The Torch, Spring/Summer 2010

12 TORCH | Spring–Summer 2010 ONUR ERSIN | ISTOCKPHOTO H ealth care reform has been a century- long theme of Democratic politics in America. In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt put forward an economic bill of rights, which included a right to adequate medical care. Just a year later, President Harry Truman proposed a national health insurance administered by the federal government. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Nearly 45 years later, President Barack Obama signed into law the next significant legislative step toward a government-sponsored health insurance program. Moments later, Florida’s Attorney General, Bill McCollum, announced his plans to challenge in federal Through the Eyes of the Constitution by Mark Caleb Smith, Ph.D. Amid questions of federal power and states’ rights, many wonder whether the health care legislation upholds or opposes the Founders’ design.