Promoted from the diaries by Jeff
At one of the McCain-Obama debates in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, the candidates were asked in turn if health care were a right or a privilege. Obama answered unequivocally that it was a right, while McCain fumbled a bit and declared that it was a privilege.
I disagree with both answers.
The reason both were wrong last October is that neither appeared to understand the basic definition of a ‘right’: something the government cannot forbid.
A basic right which is implied but not mentioned in the Constitution is the right to travel. The government should not interfere in our movement from place to place. But there is no right to transportation, either to a specific form of transport or to have any provided, Cash For Clunkers notwithstanding. If there were, one couldn’t pass by a hitchhiker (and they would choke every intersection demanding that their rights be satisfied).
Similarly, the government should not be able to bar anyone from receiving health care. That is very different thing from supplying it to everyone, or forcing health care workers to serve anyone who appears before them.
