Health Care Anyone?

With the recent passage of the Health care bill (whether you are for or against) I have heard so much rhetoric from both sides. I have heard over and over the argument, "we are 'trashing the constitution' this president is making a 'mockery of out system,' and on and on. Most people seem to think that this is the FIRST time in our history such a terrible thing has been done (and by the way, I was and am opposed to this healthcare bill). In chapter 20 of BCOF it details the legislation pushing through the National Banking Act of 1863 which passed by 78% of Republicans voting for and 91% of the Democrats voting against. "...the 1863 law laid the groundwork for the banking system that prevailed for a half-century after the war." (page 594) The pundits of the time (it would be interesting if Rush had a radio broadcast in 1863) were saying almost exactly the same things about how that law was "pushed" through as our own are saying today--both pro and con. Again, we must all learn from history. Still from page 594: "Not surprisingly, Jacksonian Democrats in the Old Northwest denounced 'this monstrous Bank Bill' as new evidence of the wartime conspiracy by the 'money monopoly of New England' to 'destroy the fixed institutions of the States and to build up a central moneyed despotism." (Klement, "Economic Aspects of Middle Western Copperheadism," loc. cit. 39-40) Wow! Change a couple of key words and that is exactly what we are hearing today!