Much has been said and written about the Massachusetts
health care legislation passed under Mitt Romney and the similarity to it of
the infamous federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed under
President Obama. So long as the
plan established in Massachusetts complies with the Massachusetts constitution
and does not violate federal laws, it may be fine for Massachusetts, but that
doesn’t mean the Federal Government has a right to impose a similar plan on all
fifty states, or even that it would be wise to do so.
This principle is the essence of the tenth amendment to our
constitution: 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.
Competition
among states and the ability of people and companies to move freely among them
are key US national strengths. If
the Massachusetts health care legislation provides affordable access and high
quality medical care to all its citizens, companies and people will move to
Massachusetts, and its economy will thrive. If it turns out to be an unaffordable and unmanageable mess,
companies and people will move out of Massachusetts and the state will go
bankrupt. In either case,
the United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave, refuge of
choice for people around the world seeking opportunity, can survive and
thrive. If, on the other hand, the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act follows the well-established pattern
of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and becomes just one more huge
unfunded liability, we can forget the American dream, (which of course has
nothing to do with home ownership).
Economics
and employment reveal another clear example of the advantage of states’
rights. If the foolishly
destructive California economic and environmental regulations and tax structure
were imposed by the Federal Government on all fifty states, the motto of all
businesses but laundries and fast food would be China, China, China. Fortunately that has not happened, and
businesses can still start up successful operations in South Carolina, Texas, and other
business friendly states. There is
a complimentary article in today’s WSJ about the manufacturing corridor that
has been established in Greenville-Spartanburg South Carolina, now US home of
Michelin, BMW, and Electrolux for example. And, in spite of attempted meddlesome
federal intervention at the behest of union forces, South Carolina now has a
Boeing factory in Charleston.
Of
course the states cannot do whatever they want. We fought a costly war a hundred and fifty years ago to establish
the principle that individual states do not have a right to allow ownership of
slaves or to secede from the union in order to do so. Still, hopefully reserved to the states, are the rights to
establish health care systems, education systems, environmental and financial
regulations, taxes, etc. and, to the people and companies, the right to move to
another state if they don’t like the one they currently reside in. Failures and inefficiencies of attempts
at tight federal control of our vast geography, large and expanding population,
and growing diversity have convincingly demonstrated the futility of such an
approach. So, let the fifty states
compete and may we all learn and grow and improve as a result.
No comments:
Post a Comment