If it's not in the Constitution, it’s not a right

Jayson Osborne’s June 26 letter to the editor (“Universal coverage should be a right”) demonstrates even more ignorance of civics than it does of economics.

To his credit, he at least seems to recognize that universal healthcare would come at a staggering cost to all of us.

And while I disagree with his conclusion that we should pay for it anyway, he’s more realistic than many of his peers who don’t know or care where the money would come from — as long as it’s not out of their pocket.

Not directly, that is.

Since I gather young Mr. Osborne has never paid taxes in his life, I’ll chalk up his willingness to bankrupt the economy to youthful idealism.

I’m actually more appalled, however, by his suggestion that universal healthcare is (or even should be) a basic right, since those concepts should be clear in the mind of every American before they graduate from junior high school.

Under our system of government, term “rights” refers to those protected freedoms

spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.

Taxpayer-subsidized healthcare, the last time I looked, is not one of these.

Which means it isn’t a right — and won’t a right be unless you amend the Constitution. But until you do, you can’t make something a right just because you wish it was.

Lest we forget, Consti-tutional rights, as defined by the founding fathers, come from our Creator, not government, and they include such basic protections as the ability to express ourselves without fear of penalty and the right not to be deprived of our freedom or property without due process.

Is Mr. Osborne seriously suggesting his Creator en-dowed him with the inalienable right to force me to pay his medical bills?

No one would be more shocked by that interpretation than the great men who actually wrote Constitution and envisioned a limited government that promoted self-reliance.

While I don’t know Mr. Osborne, I’m certain he is a compassionate, generous young man. But his good intentions don’t entitle him to be compassionate and generous with my tax dollars — let alone to pretend that the nation’s founding document gives him the right to do so when it obviously doesn’t.

J.M. MEZZANOTTE

Port Orchard

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