A Right or a Privilege?

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Senator Tom Harkin said this just before the December 24, 2009 Senate vote on health care reform:

"On one side is health care as a privilege; on the other side is health care a right. With these these votes, with the vote that we'll take before Christmas, we will cross that line finally and say that health care is a right of all Americans." Source

He is of course referencing the Declaration of Independence where it says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." What is an unalienable right? When is a right unalienable?

"...natural rights (also called moral rights or unalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of a particular society polity. Natural rights are thus necessarily universal..." Source

"The Founders did not believe that the basic rights of mankind originated from an social compact, king, emperor, or government authority. Those rights, they believed, came directly and exclusively from God. Therefore, they were to be maintained sacred and inviolate." (W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap.)

When the Left like Senator Harkin says that health care is a right, is he referencing that providing affordable health care for everybody is endowed by our Creator? Or is he and our government taking the place of God and creating this right for everybody? If so, that is a scary thought because they would also have the power to take that right away (i.e. death panels, rationing of health care benefits, etc.).

I personally believe that health care is a privilege, not a right. We are responsible for our own personal health. We should not rely on anyone else, especially the government, to provide or make sure that we have health care coverage. History has shown over and over again, the more the government gets involved the bigger the problem and usually more expensive. In the words of President Ronald Reagan, "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem."

This monstrosity health care reform bill (over 2,500 pages) that is currently being reconciled between both houses of congress is just a political structure that the Left have been wanting for nearly a hundred years to have more control over our lives. It is a doorway to socialism, and all they need is to their foot in the door and then they will be able to expand and add things like a public government run health care system. Health care is not a right and should not be treated as one and we must not let our government put in place the structure they want to take even more control of our economy and lives.

Recommended reading: The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen. One of the best history books you'll ever read.