Rand Paul equates right to health care to slavery

[lakhota]

Rand Paul: If You Believe In A Right To Health Care, ‘You Believe In Slavery’

Conservatives have slung all kinds of hyperbolic, outlandish, and phony attacks on attempts to provide health care to all Americans over the years, but tea party darling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may have taken the cake today when he equated universal health care with slavery. Speaking at a Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee hearing, Paul argued that if you believe people should have a right to health care, you believe in enslaving doctors, nurses, and hospital janitors:

PAUL: With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery.

I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.

Setting aside Paul’s healthy police state fever dream, by Paul’s logic, the Pope supports slavery. In November, the pontiff called health care one of the “inalienable rights” of man and said, “Justice in health care should be a priority of governments and international institutions.”

Paul is himself a (dubiously accredited) doctor, as he mentions. But while he bitterly condemns government spending, he’s also complained about the government cutting payments to doctors like him. Perhaps that’s a form of slavery too.

thinkprogress.org/2011/05/11/rand-paul-health-care-slavery/

[lakhota]

Catholic Scholars To Boehner: Your Agenda Defies ‘Church’s Most Ancient Moral Teachings’ On Helping Poor

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will give the commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Ahead of the visit, dozens of faculty members from the school and other other Catholic universities are writing to Boehner — who is himself an observant Catholic — challenging his willingness to “gut” social programs while protecting “new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings” of caring for the poor, they write:

Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.

The 2012 budget you shepherded to passage in the House of Representatives guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society. It is particularly cruel to pregnant women and children, gutting Maternal and Child Health grants and slashing $500 million from the highly successful Women Infants and Children nutrition program. When they graduate from WIC at age 5, these children will face a 20% cut in food stamps. The House budget radically cuts Medicaid and effectively ends Medicare. It invokes the deficit to justify visiting such hardship upon the vulnerable, while it carves out $3 trillion in new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

More: thinkprogress.org/2011/05/11/catholic-scholars-letter-boehner/

[fairlycrazy23]

In a way he is correct. A right can not be something that somebody else has to provide.

[lakhota]

Health Care as a Human Right

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, proclaimed that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care."

Although this statement of high principle was adopted at the urging of the United States, and although it reflects the truths of our nation's founding documents, our government has achieved neither formal recognition nor practical realization of these rights. Mass homelessness and the escalating health care crisis in the US are compelling evidence of our disregard for human rights. Sadly, our country is but one of many nations where grave offenses against the dignity of human beings are commonplace, and global enforcement of human rights remains a distant goal. In the US, however, the twin advantages of democratic institutions and great wealth provide the opportunity for our nation to implement the principles human rights. Implementation of human rights principles will lead inexorably to the elimination of mass homelessness.

A useful summary of the international agreements that establish and codify the human right to health care, entitled "The Right to Health Care in the United States: What Does it Mean?" has been published by the Center on Social and Economic Rights, and is available by clicking here or at CESR's website.

More: www.nhchc.org/humanright.html

[lakhota]

A right can not be something that somebody else has to provide.

Really? Think about that...

[fairlycrazy23]

May 11, 2011 22:57:37 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

A right can not be something that somebody else has to provide.

Really? Think about that...

Really really. I have thought about it.

[cereb]

Children have fundamental rights which are all provided for by others, such as the parent, the community and the state.


Just sayin.... ;D

[shelby]

"A right can not be something that somebody else has to provide."

I don't know I see it the same as the military protecting and providing our freedom or police protecting our personal rights and safety we do not pay directly for these things but through taxes. that might be a really dumb analogy but I see health care as something we can provide to all as a wealthy nation. but for some reason people find it so threatening for reasons I still cannot figure out. So many other things we can focus on that are so much more unjust and important than this, seems more of a distraction to the easily manipulated more than anything.

[hello fromWarsaw]

Health care as is is bankrupting the country. When was a doctor forced to practice...idiocy...

[fairlycrazy23]

What fundlemental right does a child have that is provided by the parent? The state does not provide rights it protects them, at least it should. And the services provided by the state , such as welfare, healthcare military police protection are not rights

[lakhota]

A right can not be something that somebody else has to provide.

Basic rights that fundamentally and inherently belong to each individual.

Human rights are freedoms established by custom or international agreement that impose standards of conduct on all nations. Human rights are distinct from civil liberties, which are freedoms established by the law of a particular state and applied by that state in its own jurisdiction.

Specific human rights include the right to personal liberty and Due Process of Law; to freedom of thought, expression, religion, organization, and movement; to freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, age, language, and sex; to basic education; to employment; and to property. Human rights laws have been defined by international conventions, by treaties, and by organizations, particularly the United Nations. These laws prohibit practices such as torture, Slavery, summary execution without trial, and Arbitrary detention or exile.

Much More: legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Basic+human+rights

Rights are meaningless unless they are allowed and protected.

[lakhota]

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (signed by U.S. in 1948)

Article 25

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

[magichat]

I would go one step further than Paul the taxes I pay to give healthcare to others is slavery. Paul didn't go far enough.

[chiver78]

May 12, 2011 7:26:36 GMT -5 @magichat said:

I would go one step further than Paul the taxes I pay to give healthcare to others is slavery. Paul didn't go far enough.

and the taxes I pay to bail out financial institutions that would otherwise go under is slavery too.

this is a stretch even for Rand Paul. keep talking, buddy.

[magichat]

May 12, 2011 7:31:14 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

May 12, 2011 7:26:36 GMT -5 @magichat said:

I would go one step further than Paul the taxes I pay to give healthcare to others is slavery. Paul didn't go far enough.

and the taxes I pay to bail out financial institutions that would otherwise go under is slavery too.

this is a stretch even for Rand Paul. keep talking, buddy.

I was one of the most vehemently opposed to the financial bailouts and yes i would equate that unconstitutional steaming pile of BS that is TARP and the Obama bailouts as slavery.

[ugonow]

I would go one step further than Paul the taxes I pay to give healthcare to others is slavery. Paul didn't go far enough.

So social security,medicare, public libraries.roads etc are all forms of slavery?

[ugonow]

No,I don't think so at all. But I also don't think they are slavery. I choose to live here.I can pack up and move somewhere where I can be free from all that bad stuff at any time.

[ugonow]

Are vets slaveowners because they use the VA system? In that system, the facilities actually are government owned and the providers are government employees.

[ugonow]

My entitlement is a right. Yours is just wasteful pork. Ask politicians.

[magichat]

May 12, 2011 7:59:50 GMT -5 ugonow said:

No,I don't think so at all. But I also don't think they are slavery. I choose to live here.I can pack up and move somewhere where I can be free from all that bad stuff at any time.

Since I would prefer a constitutional form of government I need to GTFO?

[ugonow]

Did I say that? I said I have a choice to move if I find SS,medicare,roads,libraries to be slavery. I can move somewhere there are none of these. Thus it would not be slavery.

[magichat]

May 12, 2011 8:18:16 GMT -5 ugonow said:

Did I say that? I said I have a choice to move if I find SS,medicare,roads,libraries to be slavery. I can move somewhere there are none of these. Thus it would not be slavery.

Many of the items you discuss are unconstitutional. Libraries and roads done at the state or even local level allow a person to choose where to move and would be in line with state's rights.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 11, 2011 22:38:46 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

Rand Paul: If You Believe In A Right To Health Care, ‘You Believe In Slavery’

Conservatives have slung all kinds of hyperbolic, outlandish, and phony attacks on attempts to provide health care to all Americans over the years, but tea party darling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may have taken the cake today when he equated universal health care with slavery. Speaking at a Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee hearing, Paul argued that if you believe people should have a right to health care, you believe in enslaving doctors, nurses, and hospital janitors:

PAUL: With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery.

I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.

Setting aside Paul’s healthy police state fever dream, by Paul’s logic, the Pope supports slavery. In November, the pontiff called health care one of the “inalienable rights” of man and said, “Justice in health care should be a priority of governments and international institutions.”

Paul is himself a (dubiously accredited) doctor, as he mentions. But while he bitterly condemns government spending, he’s also complained about the government cutting payments to doctors like him. Perhaps that’s a form of slavery too.

thinkprogress.org/2011/05/11/rand-paul-health-care-slavery/

It's pretty hard to expound upon what he is saying. It's very straight forward. Healthcare isn't a right, it's a good, or a service. There are no unalienable rights to goods and services.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

And since when do liberals care what the Pope has to say? I love how libs drag out Jesus, Christianity, and the Pontiff when it suits them-- when they seem to think they've found an instance where Christianity promotes socialism...Hey, Libs: THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

[jkapp]

May 12, 2011 7:55:42 GMT -5 ugonow said:

I would go one step further than Paul the taxes I pay to give healthcare to others is slavery. Paul didn't go far enough.

So social security,medicare, public libraries.roads etc are all forms of slavery?

SS and Med are involuntary programs that all working people must pay for, so yes those are slavery. (Our wages are forcefully confiscated with threat of fines and imprisonment)

Depending on how the taxes/funds were raised for the library it may be similar...road taxes are voluntary for the most part as people can choose not to drive and not pay gas taxes. If other taxes are created for roads, though, it could, again, be an example of slavery.

When there is no choice and government (slavemaster) is in the background threatening penalties then it is slavery...if the slaves don't work the fields (contribute) they are whipped.

Public Libraries and roads could also be slavery if people are forced to work there or create them. For instance, if the government came to a librarian's house and forced them to open up the library so some kid could get a book, then that would be conscription. The same as if the government rounded up a bunch of construction workers and told them they would spend the next few months building a road, no ifs, ands, or buts.

[jkapp]

May 12, 2011 8:18:16 GMT -5 ugonow said:

Did I say that? I said I have a choice to move if I find SS,medicare,roads,libraries to be slavery. I can move somewhere there are none of these. Thus it would not be slavery.

Slaves could run away too...it didn't make them any less slaves, did it?

[ugonow]

imo,SS and medicare are closer to socialist programs than slavery.Wealth is taken from one group for the benefit of another.

[magichat]

May 12, 2011 8:51:10 GMT -5 ugonow said:

imo,SS and medicare are closer to socialist programs than slavery.Wealth is taken from one group for the benefit of another.

Can't it be both? You are only looking at one side of the equation, where the money goes. I am looking at where it comes from. I need to make a living, I'm not a breatharian (look it up) and the government confiscates some of my living to give it to others who did not earn it.

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

people should have a right to health care, you believe in enslaving doctors, nurses, and hospital janitors:

Suddenly those people would be working without wages? The slavery thing is silly. Next stop: UR Hitler!

Healthcare isn't a right, it's a good, or a service. There are no unalienable rights to goods and services.

So then, the Second Amendment is a service too. 99.99% of people can't bear arms without buying a gun and bullets. What about the right for a lawyer to represent you in a trial?

Right To Health Care

I don't think they turn away people at Emergency Room for any reason. So to a point, it's a right, it's how far we want to go.

Many of the items you discuss are unconstitutional.

Because it's not in the Constitution, ergo it's unconstitutional?

[magichat]

Bingo Mkitty go look at the Article One Section 8 of the Constitution.