By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
In 1766 there was an estimated population of 2.5 million people in the 13 British Colonies in America. If you remove the women and children and then the Tories with their women and children, you had no more than half a million males, most of whom were semiliterate agriculturists. A small group of well-educated lawyers and occasional government officials helped hold the country together, and from that group came the men we know as the Founding Fathers.
If Patrick Henry were alive today, he would almost certainly be a front-runner for the Tea Party presidential nomination. The Revolutionary orator, who today is remembered primarily for a single passionate speech, was in his day an important spokesman for minimalist rule - for those who opposed the establishment of any strong central government.
