Left Planning Assault on the Constitution in the Name of Health Care

Get used to listening to weak arguments from the left about so-called rights as they use every argument they can think of to justify the further expansion of the size and scope of government.

Today’s silliness comes from Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. who argues for a Marxist amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Jackson says the “right” to receive health care should be enshrined by way of amendment:

Because our current economic crisis is forcing us to think outside the box, one topic worthy of renewed discussion is health care. What if the Constitution said: “All citizens shall enjoy the right to health care of equal high quality and the Congress shall have the power to implement this article by appropriate legislation?”

Beyond the obvious benefits of greater and better health care itself, imagine the economic consequences: thousands of doctors and nurses being trained; new medical colleges established and older ones expanded; increased medical research; a massive preventive health care industry springing up; new hospitals in needy urban and rural areas with the private sector, federal, state, county and local governments all working cooperatively under the authority granted by the Constitution and Congress.

The absence of this human right as a health care constitutional amendment has major economic consequences as well. Preventive medicine is almost entirely missing from our current health care system, which costs taxpayers billions.

Of course, even without an amendment, Congress can pass legislation granting universal and comprehensive health care to all Americans. That’s possible and candidate Barack Obama promised to do so in his first term in office. However, while high quality health care for all Americans can be established without a constitutional amendment, it can’t be sustained without such an amendment. Future presidents and Congresses are under no legal obligation to continue past legislative programs. For the new wall of health care to be built and sustained for as long as the nation exists it must have a constitutional foundation!

How can we afford such a system? Without a constitutional right to health care we already spend nearly twice as much as any other developed nation in the world — about $2.5 trillion or 16% of our GDP — yet nearly fifty million Americans are without health insurance and often receive their care in the most expensive manner possible, in the local hospital emergency room. […]