Obama remains undeterred by the right-wing tea parties nationwide where he has been labeled a socialist, Adolf Hitler and a witch doctor. Obama said the country has been waiting an entire century for a universal, comprehensive health care plan and will wait no longer.
“Let me tell you something: We’ve been waiting since the days of Teddy Roosevelt,” Obama said. “We’ve been waiting since the days of Harry Truman. We’ve been waiting since the days of Johnson and Nixon and Clinton. We cannot wait any longer. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over. Now is the time to have health care for all Americans. Now is the time to slow the growth for health insurance for families and small businesses.”
As his rich baritone rose and fell like the tide during his speech, Obama frequently pointed an indignant finger in the direction of the U.S. Capitol building as he tore into his adversaries’ divisive tactics to defeat his health care reform efforts and topple his presidency. His impassioned oratory inspired multiple standing ovations inside the Washington Convention Center.
“It seems as if some people have forgotten how bad things were when I first got into office. They seem to be exercising some selective memory,” he said, detailing the many crises that erupted prior to his election that included the Wall Street scandals, predatory lending practices and conflicts in two theaters of war. “Few of the barriers still in place, few are as unjust, are more entrenched, few are more inhumane than the barriers to a healthful life and a good education. Barriers that can and must and shall be overcome. For the sake of every American living today and those Americans yet to be born, we must bring about a better health care system in this country — not in five years, not in 10 years, not in one year, but this year.”
Obama also blasted the voices of dissent that told him to wait until his next term or later to initiate any real health care reform. “How are we going to tell Americans like … the woman who discovered a lump in her breast back in June. She was told that it would be six months before she would be eligible for health insurance to cover the cost of removing it. We’re telling her to wait?” he asked rhetorically.
Obama has been able to return his attention to two of his top three domestic policies — health care and education — this week after dealing with international and economic issues in his many meetings with world leaders at the United Nations in New York and the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. At the Group of 20, a world leader approached Obama, perplexed by the tactics employed by extremists to maintain the status quo. “He comes up to me … and he says, ‘Explain to me this health care debate. I don’t understand it — you’re trying to make sure everybody has health care and they’re putting a Hitler mustache on you. That doesn’t make sense to me. Explain that to me.’ ”
Obama explained yet again, this time to the CBC audience, that if citizens have health care coverage, they will not have to change it under this legislation. What the administration will do, Obama promises, is to make insurance better for everyone while outlawing the popular insurance company practice of dropping people because of pre-existing conditions. He said he would also place a cap on how much consumers have to pay for out-of-pocket expenses.
“Because in the United States of America, nobody should go broke just because they got sick,” Obama said to prolonged applause.
–terry shropshire
