Not to mention that regulation of the merchant marine more closely ties to federal responsibilities than Obamacare does.

"And all decisions involving the appropriation of the collected revenues were to be made personally by the President."

So their saying Barry is going to spend all his time on this?

The unspoken assumption being that government control of our health care is going to improve things. A shaky assumption indeed. Liberals never want to look at the disastrous state models that have already failed. (Thanks so much, Ned McWherter.)

Obamacare 1798 Version: Bloodletting by your barber for everyone!

Obamacare 2011: Wallet-letting for everyone

James H is correct. It is more in line with Veterans Hospitals. Service your country honorably and be taken care of health wise if you so need it. So again Obama is talking out of his arse to the stupid amongst us. ww

When I read this article I gather that any merchant mariner received the quality of treatment for that era. I don't see any evidence of an intervening board or panel that was regulating treatment decisions by doctors treating the merchant mariner in the designated hospital. It was a nice try on the part of this writer and he probably considers himself clever for even bringing it up. Unfortunately, I don't think John Adams would have ever signed Obamacare. I am sure he would have said 'that a piece of legislation longer that the Constitution is not worth my time' but that's just a guess.

I wasn't thinking of VA hospitals. I was thinking more of the fact that merchant marine operates on interstate waterways, giving the federal government a clearer jurisdiction.

The government has been enforcing workplace practices that limit exposure to health and safety hazards for forty years, and few would argue that workplace safety is tantamount to socialism.

Maybe it is and maybe it isn't ... but show me where it's authorized in the Constitution. Several of the enumerated powers could indeed be seen as 'socialist,' but that's really not relevant because they are enumerated powers, explicitly granted to Congress. Even the program you're talking about here, though a bit of a stretch, can be seen as within Congress's purview under Article I Section 8 (clauses 3 and 10, if you're curious). But OSHA? Uh-uh. Show me the reasoning.

A healthy workforce certainly enhances the "general welfare" of the nation, which is clearly a responsibility of our government and certainly what Congress and President Adams had in mind back in 1798.

Congratulations, you just handed Barry Lackwit a great argument for LackwitCare's constitutionality. It is, after all, meant to create and support "a healthy workforce," by ensuring that everyone can get medical care when they need it at little or no cost to them.

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.

Oh? And next year ... will the Obama Administration try to rationalize imposing press censorship and prison time for political opposition on the grounds that President John Adams signed the Sedition Act of 1798, so therefore it must be Constitutional if a Founding Father thought it was a good idea?

Another day, another tool trying to compare in incomparable. What? Did they finally figure out the car insurance analogy doesn't work?

"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."

Unfortunately it's not at all safe to assume that the current President who signed "ObamaCare" has a grasp on what the framers had in mind, or even what was in the bill. And don't try to tell me he does because there are still far too many blanks to be filled in as the "Secretary deems" necessary.

2400 pages and STILL incomplete.