FAIRFAX, Virginia (AP) — President Barack Obama delivered a closing argument for the goal to which he has devoted much of his presidency, urging lawmakers on Friday to pass a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system in a long-awaited vote this weekend.
With Sunday’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.”
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Obama also urged lawmakers to reach beyond today’s 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.”
It was the fourth outside-the-capital event Obama has held on health care in the last two weeks, and his last public push for the legislation that tops his domestic priority list. He postponed until summer a trip Indonesia and Australia to stay in Washington to help ensure pasage and rolled his shirt sleeves up to wade into his delivery. With so much riding on the outcome — from the policy changes he so wants to his own political standing — Obama spoke in folksier language and made additional dire warnings.
The first-come-first-serve crowd of 8,500 responded with vigor, puncutating Obama’s speech with loud cheers and ovations. A handful of people booed and interrupted, with one yelling “No socialism,” but the vast majority in attendance appeared supportive of his goal.
The president returned repeatedly to the difficult year of debate over a sweeping remake of health care that has consumed the country, and to the rampant speculation, among lawmakers and in the media, over the political ramifications of a win or loss.
“Is this more of an advantage for Democrats or Republicans? What’s it going to mean for Obama? Will his presidency be crippled? …. Or will he be the comeback kid?” he mocked. “A lot of reporting in Washington, it’s just like Sportscenter. You know, it’s considered a sport and who’s up and who’s down and everybody’s keeping score and you got the teams going at it. It’s rock’em sock’em robots.”