US President Barack Obama on Wednesday demanded action now from Congress to fix a health system reduced to “breaking point,” vowing to end the moral taint that deprives millions of Americans of treatment.
In a bold bid to assert leadership as a fractious debate rattles his young administration, Obama strode into a highly charged and rare joint address to Congress and rejected some conservative attacks on his plan as lies.
“We did not come here to fear the future, we came here to shape it,” Obama roared, reprising the reformist zeal that powered his triumphant election campaign, but which has been sullied by months in Washington’s partisan swamp.
After a summer of political fury, Obama offered the most detailed outline of his reform plan yet, warned more Americans would die if Congress did nothing, and told Republicans not to waste his time by trying to kill the plan.
“The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action ... now is the time to deliver on healthcare,” Obama said in a speech punctuated by 27 standing ovations.
“Our collective failure to meet this challenge — year after year, decade after decade, has led us to the breaking point,” he said promising healthcare for the first time to 47 million uninsured Americans.
Though Obama did offer an olive branch to Republicans, including a promise to tackle liability suits which make insurance unaffordable for some doctors, latent political tensions spilled over in the chamber.
Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina shattered protocol and shouted out: “You lie!” when Obama said his plan would not give healthcare coverage to undocumented immigrants, earning Wilson a furious look from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Many other Republicans sat stone-faced through much of his address. The president, who has seen his approval ratings tumble and faced anger from his liberal backers during the healthcare furor, took aim at some of the most explosive charges thrown at his plan by conservative critics.
He said a claim that he wanted to set up a “death panel” to ration end of life care was “laughable ... cynical and irresponsible.”
“It’s a lie, plain and simple,” he said, drawing another standing ovation from Democratic backers, and went on to lambast claims he was bent on a government takeover of healthcare.
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