A website called Freedom Works postd and article on Monday about the philosphical problem with Obamacare.  It comes down to the definition of a few words we use very casually–rights and charity. 

The article reports on some of the obvious problems with Obamacare:

“The unintended consequences of ObamaCare keep rolling in. Insurance prices are skyrocketing, major health insurers have stopped offering child-only policies and we may soon be facing a huge doctor shortage. It comes as no big surprise that health care law will end up costing more than originally thought. A new report from Cornell economist Richard Burkhauser and his colleagues warns that ObamaCare could cost at least $ 50 billion more per year than previous Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates.”

But there are some other very interesting points in the article.  The article points out sone basic facts about the concept of rights:

“Most politicians -and unfortunately many Americans–believe that health care is a right. This is a perversion of the idea of rights. As the Declaration of Independence states, Americans have the unalienable right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Note that none of these things require anything of anybody else.”

The government, which is paying for Obamacare, has no money of its own.  All the money the government has comes from the taxpayers.  When did it become a right of some Americans to simply take money from other Americans? 

The article further states:

“We are not entitled to health care. Economics professor Walter Williams writes that “true rights, such as those in our Constitution, or those considered to be natural or human rights, exist simultaneously among people. That means exercise of a right by one person does not diminish those held by another… For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else’s rights, namely their rights to their earnings.” Where’s the compassion for taxpayers–who are forced to foot the bill?”

The article concludes:

“Genuine compassion is when you reach into your own pockets to help out the less fortunate. Reaching into other people’s pockets and forcing them to pay for compulsory government programs is false philanthropy and should not be considered noble.”

Unfortunately, we have forgotten our roots.  Taking money from one person and giving it to another is robbery.  You can call it anything you want, but it is robbery.  It is amazing that when the statistics are known, conservatives give a much higher percentage of their income to charity than liberals.  Conservatives understand the responsibility of wealth and the need for compassion, liberals just like spending other peoples’ money.  It’s time we realized that the government should not be in charge of compassion.