Newsflash: Founders favored "government run health care" (uh, no, not exactly...)

WaPo ^ | 1/20/11 | Greg Sargent

[Dead Corpse]

I COULD 'PROFESSOR' BETTER THAN THESE FREAKS!!!

Having read a number of your posts over the years... I agree.

[Cheburashka]

It was Benjamin Franklin who wrote: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

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Which proves that Ben was being paid off by the corrupt lobbying group known as “Big Orchard”.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The real question is the basis on which Congress passed that Act, and whether that reasoning applies equally to ObamaCare.

The maritime world was different back then. We didn't have a significant standing Navy, and relied on augmentation from experienced merchant seaman to staff naval vessels when needed. We also, it should be remembered, could militarize merchant vessels via letters of marque. Congress also was given specific power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, as well as control over navigable waterways.

Now you put all that together, and it seem to me that the nexus is the unique position merchant seamen occupied at that point in history, and express powers Congress was given relating to the navy, letters of marque and reprisal, foreign trade, navigation, etc.. Especially when you consider that many of those seaman were operating outside the jurisdiction of any state, and were representing the U.S. in international waters.

Such a precedent based on admiralty-related factors has absolutely nothing to do with providing health care coverage for the citizenry as a whole.

[xkaydet65]

You should read the first few chapters of What Had God Wrought. It describes the years between 1815 -1848. Adams's son John Quincy had a plan for America that involved much govt activity.From building roads and canals to starting a national university and Observatory, paid for by land sales and tariffs.

One of the great flaws of Glenn Beck is his ascribing to the Founders a homogenous outlook on govt.Madison, for example, saw things much as Quincy Adams, but wanted to pass amendments to allow govt these powers, and would be surprised by how few amendments have been passed.

[Lazamataz]

Not sure how to take that.....:/

[SZonian]

Next they’ll be trotting out the US Sailors and Soldiers Home (USSSH) deductions we had taken out of our paychecks as proof.

[Dead Corpse]

Relax... It’s a good thing. %^)

[SlowBoat407]

Ungar is patronizing and dismissive in his response to those who disagree with him following the article. I guess my response is a simple question: why didn’t this act extend to the farmers, the laborers, the clerks, the merchants, and everyone else who carried out business in the U.S. at the time? The use of this act as justification for Obamacare is a stretch, and shows the desperation on the Left. It was for relief of people who carried out a risky and valuable service to this country, and extended only to those areas in which the federal government already had authority.

That won’t stop the drones from reposting and arguing this for the next week or so. I hope the attorneys general who have filed against Obamacare can shut this one down definitively so it doesn’t clog the intertubes.