Michael Barone takes issue with two erroneous statements regarding health care legislation.

1. Republicans claim that never before has Congerss passed such an unpopular bill with such a narrow majority.
2. Obama has claimed that the passage of the bill will settle the health care issue once and for all.

Barone then goes on to cite the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This was the most controversial piece of legislation between 1789 and 1861. Stephen A. Douglas attempted to settle the issue of slavery by legislative "legerdemain and political trickery," to use Barone's words. He adds, "The Democrats' health care bills are an attempt to settle a fundamental issue by partisan maneuver and cash-for-cloture. As Stephen Douglas learned, such tactics can work for a while, but the country -- and the Democratic Party -- can end up paying a heavy price."

The slavery issue was far from settled. A mini-civil war called Bleeding Kansas broke out as people rushed into Kansas to control the vote on the status of slavery, the Supreme Court handed down the controversial Dred Scott decision, and abolitionist John Brown brought the nation to the point of no return at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. In political terms, Kansas-Nebraska split the Democratic party and motivated the creation of the Republican party, resulting in the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The price of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was ultimately civil war.