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Continue reading Pres. Obama’s Speech on Healthcare to Joint Session of Congress →

Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva released the following statement this evening, concerning the President’s address to Congress on health care reform: 

“I am pleased that President Obama made the right choice to recognize the importance of a public option as part of the health care reform legislation.  

“A public option is the most effective way to achieve our goals of controlling costs, eliminating abuses of patients by insurance company abuses, and providing quality health care to all.  

“However, the President needs to be more direct on what the public option means and what it will do for the American people. 

Continue reading Chair of Congressional Progressive Caucus Statement on Obama’s Speech →

Obama Speaks Loudly But Carries a Small Stick

posted by John Nichols on 09/09/2009 @ 8:06pm

President Obama spoke loudly but carried a small stick Wednesday night, when he outlined what’s left of his healthcare reform agenda in a rare address to a joint session of the Congress.

Noting that “it has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for healthcare reform,” the president told skeptical legislators from both sides of the political aisle. “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.”

That was one of several takeaway lines of the night.

Another, delivered to members of the House and Senate who have just returned to Washington after an August of brutal town hall meetings, was: “The time for bickering has passed. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is the time when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together… Now is the time to deliver on healthcare.”

Continue reading President Obama vs. $280 million Health Insurance Lobby →