This page was last updated on February 2, 2011.
Hard facts; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 2, 2011.
The editorial says, “Medicaid is classic welfare, taking hard-earned money from hard-working taxpayers and giving it to lazy bums. Or so many politicians, especially those of the conservative stripe, would have Americans believe.” The Times frames the issue this way because it makes it easier to attack its opponents. Debating the real issue would require heavy lifting the Times wants to avoid.
The left and right approach “helping” people differently. The left believes “help” must come from government by confiscating “hard-earned money from hard-working taxpayers” and giving it to those in favored groups. There is nothing compassionate about the government taking “hard-earned money from hard-working taxpayers” to give to someone who didn’t earn it. There’s nothing altruistic or charitable in “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” The right believes we help everyone when we maximize effective individual liberty. That means letting people keep what they earn and letting them decide how to distribute the fruits of their labor. The more a person gets to keep of his paycheck, the more he has to help others voluntarily. Compassion is when a person freely chooses to use his own paycheck to help someone in need. Should people in need get help? Of course, but from private charities funded by voluntary contributions, not by confiscating “hard-earned money from hard-working taxpayers.”
I have one last point. Where in the U.S. Constitution is the federal government given the authority to confiscate “hard-earned money from hard-working taxpayers and [give] it to” anyone? You can look all you want, but you won’t find that authority unless you engage in creative reading. Remember, the federal government has only those responsibilities specifically granted by the Constitution. To make that point clear, the 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people.”
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