and maybe health care really is within the scope of the term these days.
The problem is that government run health care will, in my view, DEmote the general welfare, in a manner of speaking. When the government pays for your medical care, you will only get the medical care the government thinks you should have.
The words following the "general welfare" phrase are "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity." When the government takes over health care, and the citizens no longer have the right to access health care except on government terms, where is our liberty?
We have to be careful about that general welfare clause. If we are not careful, it can expand to sweep away our liberty.