It being both the holiday and campaign season, it's easy to get wrapped up in yourself. You forget to think about others - the huddled masses, the less fortunate, the downtrodden, the wayward, and so on. I know I do. I haven't thought about the downtrodden since August.
But not Hillary Clinton. She is vigilant. So it's not surprise that today, when John Edwards told the most downtrodden of the wayward, our Congress, that they should go without health insurance for as long as the rest of America does, Hillary's campaign was there to say, "Heck no!"
Bravo, Hillary! It isn't easy to defend an institution that is, at present, less popular than many of the diseases from which uninsured America currently suffers, but that is no reason to deprive Congress of their health care. Be proud, because we are proud of you!
Now, you may think I agree with Hillary merely because I support her campaign for president, but let me assure you, my concern goes beyond partisanship! Even if I were not a strident supporter of her campaign for president, I would agree with her. Here, she defends not only Congress, but the Constitution itself!
You see, you and I are not Congress. In our case, the market decides if we have insurance. We have no right to it. If we are deprived of it, we cannot go to court and demand it. We have the right to sickness and death.
But not Congress. Unlike us, Congress has a fundamental right to health care. It is found here, in the 27th Amendment:
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
As a Constitutional law scholar and former member of the United States Supreme Court, I can tell you that the unambiguous interpretation of that amendment is "HANDS OFF MY FUCKING HEALTH INSURANCE, ASSHOLE."
Innumerable cases support this interpretation, as well as several Latin phrases, but I will not bother you with such details. Suffice it to say, if Congress were to be deprived of its health care, even so much as a cotton swab, for even so much as an instant, no matter what the means, the result will be anarchy. Government sanction of rendition and torture? Is nothing compared to this.
And thank God for Hillary Clinton, for having the courage to say so.
In closing, I ask you to gaze upon the face of evil, the man who would bring down our very system of government for an issue so trivial as health insurance for every American:
God help us all!