- Somebody yells out YOU LIE at the very beginning of this clip. #awesome
- He calls John Boehner out by name, referencing his Armageddon comment, only to hear alot of boos from the crowd which he quieted.
- He likens his media opponents, who site polls noting the American people are still divided on the issue, to farmers who plant a seed and expect food the next day. He declares “it’s only been a week”!
- He says we must try the heath reform first and then see how people like it.
- blah blah lies blah blah
- He demonizes Republicans again.
- He calls Olympia Snowe by name remarking on her contributions to the bill
I should note that on twitter it was said that Snowe was invited to the rally, but she declined.
Now over the last year, there’s been a lot of misinformation spread about health reform. There’s been alot of fear mongering, alot of over heated rhetoric. You turned on the news, you’d see that those same folks who were hollering about it before it passed, they’re still hollering about how the world will end because we passed this bill. This is not an exaggeration. John Boehner called the passage of this bill – we don’t need to boo, I just want to give the facts – called the passage of this bill armageddon! You had others who said “this is the end of freedom as we know it!”
So after I signed the bill I looked around. I looked up at the sky to see if asteroids were coming. I looked at the ground to see if cracks had opened up in the earth. Turns out it was pretty nice day. Birds were still chirping. Folks were still strolling down the street. Nobody had lost their doctor. Nobody had pulled the plug on granny. Nobody was being dragged away to be forced into some government run health care plan.
But the thing is though, you have to love some of the pundits in Washington. Everying single day since I signed the reform law, there’s been another poll or headline that said “Nation still divided on health care reform – polls haven’t changed yet!”
We’ll yeah. It just happend last week. It’s only been a week!
Can you imagine if some of these reporters were working on a farm? They planed some seeds and they came out next day and they looked “Nothings happened! There’s no Crop! We’re gonna starve! Oh NO! It’s a disaster!”
It’s been a week folks. So before we find out if poeople like health care reform, we should wait to see what happens when we actually put it into place. Just a thought.
Now look, this reform isn’t going to solve every problem with our health care system. It’s a huge complicated piece of business. A copule a trillion dollars. Thousands of people affected, thousands of people working in the industry. It’s not going to bring down the cost of health care overnight. We’re going to have to make some adjustments along the way.
But it represents enormous progress. It enshrines the principal that every American should have the security of decent care and that nobody should go bankrupt because they’ve got a kid who is sick with a preexisting condition. That small businesses shouldn’t be burdened because they want to do the right thing by their employees.
So now that this bill is finally law and all the folks who’ve been playing politics will finally have to confront the reality of what this reform is, they’re also going to have to confrong the reality of what it isn’t. They’ll have to finally acknowledge this isn’t a government takeover of our health care system. They’ll see that if Americans like their docotor they will keep their doctor and if you like your insurance plan you’ll get to keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn’t happened yet and it won’t happen in the future.
What this reform represents is bascially a middle of the road solution to a very serious problem. It’s not single payer. Some people wanted that, I understood that…So it’s not that. But it’s also not what the Republicans were advocating for which is esentially that you completely deregulate the insurance industry, you let them run wild and that somehow you are going to benefit. That was their theory. It was called the “foxes guarding the chicken coop” health care plan.
So it’s not the plan that some on the left supported in the past. It’s not what some on the right supported. But it is a common sense plan. This reform incorporates ideas from both Democrats and Republicans, including by the way a number of ideas from your Senator and somebody I consider a friend, Olympia Snowe, who spent many hours meeeting with me on this bill.