Obama Joins Push to Pass Health Reform in House
Related subjects: Economic Recovery, Healthcare Policy, Legislation, Obama administration, U.S. Politics, U.S. news Comments (0)
Pres. Obama has joined the push on Capitol Hill to pass healthcare reform. Last evening and this morning have brought a series of meetings with House leadership to orchestrate a majority vote to pass healthcare reform, possibly today. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last night met with conservative Democrats and representatives from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which favors efforts to extend health coverage to those in need as a moral imperative.
Those meetings were desiged to provide a mire conservative logic to the imperative of major reform aimed at achieving quality, affordable full-coverage healthcare for all Americans. This could move some conserative Democrats closer to the leadership’s and Pres. Obama’s position. Pres. Obama himself visited the House today to meet with key members of the Democratic caucus, urging them to recognize the moral urgency and historic opportunity of voting to pass the proposed reforms.
Pres. Obama then spoke to the nation from the White House rose garden. He commended members of both houses of Congress on working “diligently and effectively” all year to make the bill passable, affordable and effective. He reminded the public that the proposed reform bill is not only “paid for” but will actually reduce the federal deficit over the next ten years.
The president listed a number of high-profile stakeholders that have declared their support for the proposed healthcare reform legislation, groupsnthat have in the past opposed other versions of reform. He cited the Consumers’ Union, the American Medical Association —historically one of the staunchest opponents of healthcare reform proposals—, the American Nurses Association, the National Farmers Union and the AARP, key because it represents retired people, the population that receives Medicare and which has been blitzes with advertising and mailing aimed at making them fear “deep cuts” to their publicly funded insurance.
He said he reminded members of Congress that opportunities like this come along “once in a generation” and that many senators and representatives spend their entire career on Capitol Hill without seeing such an historic opportunity. He said this is their moment to contribute to the long-term justice and prosperity of the American economic and political system. As he spoke, the House of Representatives was casting votes on the Rule for debate on healthcare reform legislation, which might take up four hours thus afternoon, and could result in a vote as soon as today.
Pres. Obama warned that failure to pass reform would mean a future where skyrocketing costs continue to drive households, businesses and hospitals into bankruptcy, where families are forced to delay sending kids to college or defer other hopes and dreams due to out of control costs. He urged Congress to “answer the call of history” and pass reform without delay.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who was in the Capitol Hill meeting with the president said it was an inspired event in which Obama called on lawmakers to grasp the historical weight if the moment and commit to serving the public, both now and generations into the future, by passing reform that will create a more secure, more just situation for all Americans, when it comes to healthcare and related economic conditions.
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