President Obama told Republicans today that their opposition to Obamacare is meaningless, and he is going to blow right through them to do what’s right for the American people.
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The president started out by describing the new health insurance exchanges that begin on August 1. He states, “Insurance companies will have to compete for your business.” The president mentioned the news that in states like New York insurance premiums will drop by 50%. People who don’t get their insurance from a big group plan will now be able to buy insurance. The president said that the Affordable Care Act is doing what it is designed to do.
Obama told Republicans We’ve got a lot of problems in this country and there’s a lot of work that congress needs to do…yet instead we’re fighting these old battles. Sometimes, I just try to figure out why. Maybe they think it is good politics.” Obama said that the job of Congress is about more than politics.
The president said, “If you’re one of the 85% of Americans that already have health insurance, you already have an array of new benefits in place.” President Obama said people are getting better bang for their buck because insurance companies have to spend 80% of your premiums on healthcare. Obama said 13 million rebates were sent out to Americans last year because insurance companies weren’t spending enough of the premium dollars on healthcare.
Obama then gave examples of what Americans are doing with their Affordable Care Act rebate checks, and said that most people don’t know that they are getting money back from Obamacare. He suspected that if you took a poll, there’s a good chance that most of those people wouldn’t know that those extra dollars in their pockets came from Obamacare.
The president said, “I recognize that there are a lot of people in this town who are rooting for this bill to fail.” He said that they think this bill is about him, but it isn’t. It is about the people who got rebates. Obama asked what do the people who oppose this law think people should do with the money that they got back. He asked, “Do they think they should send it back to the insurance companies?”
He said they are steadily working through the bugs and political resistance to implementation. Obama said affordable healthcare is not some privilege for the few. It is a basic right that everyone should enjoy.
The president closed by saying that all the Republicans are offering is the same old song and dance. He closed by saying, “We’re going to blow right through that stuff and do the right thing for the American people.”
This was the kind of speech that supporters of the ACA have been waiting to hear for a long time. Now that the results are coming in, the president can argue with actual numbers that Obamacare is a good thing. Republicans are desperate to get rid of Obamacare, because time is running out. Once people realize that they are benefiting from the ACA, healthcare reform will be here to stay.
Many people think that Obamacare doesn’t go far enough, but it is important for the long term progress of healthcare reform that this law stays in place. Without the ACA, healthcare reform advocates will be back to zero. Obamacare is a building block towards future reforms.
House Republicans can’t run on their record. They can’t run on the economy, so they are trying to replay 2010 and run on Obamacare. Times have changed, and this time the White House and Democrats are ready. If Republicans want to run on taking away healthcare and millions of dollars out of people’s pockets, bring it on.
Republicans can offer fear, while Democrats have results. Obama and the Democrats are blowing right through this, and there is nothing that the Republicans can do to stop them.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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