"Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."
Words, that burned like a beacon to people the world over that longed for Freedom and a place to build their lives where they could be free to find their own destiny. A country where unlike those they had come from where a man could build a life for themselves and their family free from an opressive Govt. Those words still still ring the bell of freedom for the family that would brave waters in crowded boats and in hot deserts to come to this nation and build for themselves from their own labors a life unlike any they had before.
While I understand the noble desire to provide healthcare coverage to all Americans and can understand how when a family has no financial ability, or has lost their insurance those words seem to ring hollow. However to give up the very reason you are free in exchange for that coverage is akin to adding " except if you need free healthcare after the word free. We as Americans have a duty to see to it through our form of Govt. that we bring the costs of healthcare down and the founders of this great nation that took the match to that beacon were smart enough to give us all the tools to do so.
"Commerce between independent powers or communities is universally regulated by duties and imposts. It was so regulated by the States before the adoption of this Constitution, equally in respect to each other and to foreign powers. The goods and vessels employed in the trade are the only subjects of regulation. It can act on none other"
James Madison
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3:
[The Congress shall have power] To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin
13 Oct. 1802Works 9:398--99
You know my doubts, or rather convictions, about the unconstitutionality of the act for building piers in the Delaware, and the fears that it will lead to a bottomless expense, & to the greatest abuses. There is, however, one intention of which the act is susceptible, & which will bring it within the Constitution; and we ought always to presume that the real intention which is alone consistent with the Constitution. Altho' the power to regulate commerce does not give a power to build piers, wharves, open ports, clear the beds of rivers, dig canals, build warehouses, build manufacturing machines, set up manufactories, cultivate the earth, to all of which the power would go if it went to the first, yet a power to provide and maintain a navy, is a power to provide receptacles for it, and places to cover & preserve it. In choosing the places where this money should be laid out, I should be much disposed, as far as contracts will permit, to confine it to such place or places as the ships of war may lie at, and be protected from ice; & I should be for stating this in a message to Congress, in order to prevent the effect of the present example. This act has been built on the exercise of the power of building light houses, as a regulation of commerce. But I well remember the opposition, on this very ground, to the first act for building a light house. The utility of the thing has sanctioned the infraction. But if on that infraction we build a 2d, on that 2d a 3d, &c., any one of the powers in the Constitution may be made to comprehend every power of government.
In short if an insurance company offers services to those Americans from state to state, rather than go into the business of acting as an agent within the states on healthcare that the Govt. clearly does not have a constitutional power to do, it does and can regulate these insurance companies that operate in several states. Further, that does not give the Federal Govt. the power to set mandates on insurance within the states as they apply to the people themselves. So if the Govt. really wanted to keep the dream of freedom alive for all Americans they will take the time to write legislation that reflects our form of Govt. to the benefit of all Americans.
Words, that burned like a beacon to people the world over that longed for Freedom and a place to build their lives where they could be free to find their own destiny. A country where unlike those they had come from where a man could build a life for themselves and their family free from an opressive Govt. Those words still still ring the bell of freedom for the family that would brave waters in crowded boats and in hot deserts to come to this nation and build for themselves from their own labors a life unlike any they had before.
While I understand the noble desire to provide healthcare coverage to all Americans and can understand how when a family has no financial ability, or has lost their insurance those words seem to ring hollow. However to give up the very reason you are free in exchange for that coverage is akin to adding " except if you need free healthcare after the word free. We as Americans have a duty to see to it through our form of Govt. that we bring the costs of healthcare down and the founders of this great nation that took the match to that beacon were smart enough to give us all the tools to do so.
"Commerce between independent powers or communities is universally regulated by duties and imposts. It was so regulated by the States before the adoption of this Constitution, equally in respect to each other and to foreign powers. The goods and vessels employed in the trade are the only subjects of regulation. It can act on none other"
James Madison
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3:
[The Congress shall have power] To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin
13 Oct. 1802Works 9:398--99
You know my doubts, or rather convictions, about the unconstitutionality of the act for building piers in the Delaware, and the fears that it will lead to a bottomless expense, & to the greatest abuses. There is, however, one intention of which the act is susceptible, & which will bring it within the Constitution; and we ought always to presume that the real intention which is alone consistent with the Constitution. Altho' the power to regulate commerce does not give a power to build piers, wharves, open ports, clear the beds of rivers, dig canals, build warehouses, build manufacturing machines, set up manufactories, cultivate the earth, to all of which the power would go if it went to the first, yet a power to provide and maintain a navy, is a power to provide receptacles for it, and places to cover & preserve it. In choosing the places where this money should be laid out, I should be much disposed, as far as contracts will permit, to confine it to such place or places as the ships of war may lie at, and be protected from ice; & I should be for stating this in a message to Congress, in order to prevent the effect of the present example. This act has been built on the exercise of the power of building light houses, as a regulation of commerce. But I well remember the opposition, on this very ground, to the first act for building a light house. The utility of the thing has sanctioned the infraction. But if on that infraction we build a 2d, on that 2d a 3d, &c., any one of the powers in the Constitution may be made to comprehend every power of government.
In short if an insurance company offers services to those Americans from state to state, rather than go into the business of acting as an agent within the states on healthcare that the Govt. clearly does not have a constitutional power to do, it does and can regulate these insurance companies that operate in several states. Further, that does not give the Federal Govt. the power to set mandates on insurance within the states as they apply to the people themselves. So if the Govt. really wanted to keep the dream of freedom alive for all Americans they will take the time to write legislation that reflects our form of Govt. to the benefit of all Americans.
