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When was access to “health care” ever a Constitutional mandate? This is one of those “made-up” rights that has not the least penumbra nor historic basis anywhere. The only possible link would be to the inclusion of the words “promote the general welfare”, which in the 18th Century meant nothing at all like the phrase has come to be redefined in the 20th Century, and the original meaning has been all but obliterated in the Twenty-first Century.

The Federal government has the authority, though not the absolute supremacy, in determining what is the benefit to confer upon its citizens, in terms of reductions in diseases, promoting general safe conditions, and assuring the community has access to self-improvement. As this was not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, the actual responsibility falls fully on the STATE level, under the Tenth Amendment.

The direct administration of the responsibilities is further delegated to the local (county and municipality) levels of government.

Now, all this delegation of authority and responsibility takes money, which the Federal government has a monopoly in minting and defining, something the states are forbidden to do. What both the state and Federal governments share, however, is the authority to TAX various aspects of the economy, as defined by the relevant statutes.

Over the decades, the state and Federal governments have refined and perfected means of extracting tax revenue from the citizens, some bothersome, some unnoticed because of being hidden in the cost of doing business. All revenue from taxation, in the end, is a consumer tax on the individual, and there is no such thing as “taxing business”.

Yet the myth persists that the “rich” are going to pay all the taxes. Eventually the whole burden falls upon the poor schlub, at the bottom of the heap, or his children, or his children’s children, to pay the bill.