Sheila Jackson Lee: Healthcare, Education Should Be 'Constitutional Right'

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TEXAS): I was very pleased to stand with my fellow Democrats and support the Affordable Care Act. I could go through the journey of 2009 and 2010, when many of us spread out across the country and confronted misinformation through town hall meetings, controversy and conflictedness. And what should be emphasized as the president’s leadership on one single point that although health care was not listed, per se, in the constitution, it should be a constitutional right. And if you read the words or quote the words of the Declaration of Independence, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that we have certain inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ One might argue that education and health care fall into those provisions of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (House Floor, May 6, 2013)