During the campaign, I promised that if I was entrusted with the job of president I would do everything in my power to put an end to political divisiveness and partisanship in Washington. In the months since then, my administration and the Democratic members of Congress have done everything we can to reach a compromise with the Republicans on the essential task of reforming a health care system that all side agree needs to be fixed. Even before we approached our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, we Democrats indicated our willingness to work with the opposition by removing from the table, even before they asked, an element of reform -- single-payer health insurance -- that has been a central tenet of Democratic health care policy since Harry Truman was president, because we believed it was something GOP leaders would never agree to. Neither that nor a dozen other concessions made by the majority since January has made a difference, however, and I have had to conclude, very reluctantly, that we made a mistake: there is nothing that we can do that will satisfy the opposition. Despite their protestations to the contrary, the leaders of the Republican Party do not want to give all Americans equal right to quality health care. We do.Hey, it could happen.
As long ago as 2003, when I was running for the U.S.Senate back in my home state of Illinois, I said "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program." I saw no reason then, and there is no reason now, why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 17 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. Everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I wanted to see. But as all of you know, back then we had a lot of work to do first. We had to take back the White House, we had to take back the Senate, and we had to take back the House. We did those things, and now it's time to take the next step. It is time to make good on our party's promise of universal access to health care.
So, today, we go back to page 1. We start over. We do what we should have done all along. Beginning today, the Democratic Party stands together to guarantee that quality health care will be the right every citizen. Today I join the 93 Democratic members of the House of Representatives who have already endorsed House Resolution 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act to provide expanded and improved medicare for all. This administration will work closely with Representatives Conyers, Kucinich and other leaders in the House to pass HR 676 by the end of September. I am confident that the passage of Medicare for all by the House will encourage Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate to support the Senate version, S 703, the American Health Security Act of 2009, and they will join Sen. Sanders in endorsing the equitable and fiscally responsible course of bringing the benefits of Medicare to all Americans. -- Pres. Barack Obama 2009.
The Citizens Alliance for National Health Insurance - HR676.org,Inc.
Take action: Support Single Payer Health Care (Democrats.com)
2 comments:
sweet, certainly would put a smile on my face and load off my mind
Ed
you really had me going. damn.
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