Mailbag:

A few comments regarding Chuck Cassity’s opinion piece (Sounding Off: “Just say ‘No’ to misguided reform,” Dec. 15).

First, health care is 16% of a $14-trillion economy that’s run amok, is bloated and inefficient, and fails to satisfy those covered under it, let alone the tens of millions who have no access to it.

The government-run option, Medicare, is one of the bright spots. The biggest fear of those in it is that someone might take it away.

Just saying “no” is not a real choice. We have to fix it, or it gets worse.

So how many pages of legislation does it take to fix this voracious behemoth?

Two thousand pages doesn’t sound so bad when you figure that Agatha Christie needs several hundred just to solve a simple murder mystery.

Are comparisons to the 4,500-word Constitution useful? Hardly.

The Constitution is a framework and contains provisos that vest Congress with the power to make laws.

The Founding Fathers knew you couldn’t make laws without generating paper.

Second, Cassity erroneously states this is the first time in history that U.S. citizens will be forcibly coerced into buying something.

Not true.

The government levies taxes all the time to buy things such as the I-405, the Prado dam, the Newport-Mesa Unified School System, the services of EMTs in the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa fire departments, lifeguards for our beaches, and other things that protect our lives or promote our well-being.

Do we all agree on each of these choices? No, but we are compelled to pay our taxes to support them, or else.

Third, does Cassity really advocate that millions of people rebel and simply disobey the law? Where in the Constitution does that discretion exist?

The pesky thing about the Constitution is that you can’t just pick the parts you like.

We fought the Civil War over that one, and I hope Cassity isn’t prepared to go there again.

Bob Schmidt

Corona del Mar