In a statement reacting to Alabama’s failed attempt to rescind Obamacare and therefore take away the promise of health insurance to 16 percent of his constituents, Gov. Robert Bentley called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 “the single worst piece of legislation to come out of Congress.”

Have an extra dose of hyperbole for breakfast, governor? The “worst”? Here is our short list of others to consider:

• The Alien and Sedition Acts: The late 18th century laws granted the president broad powers to deport anyone he deemed “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” Not surprisingly, journalists who wrote items that made the powerful uncomfortable found themselves on the wrong side of the act.

• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: With passage of the law, slave states mandated law enforcers must hunt down runaway slaves. Also, any citizen who aided runaway slaves was subject to punishment.

• The Volstead Act: With the support of anti-drinking forces as well as nativists concerned over waves of immigrants from Europe, Congress in 1919 passed a constitutional amendment to ban “intoxicating liquors.” In less than 15 years, the act was repealed.

• The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002: By wide margins, the Senate and the House granted the Bush administration authority to preemptively invade Iraq. The United States spent billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives and never found large storages of weapons of mass destruction, Bush’s rationale for invasion.