What would John Adams think?

[Bob]

Another Founder’s quote for the radical commun…err, I mean …the TIME people of the year supporters to dismiss

"The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free."

John Adams

[Blart]

Apparently John Adams realized property still existed even after he signed our nation's first Health Care mandate for sailors, which was later extended by Thomas Jefferson - who also believed in government-run healthcare.

[Bob]

I attempted to click your link, but my work filter blocked it because it was from a "political activist group" -- sorry... I will have to check it out when I get home.

[Blart]

Sorry about that, I should have linked the original source. Not a surprise, Adams was a federalist.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickunga...rance-in-1798/


"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."


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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.

This is pretty much how it works today in the European nations that conduct socialized medical programs for its citizens – although 1% of wages doesn’t quite cut it any longer.

The law was not only the first time the United States created a socialized medical program (The Marine Hospital Service) but was also the first to mandate that privately employed citizens be legally required to make payments to pay for health care services. Upon passage of the law, ships were no longer permitted to sail in and out of our ports if the health care tax had not been collected by the ship owners and paid over to the government – thus the creation of the first payroll tax in our nation’s history.