‘Not a right’ reprise
Both replies [“Callous and bogus claims,” by Hank Gorfein, and “Stay well, Mr. Klaus,” by MarySherman Willis, June 1] to my letter [“Not a right, a benefit,” May 25] argue from emotion, not reality.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if . . .” does not make a society and culture that can thrive in the real world, which (as I pointed out) has been cold and cruel since we left the Garden of Eden.
Neither dealt with the fundamental premise of socialist society, which is to TAKE from one and GIVE to another. Different from our society, intellectually codified in the Declaration — “. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — and codified into law in the Constitution.
First, Abuse of Language: the “welfare” of the preamble — “promote the general welfare”
— does not refer to the welfare programs adopted here in the last century, it refers to the English word meaning “the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). You will notice their objective was to “promote” the “general” welfare, not to “provide” an “individual” benefit, by structuring it with laws that encourage “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to flourish.
Whether Mr. Gorfein expects my doctor to directly provide his labor for my health care, unpaid, or whether he expects an auto mechanic trying to support their family to be taxed to pay my doctor, is only quibbling about the ultimate bill-payer. The fundamental truth of either is that socialism would, by force, have someone else surrender their “pursuit of happiness” for my benefit. It also doesn’t matter if the mechanic lives in Harrisonburg or Topeka, KS, which is the only significant difference between accepting or refusing federal Medicaid (the other difference being that the federal aid is deficit spending, which means the next generation — non-voters in 2018 — gets the bill). Obamacare does both, and even Obamacare only provides Medicaid subsidies for a few years, long enough for the patient to get hooked on the opium; then passes the bill back into the states. The politicians are only arguing about WHEN who pays the bill, not whether it will be passed along.
The Europeans that Mr. Gorfein would have us emulate are all going broke and losing their culture. They are heading slowly (not so much, lately) towards where Chavez took Venezuela in only a decade. If you want a socialist government, move. If you want the freedom that let our nation prosper, it entails personal responsibility: stay here and elect representatives who have read our founding documents with a little thought and less emotion. Oh, and the Bible tells us to PERSONALLY care for our “brothers”, not to dump that burden on government. Government cannot make health and happiness appear; they only take it from someone else to give to you (for your vote). Healthcare cannot be a “right”, and therefore it can not be the responsibility of our governments to distribute.
BOB KLAUS Amissville