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Monday, April 07, 2008
Neal Boortz :: Townhall.com Columnist
Who's "Right"
by Neal Boortz
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Will Sarah Palin make a run at the GOP Nomination in 2012?


A typical column runs some 800 words.

For some subjects, that’s far too many. One case in point: your “right” to health care.

Among the rights guaranteed (not “given” as Bill Clinton believes) to you in our Constitution are:

Freedom of religion
Freedom of speech
The right to peaceably assemble.
The right to petition the government
The right to keep and bear arms
The right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures
Protection from double jeopardy
Due process
A speedy and public trial by jury
The right to legal counsel when charged with a crime

With one exception, the right to representation in court and a trial by jury, these rights require nothing of any other citizen but that they recognize your rights and not interfere with them.

Your “right to health care” would require some other person to give up a portion of their life or their property to either treat you or to provide you with drugs or medical implements. The Constitution does not provide for another individual to be indentured to you in this manner.

Therefore, you have no “right” to health care.

Deal with it.

Point made in only 200 words. That’s short and sweet.

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About The Author

Neal Boortz is a talk show host and columnist for Townhall.com as well as co-author of The FairTax Book .

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(196 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Apr 12, 2008 - 10:11 PM EST
"The general welfare" vs Welfare
I didn't read the original question. C'mon, you don't actually think by "the general welfare", the framers of our Constitution were actually imagining an income redistribution plan which would take some 150 years to implement???

The general welfare means that all citizens are free to go about their business with the reasonable expectation of being unmolested by the force of others, and all can expect equal treatment before the law (the law being the behavior of the government, not of its constituents). It doesn't even come CLOSE to meaning equality of result, distribution of income, freedom from insult, or otherwise suspending the laws of reality to create cosmic justice for the unfortunate.
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Reply # 2
Date: Apr 12, 2008 - 9:51 PM EST
Ability vs freedom
Liberty has nothing to do with "ability" to do a thing. Liberty is the freedom to act without using, or being subjected to, physical force. You are correct about property taxes. But you are NOT correct about ownership. Property taxes are merely the legal plunder of privately owned property. You are taking for granted the right of the state to operate in its present manner. This is a mistake. The violation of a right doesn't negate the right, it makes the violator a bandit, and whether that is legal or illegal is a testament to the rightness or wrongness of the law.

"Individual liberty", from your wiki quote above, is a redundancy. A country is only as free as its citizens. Liberty can only be the province of the individual. A government which exercises "liberty" over its citizens (even ostensibly for their "benefit" or "welfare") is tyranny.
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