Obama rallies for health care votes
Source: Agencies |
March 20, 2010, Saturday
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UNITED States President Barack Obama delivered a closing argument for the goal to which he has devoted much of his presidency, urging lawmakers yesterday to pass a sweeping overhaul of the US health care system in a long-awaited vote this weekend of his sweeping US$940 billion reform plan.
With tomorrow's expected vote hanging on the support of just a handful of wavering Democrats, the president summoned both pragmatism and principle to sway the undecideds to his side.
In an energetic, 20-minute speech before an amped-up, campaign-style rally of several thousand at a suburban Washington college, Obama emphasized the bill's provisions that would go into effect this year. They include banning insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions, dropping coverage when a person becomes ill or imposing annual or lifetime limits on care, requiring free preventive care and allowing children to stay on parents' policies into their 20s. He said "the insurance industry will continue to run amok" if the vote fails.
Obama said the bill, if it becomes law, will deliver "the toughest insurance reforms in history" and "the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history."
"What we are talking about is common sense reform," he said, delivering his remarks at top-decible levels and ad-libbing considerably from his prepared remarks. "You've been hearing a whole bunch of nonsense."
Obama also urged lawmakers to go beyond the disputes and grasp the history-making aspect of the effort.
"It's a debate that is not only about the cost of our health care but the character of our country, about whether we can still meet the challenges of our time, about whether we still have the guts and the courage to give every citizen a chance."
He pointed to contentious debates decades ago over creating the now-popular pension and health care for the elderly programs and enacting civil rights laws.
"As messy as this process is, as frustrating as this process is, as ugly as this process can be, when we have faced such decisions in our past, this nation time and time again has chosen to extend its promise to more of its people," Obama said.
"I know this will be a tough vote. I know that everybody is counting votes right now in Washington," he said. "We are going to do something historic this weekend ...We are going to fix health care in America."
The final push for the health care bill to garner the necessary votes has seen Obama delay a trip to Asia. As he played host to a procession of Democrats still wavering over the health care program, the Democrats received one last boost: a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report that said health care reform would trim federal deficits by about US$138 billion over the next decade.
The health care reform program would affect nearly every American and remake one-sixth of the US economy. For the first time, Americans would have health insurance.
With tomorrow's expected vote hanging on the support of just a handful of wavering Democrats, the president summoned both pragmatism and principle to sway the undecideds to his side.
In an energetic, 20-minute speech before an amped-up, campaign-style rally of several thousand at a suburban Washington college, Obama emphasized the bill's provisions that would go into effect this year. They include banning insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions, dropping coverage when a person becomes ill or imposing annual or lifetime limits on care, requiring free preventive care and allowing children to stay on parents' policies into their 20s. He said "the insurance industry will continue to run amok" if the vote fails.
Obama said the bill, if it becomes law, will deliver "the toughest insurance reforms in history" and "the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history."
"What we are talking about is common sense reform," he said, delivering his remarks at top-decible levels and ad-libbing considerably from his prepared remarks. "You've been hearing a whole bunch of nonsense."
Obama also urged lawmakers to go beyond the disputes and grasp the history-making aspect of the effort.
"It's a debate that is not only about the cost of our health care but the character of our country, about whether we can still meet the challenges of our time, about whether we still have the guts and the courage to give every citizen a chance."
He pointed to contentious debates decades ago over creating the now-popular pension and health care for the elderly programs and enacting civil rights laws.
"As messy as this process is, as frustrating as this process is, as ugly as this process can be, when we have faced such decisions in our past, this nation time and time again has chosen to extend its promise to more of its people," Obama said.
"I know this will be a tough vote. I know that everybody is counting votes right now in Washington," he said. "We are going to do something historic this weekend ...We are going to fix health care in America."
The final push for the health care bill to garner the necessary votes has seen Obama delay a trip to Asia. As he played host to a procession of Democrats still wavering over the health care program, the Democrats received one last boost: a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report that said health care reform would trim federal deficits by about US$138 billion over the next decade.
The health care reform program would affect nearly every American and remake one-sixth of the US economy. For the first time, Americans would have health insurance.
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