John Adams: Big Government, Less Freedom

Throughout your editorial on socialized medicine in early United States history, Mr. Allen, you cite the common care which communities created for a select population dedicated to a rigorous service, from the Plymouth Colony to the present day. In each instance, veterans received this extended care. I see nothing amiss about providing for the care and comfort of our veterans, although I would prefer that this nation would stop putting our troops in harm’s way fighting unwinnable wars and engaging in unsupportable “nation building”.

In citing Forbes Magazine’s article on “An act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen”, you neglect to notice that the specific law targeted a specific population engaged in a specific purpose. Expansive legislation like “ObamaCare” wants to force everyone to enter into a market based on an outrageously erroneous interpretation of the Commerce Clause, which would invite unrestrained regulation by the federal government into every aspect of our lives. You also neglected to document whether the Marine Health service, its successive public health institutions, and today’s socialized  medical programs do provide adequate health care, which in many cases is simply not the case.

Citing President John Adams as a positive precedent for federal action is a mixed affair. Though President John Adams was not a socialist, he was a Big Government nationalist who signed into law the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. The first officious law lengthened the time required for naturalization, punishing law-abiding immigrants who supported Adam’s political opposition, headed by limited government Democrat Thomas Jefferson. The second law outlined harsh sanctions for critics of the Government by extending the definition of libel to include anything that the government considered “malicious.” Big Government inevitably leads to Little Freedom.

If you lived during the Adams administration, you would likely have ended up in jail for publishing “Ye Olde Lengthes of Randomness”. I also doubt that you would be getting free health care, although your tax dollars would be subsidizing the health care of others.