Response to Tom Cole's recently articulated position on the health care debate and on President Obama’s honesty.

Recently, Tom Cole articulated that the American People want another (different from the current) federal plan for health care. My interactions with the people of the 4th district tell me that what they want is NO federal health care plan and for the federal government to get out of the peoples private health care business. Indeed the intuitions of the people are insightful considering that Article I Sec. 8 of the Constitution gives the Congress the power to "provide for the general Welfare of the United States." This qualifying clause refers to the nation-state and not to individuals. In fact, individual Welfare, which is what health care is, does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. So when Tom Cole articulates that we need "a plan", and insinuates that that plan be a federal plan, one provided by big government Republicans as opposed to big government Democrats, he is advocating an un-constitutional position on the issue.

Additionally, Cole advocated the creation of a "national health insurance market." Where does the Constitutional authority for this come from? Markets are created by the people not the state. However, I will concede that, at least in this area, Cole is in the right neighborhood. This is because the limits of the federal Congresses ability to effect health care is to use it’s legitimate commerce clause power, also found in Article I Sec. 8, to ensure that the states are not allowed to erect trade barriers that undermine the free flow of goods and or services between themselves, in this case; health insurance.

Some have added (not Cole that I know of) that tort reform is needed to "fix" what ails healthcare. This is correct save that tort reform is a power reserved to the states under the 10th amendment. I do not trust, nor have the people consented, to allow the federal Congress to do anything not expressly enumerated in the Constitution. Thus, short of a Constitutional amendment, the states need to address the issue of tort reform and those states that do a good job on that issue will attract better health care providers.

Lastly, Cole’s inability to call a lie a lie is exactly the type of word playing that We the People have come to expect from politicians and are fed up with. So to Cole I say this: “if you don’t have the courage to speak the truth and stand by Congressman Joe Wilson then how can the people of the 4th district count on your courage to stand up to this president when he comes to take our liberty’?

RJ Harris
Constitutional Conservative Republican
US Congressional Candidate
Oklahoma 4th District
www.rjharris2010.com