Who would have thought that the Founding Fathers were a bunch of Socialists!
Teabaggers around the country are eating crow tonight. They just found out that our Founding Fathers, those gentlemen who teabaggers place on a pedestal and worship every night before going to sleep, mandated that private citizens purchase health insurance.
In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed – “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.” The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance.
Surely you jest. How could Congress do something that Frau Bachmann and the House Crier call unconstitutional? Well, because it wasn’t unconstitutional.
Keep in mind that the 5th Congress did not really need to struggle over the intentions of the drafters of the Constitutions in creating this Act as many of its members were the drafters of the Constitution.
And when the Bill came to the desk of President John Adams for signature, I think it’s safe to assume that the man in that chair had a pretty good grasp on what the framers had in mind.
Holy Stethoscope, Batman. I can’t believe this. You mean that Rush and Glenn and Sarah have been lying to us about this?
The law did a number of fascinating things.
First, it created the Marine Hospital Service, a series of hospitals built and operated by the federal government to treat injured and ailing privately employed sailors. This government provided healthcare service was to be paid for by a mandatory tax on the maritime sailors (a little more than 1% of a sailor’s wages), the same to be withheld from a sailor’s pay and turned over to the government by the ship’s owner. The payment of this tax for health care was not optional. If a sailor wanted to work, he had to pay up.
And for those teabaggers who still think this is balderdash, think about who was running Congress when this law was enacted.
As for Congress’ understanding of the limits of the Constitution at the time the Act was passed, it is worth noting that Thomas Jefferson was the President of the Senate during the 5th Congress while Jonathan Dayton, the youngest man to sign the United States Constitution, was the Speaker of the House.
Don’t you just love it when facts (and history) prove teabaggers wrong?