Government Run Healthcare

The framers of the Constitution diligently worked to limit the powers of the national government. The Tenth Amendment affirmatively provided all 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” (Hall & Feldmeier, 2009, p. 139). The framers intent was to well define the extent of the national governments authority. This authority cannot be enlarged with amending the Constitution. As discussed earlier in this course, amending the Constitution is challenging so that the Constitution is not changed on a whim. Theoretically, there is said to be no inherent federal authorities but there is inherent state authority. All authorizes that do not fall under the authority of the people or national government is under the jurisdiction of the states (Hall & Feldmeier, 2009, p. 139).

Authority is split among the federal government, states and the people. This is referred to as the triad of authority. The discussion question has asked to establish if Congress should be permitted to regulate the health, welfare and morality of the people? In this case, knowing who has the authority in each case is important. Hall and Feldmeier (2009) demonstrated how to analyze which part of the triad has the authority in certain instances. The first part of analysis is determining if the act can be regulated by any government, which refers to the authority of the people. However, if the authority is specifically designated the next step in the analysis will be to establish if the authority is held by the federal government. If the federal government may regulate the area, the next question to answer would be whether the states can concurre...

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...Congress has the ability to regulate welfare based on Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Regulation of morality should remain limited. Moral values differ too much between individuals. When a government begins to define what morality will entail the government system begins to move away from democracy.

References:

Hall, D. E. & Feldmeier, J. P. (2009). Constitutional values : governmental powers and individual freedoms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Messerli, J. (2011). Should the government provide free universal health care for all americans? . Retrieved August 21, 2010, from http://www.balancedpolitics.org/universal_health_care.htm

The Constitution of the United States. (2011). Retrieved August 21, 2010 from The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration : http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#a1