History might look kindly, very kindly, on the Affordable Care Act, according to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. He has been finishing up his latest project, "The Roosevelts," a 14-hour film focusing on the trio of Teddy, Franklin Delano and Eleanor that will air in September.

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In Washington this week, Burns reminded an audience that FDR tussled with Congress quite a bit to get signature legislation passed. “Social Security, when we think of the muscular leadership of FDR, it just squeaks by completely, eaten by the left and the right, so that it becomes a kind of passive middle ground,” Burns said. The man behind "The Civil War" and "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," explained that Social Security's passage was looked at then as moving the country a couple of steps forward, while today it's considered a big deal.

“So if you are worried about campaigning on the ACA, we may be looking at the ACA in 25 years as one of the great pieces of social legislation,” Burns continued, adding that passing health care legislation was something that neither Teddy Roosevelt nor Franklin Roosevelt was able to accomplish.

Without mentioning him by name, Burns also noted how the modern political era – of politicians running against the government – began with Ronald Reagan. “Let’s just be very clear that up until 1980, every debate in a presidential election was one candidate saying, ‘My version of government is better than yours and here’s why,’” Burns said. “And for the first time in U.S. history, a major candidate ran against government itself – and so opened the door, let the genie out of the bottle, for an amazing transformation of American society.”

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Now, Burns said that he encounters government students quite often who believe that the American government is a force for ill.

“And I would argue that in the history of humankind, I don’t know a greater force for good than the United States government,” Burns said. “Now don’t get me wrong, I believe it has made billions of mistakes and has done major things, but against any other major institution over the course of the last 250 years, its record is incredible.”

Burns then ticked off 16 major victories that the founders of the country and the U.S. government have achieved: “The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Land Grant College Act, the Homestead Act, national parks, public education, antitrust laws, Social Security, a National Labor Relations Act, [the] Glass-Steagall [Act], the G.I. Bill, interstate highways, the man on the moon, the ACA."

“This is an incredibly positive thing to run on if you’re a government.”

