Letter: Critical of Justice

Dear Editor,

I read with amazement, not to mention disappointment, the comment made by Justice Scalia during the hearings on the health care bill to the effect that if this bill is allowed to become law we all could be required by the government to purchase broccoli.

I would like to point out to the Justice that if he or any of my neighbors purchase or don’t purchase broccoli, it has no effect upon me, but if my unemployed neighbor who has no health insurance has a heart attack and is taken to an emergency room, it certainly has an effect upon me because the hospital and physicians who treat my neighbor will pass their uncovered costs back to me in either higher local taxes or higher health care premiums.

If Justice Scalia really can’t discern the difference between purchasing broccoli and purchasing health insurance, he is a mental midget. If, on the other hand, he was simply pandering to his conservative supporters, he is nothing more than a partisan political operative. In either case, he is unqualified to sit on the highest court in the land.

Tags: opinion, letters, health