People calling the Affordable Care Act a betrayal of our Founding Fathers value's will be surprised to learn many of the Founding Fathers would not agree with them. That includes George Washington.
It's a fact....
In 1792, President George Washington, signed The Militia Act.
This federal law, enacted by Congress (with included a number of members who signed either the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or both) made it compulsory
That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (be enrolled in a state militia)
And within 6 months of being enrolled these men were REQUIRED to
provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder
The cost of a musket or flintlock at that time was about a month's wages for the average worker. A rifle was about three or four month's wages. The point being, this requirement was not a trivial burden placed lightly on the shoulders of every able-bodied free white male citizen between the ages of 18 and 45.
Ignoring this law could be quite expensive. The Militia Act was modified in 1795 to include specific penalties. First, there were fines:
every officer, non-commissioned officer or private of the militia, who shall fail to obey the orders of the President of the United States in any of the cases before recited, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one year's pay, and not less than one month's pay
If you couldn't or wouldn't pay the fine, they had an answer to that, too. Prison. Officers could be cashiered for up to a year. Non-commissioned officers and privates could be imprisoned for
failure of payment of the fines adjudged against them, for the space of one calendar month for every five dollars of such fine.
So all those able-bodied white male citizens who are now screaming about "unprecedented socialist tyranny", "assaults on our liberty" and the "original intent" of the Constitution, might want to rethink any of the arguments they use that rely on an appeal to the authority of the Founding Fathers. You can say a lot of things about George Washington, but you can't call him an advocate for socialism. Even he wasn't that far ahead of his time.