Obama Brings Health Pitch To Pa.

Mar 8, 2010 — Politico

Carol E. Lee

GLENSIDE, Pa. – President Barack Obama made his first stop Monday in the homestretch of his sales pitch for health care reform, taking on the politically fashionable Public Enemy Number One for both Republicans and Democrats: Washington.

“It’s time to make a decision. The time for talk is over,” he told an audience in a gymnasium at Arcadia University. “We need to see where people stand.”

Obama got in a few digs at his new hometown. The people of Washington are “wonderful,” he said, “love the monuments and everything.” But in Washington, he added, people respond to every debate with the same question: What does this mean for the next election?

“They’re obsessed with the sport of politics,” he said, then drawing the distinction between Washington and the rest of the country. “You want the people in Washington to spend a little less time worrying about our jobs and a little more time worrying about your jobs,” he said.

Obama also took aim at critics who say “now’s not the time for reform.”

“It’s gonna hurt your poll numbers,” he mocked them as saying. “My question for them is: if not now, when? When’s the right time?”

Obama’s speech vacillated between hitting Washington and the insurance companies, while making the case based on the ways rising insurance costs are hurting average Americans and small businesses. He equated passing reform with the American spirit, saying: “We don’t give up. We don’t quit. Sometimes we take our lumps but we keep on going. That’s who we are.”

“The price of health care is one of the most punishing costs for families and for businesses and for government,” Obama said. “We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people. We need to give families and businesses more control over their health insurance and that’s why we need to pass health care reform.”

Obama rejected those who suggest incremental “baby steps” on health care, saying “they want me to pretend to do something that doesn’t really help these folks.”

He stressed the length of time elected officials in Washington have spent on health care reform, and pointed out that the current proposal includes Democrat and Republican ideas.

“Every proposal has been put on the table. Every argument has been made,” he said. The plan that is now being debated, he said, “is somewhere in the middle.”

Obama’s 35-minute speech was aimed squarely at Congress. He appealed to Democrats who are undecided by shaming the politics at play, even making a rare reference to President Bill Clinton’s failure to get health care reform. He acknowledged the health care vote is “hard” for members of Congress and that the echo chamber in Washington “is as deafening as it’s ever been” in this final stretch.

“Health care is a hard issue. It’s easily misrepresented. It’s easily misunderstood,” Obama said. “So it’s hard for some members of Congress to make this vote – there’s no doubt about that.”

“But,” he added, “what’s hard is what millions of families and small businesses are going through because we allow the insurance industry to run wild in this town. So let me remind you that those of us in public office were not sent to Washington to do what’s easy.”

Obama also hit Republicans for playing politics, specifically named the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, who appeared on a Sunday talk show yesterday and said passing health care reform would be politically bad for Democrats. “First of all I generally wouldn’t take advice [from him] on what’s good for Democrats,” Obama said. “But setting aside that, that’s not the issue here. The issue is not politics.”

The president was harsh in his assessment of insurance companies. He continued to put a human face on the ways he believes they are hurting average Americans by raising their premiums. The woman who introduced him at the event was a single mother whose rates doubled. Obama also criticized a Goldman Sachs conference call that the White House has been holding up as evidence of the need for reform.

“The other day, on a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs, an insurance broker told Wall Street investors that insurance companies know they will lose customers if they keep raising premiums,” he said. “But since there’s so little competition in the insurance industry, they’re ok with people being priced out of health insurance because they’ll still make more by raising premiums on the customers they have. And they will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it.”

As he wound down his remarks, the president got more riled up. He said he doesn’t know how health care will play politically, “but I do know that it’s the right thing to do.”

“I want you to stand with me, and fight with me,” he shouted over deafening screams.

The crowd the White House estimated at 1,800 people was as energetic as the president inside the stifling gymnasium – at least one woman was taken out and tended to by paramedics because of the heat. The event was partially standing room only, but even those with seats stood on their feet for most of Obama’s TK-minute speech. They whistled when he took his suit jacket off and rolled up his sleeves.

“It’s a little hot in here,” Obama said at the start of his remarks.

“It is great to be back here in the Keystone State,” he added. “It’s even better to be out of Washington, D.C.”

Obama was briefly thrown off his speech when a man standing in the back of the gymnasium shouted a question, but he quickly recovered. At other times attendees in the back of the room exchanged viewpoints about reform

Outside the university, the challenge Obama faces in getting reform passed was on display, as scores of protestors hoisted signs criticizing “Obamacare” and “My doctor reports to me not Congress.”

The president tied together costs and the length of time health care has been under debate in Washington. He commented that he’s currently reading a biography of Teddy Roosevelt in which the former president talks about reforming the health care system.

“How much higher do premiums have to rise before we do something about it,” Obama said.

“When’s the right time?” he added.

“Now!” the crowd responded.

“Is it ten years from now or five years from now?” he said. “I think it’s right now.”