right about "rights"?

Have you ever been in the position to say, "that's the wrong question." Generally you respond by comparing the question to the unanswerable question,  'have you stopped beating your wife?'. It is quite frustrating when some one puts you in that position because you do not seem to have a legitimate way out.

Rep Price found himself in that situation at his Senate confirmation hearing when Sen Barnie Sanders asked him, "do you believe its the right of every American to have affordable health insurance?" This question came within the context of explaining that every country in the developed world provides their citizens with affordable, if not free, healthcare. Rep Price gave the typical republican line that he believed every American should have access to healthcare they could afford. Sanders pressed, "do you believe it is a right?" Dr Price could not agree and failed to adequately say why.

Here's what I wish he would have said (of course I was not there in the heat of the moment). "Does someone have a right?" is the wrong question. There is no such thing as a "right" unless there is someone or something that bestows that "right". What Sanders was really asking (but would not ask it this way)is, "do you believe that the US government should grant the right to every citizen to have affordable healthcare?" The answer to this question is much easier, "no, the federal government has not been granted the right to be the grantor of such right".

In other words, the US Constitution deals with rights of citizens to be protected from government, not protected by government, except from attacks by alien forces. So, if the US government assured you of the right to insurance, then the government must violate my right to decide if I want to pay for your health insurance if you could not. The Constitution protects my right from being forced by the federal government to pay for you.  

Senator Sanders represents a movement started over a hundred years ago to PROGRESS beyond the original intent of the founding fathers to change what we mean by "rights." This is why liberals, or big government advocates, are called "progressives." 

Dr Price could have said, in due respect Senator Sanders, your question is more of a philosophical question about "rights" than it is about legislation I would support regarding the healthcare of our citizens. I believe the US society should work diligently to find ways to provide services as basic as healthcare to all its citizens. However, this is a moral responsibility of society, not a right of the citizen bestowed to them by the government. There are many ways to fulfill this duty than by federal government mandates. That is what I believe and am working towards. 

So, what would you believe is the right answer to questions about "rights"? Will you be pushed into frustration to answer the wrong question, like Dr Price, or will you learn to push back at the wrong question and change the narrative to the right question?

The way you see what is right about "rights" is an assumption of whether you believe the Constitution as given by the Founding Fathers declares the "rights" of US citizens to be protected from government intrusion or whether you believe we have progressed beyond that to where the citizens have granted rights to the government to impose its will on its citizens. Rights are all about who can grant them, not what someone inherently deserves outside the will of the grantor.

Whether you have pondered this or not, you do have one or the other assumption. I believe Dr price would agree with me, I just wish he could have used the occasion to share this insight on camera for all to see and hear.

I can only ponder what would have then happened had he done so .....