Sen. Mark Warner: ‘No Place In Constitution That Says Health Care’

CNSNews.com ^ | September 5, 2009 7:04AM EST | Nicholas Ballasy and Edwin Mora

[DaveyB]

Fredericksburg, Va. (CNSNews.com) – During a town hall meeting at the Fredericksburg Expo Center, Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) said there is “no place in the Constitution” that mentions health care or education, or even gives individuals the right to own a telephone.

“[L]isten, there is, there is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care,” Warner said to a government high school teacher at the event, who asked him if the Constitution explicitly gives the government the right to run the health care system.

“There’s no place in the Constitution that specifically says education,” said Warner.

Moreover, he repeated five times that the Constitution does not guarantee individuals the right to own a telephone.

“There is no place in the competition, in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution,” he said, “that talks about you ought to have the right to get a telephone, but we have made those choices as a country over the years.”

Warner also indicated that the high school government teacher was perhaps suggesting that government-run Medicare and Medicaid should be dissolved.

“So I take, I take by your question, I take by your question , I take by your question that you would get rid of Medicare and Medicaid?” Warner told the teacher. “Or would you, are you, let me make sure I understand, you’re advocating doing away with Medicare, right? Because that’s a government program. I just want to make clear that you are suggesting doing away with Medicare.”

Town hall attendees who were interested in asking Warner questions were given a ticket with a number that was randomly called during the question-and-answer session.

Below is the transcript of the exchange between Warner and the attendee:

Attendee: “I realize that there are a lot of people that don’t have medical care and it’s necessary for those things to change to help those. I think that a lot of people are upset, not necessarily because of medical care, though that is a huge part of it, but I think larger is what’s happening to our government. It’s being destroyed in my personal opinion. I am a government, high school government teacher and I have taught these kids the Constitution, and I would like to know specifically, article and section of the Constitution, that gives the government the right to run our health care.”

Sen. Warner: “So I take, I take by your question, I take by your question, I take by your question that you would get rid of Medicare and Medicaid or would you, are you, let me make sure I understand: You’re advocating doing away with Medicare, right? Because that’s a government program. I just want to make clear that you are suggesting doing away with Medicare? But one thing, listen, there is, there is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care. There’s no place in the Constitution that specifically says education. There is no place in the competition, in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution that talks about you ought to have the right to get a telephone, but we have made those choices as a country over the years.”

[DaveyB]

Follow carefully senator:

The 10th Ammendmnent
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

No delegated power for healthcare - reserved to the states and the people!
No delegated power over the telephone - reserved to the states and the people!

Any questions?

[vbmoneyspender]

there is no place in the Constitution,” he said, “that talks about you ought to have the right to get a telephone

My rights come from God you slag.

[HelenChicago]

As Joe Sobran likes to point out, the Constitution poses
no threat whatsoever to our present form of government.

[AnglePark]

Private industry provides telephone service, and you have to pay for it.

And I contend that we’d be better off if private industry provided education, or leaving health care and insurance in the hands of private industry.

[goodnesswins]

Seems our Congress Critters are getting Constitutional Law education.....FINALLY! MAYBE???

[EGPWS]

“[L]isten, there is, there is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care,” Warner said to a government high school teacher at the event, who asked him if the Constitution explicitly gives the government the right to run the health care system.

KEEERIST!

Warner, do you by chance have the knowledge of the Constitution to even reference God when it comes to rights given to us?

Do ALL politicians tote this same "God resides in Washington" attitude?

[freebilly]

The Constitution says “Healthcare” in the same place it says “Abortion”....

[RC2]

The Constitution also does not say that the government can force you to have a telephone, health care, a car, a computer and so on. These people are nuts.

[kevao]

there is no place in the Constitution,” he said, “that talks about you ought to have the right to get a telephone, but we have made those choices as a country over the years.”

But there is a specific place in the Constitution that talks about our right to keep and bear arms, yet we live under constant threat of statists like you confiscating them.

[RC2]

They take too much power unto themselves. They need to be shut down. This guy thinks he pulled off a good one by bringing up the Constitution. The people know the Constitution better than he does.

[skinkinthegrass]

As Joe Sobran likes to point out, the Constitution poses no
threat whatsoever to our present form of government.

OUCH!

[Vaquero]

NO Dip$h!t Warner....there is nothing in the constitution preventing me from getting a phone. There is in the constitution an amendment which alows me to use it to talk freely if I like....

and yes Dip$h!t Warner....we should not have Medicare, Medicaid and education is not a right either....and we would be better if we took care of our kids education ourselves, either by doing it ourselves or paying someone to do it....and it would be without leftist propaganda.

[livius]

What in the world does he mean “right to own a telephone?” He’s crazy. We have freedom of speech and we have the right to buy and own anything we want to exercise it.

Maybe the next thing is government licensing of individual phones and communications devices (the way the Brits have to pay a special TV tax or they don’t have the “right” to view television).

[Felis_irritable]

What’s with the repeating himself thing? The democrats fancy themselves as being so intelligent, but this kind of thing and the D!@#$@ “Ummmmm” thing when doing speeches, press conferences, etc. drive me nuts. It’s not intellectual, it’s just plain poorly spoken.

And on to the Constitution...It’s one thing to make a decision to do something as a nation that isn’t specifically in the Constitution. It’s quite another to take a poorly conceived program that is obviously broken (Medicare, Medicaid) and try to use that as a template to “fix” the healthcare “problem.”

The fact that people don’t really have any skin in the game with reference to healthcare costs is a major reason things are so busted to start with. It’s (understandably) scary to people to have to pay for their own healthcare, but something has to be done besides extending a broken system to everybody.

[Charles Henrickson]

Sen. Warner: “So I take, I take by your question, I take by your question, I take by your question that you would get rid of Medicare and Medicaid or would you, are you, let me make sure I understand: You’re advocating doing away with Medicare, right? Because that’s a government program. I just want to make clear that you are suggesting doing away with Medicare? But one thing, listen, there is, there is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care. There’s no place in the Constitution that specifically says education. There is no place in the competition, in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution, there is no place in the Constitution that talks about you ought to have the right to get a telephone, but we have made those choices as a country over the years.”

This, in a nutshell, illustrates the problem we have: These guys do not understand the Constitution they are sworn to uphold, or, if they do understand it, they just want to ignore it. And the problem is not just the Democrats--I expect this from them--the problem is also that we have so few Republicans who are both able and willing to articulate and defend and advance Tenth Amendment conservativism. And we have a dumbed-down populace that has no clue as to the main point of the Constitution in limiting and defining the powers of the federal government.

Of course, if we play the Constitution card in regard to ObamaCare, the Dems will immediately come back with, "Oh, so you wanna get rid of Medicare, eh? Make Granny suffer, eh?" Or if we speak against federal intrusion in education: "Oh, so you're against education, eh?" Really dumb "arguments," but dumb people buy it.

Frankly, yes, I wish we never had Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or a Department of Education. They are all unconstitutional. But now that we have SocSec and Medicare, for example, I think the best approach would be to gradually phase them out, as equitably as possible.

But certainly, even if we can't get rid of what's already in place, don't ADD to the scope of unconstitutional federal powers, as ObamaCare would do, tremendously.

[Kenny]

The GOP is going to have to resist these attempts to distract from the socialized medicine argument. The Dems want the seniors to believe the GOP is going to take away their Medicare and Social Security. We shouldn’t ever get into that contrived argument. Just identify it for the attempted distraction it is and move on.

The Democrats are the only ones making these statements though they keep trying to draw Republicans in.

[HighlyOpinionated]

A few Mixed Metaphors here?

Send him a Pink Slip (google for some good ones) and tell him that when he’s up for re-election, you’ll be working for his opponent.

[Repeal The 17th]

Text of what I sent my representative and senators earlier today:

---

A lot of people seem to be saying that “health care is a right.”
Well, is it?
Really?
In trying to answer the question, just look back and compare
it to some of the things that we definitively know are rights.
Think about things like our right to freedom of religion,
or our right to keep and bear arms.
These things we know for sure are are rights.
But, where is it found that government is obligated to
...provide citizen’s with a religion or a house of worship?
Where is it found that government is obligated to
...provide citizen’s with a shotgun or a handgun?
So even if one makes the assertion that health care is a right,
where does that translate into a government obligation to
...provide for a citizen’s health care?
Can you offer me any kind of an explanation for this?

And don’t even get me started on this ‘cap and trade’ nonsense.
Let me just ask you this, if some folks in Washington really think
they can pass legislation that will allow them to reset the earth’s
thermostat, just what temperature do they want to reset it to?
To what it was twenty years ago? Fifty? A hundred? A thousand?
What is the ‘right’ temperature of the earth?
If no one can seriously answer that question, then any legislation
that is aimed at controlling our climate should be moot.

Thanks in advance for your time.

---

[laxcoach]

uhh... the teacher should have said in response:

The Consitution grants rights to the government, not the people. It is a document that limits the power of the federal government. In fact, the Bill of Rights does not grant the people rights. It limits the government from infringing on these God given rights.

[353FMG]

>>The people know the Constitution better than he does.<<

.
He knows the Constitution as well as the people do, but he chose to ignore it like all prospective power grabbers do.