US President Barack Obama invoked his personal agony over his late grandmother’s death, in his most emotional defense yet of his difficult health care reform drive.
On a western tour mixing high-stakes politics with stops in majestic national parks, Obama said on Saturday he was fighting a battle of hope over fear against critics who want to thwart his reform drive and stall his presidency.
Obama debated several skeptical members of a Colorado crowd, and fired off high-octane rhetoric reminiscent of his 2008 campaign.
PHOTO: EPA
“Because we are getting close, the fight is getting fierce,” Obama told a town hall meeting of around 1,600 people packed into a high-school gym here, accusing critics of trying to scare the US people.
“These struggles have always boiled down to a contest between hope and fear,” he said, referring to previous presidents’ crusades for pension and health care reform.
Obama also took another swipe at Republicans who have claimed his plans would include a “death panel” to make fateful decisions to deprive terminally ill elderly patients of expensive treatments.
“What you can’t do, or you can, but shouldn’t do is say things like we want to set up death panels to pull the plug on Grandma,” Obama said.
“I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it’s like to watch somebody you love, who’s aging, deteriorate, and have to struggle with that,” he said.
Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and other Republicans claimed death panels were included in draft Democratic legislation, but the bill would simply allow federal funding for counseling about end-of-life care.
Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died last year after he paid her an emotional farewell visit in his native Hawaii, just days before he was elected president.
The town hall meetings in Colorado and in Montana on Friday were designed to counter what the White House says are waves of “misinformation” about his plans drowning out lawmakers as they hold town hall events in the August recess.
Obama continued his campaign for reform yesterday as he warned, in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, that “cynics and the naysayers” would continue to try to undermine his proposals.
“But for all the scare tactics out there, what’s truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing,” he wrote. “If we maintain the status quo, we will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day.”
“Premiums will continue to skyrocket. Our deficit will continue to grow. And insurance companies will continue to profit by discriminating against sick people,” he wrote.
In Colorado, one young man bluntly challenged Obama, saying his plan for a government entity to compete with insurance firms to offer healthcare was not fair and would not work.
“I’d love to have a debate, all-out Oxford-style,” Colorado University student Zack Lane told Obama.
Obama rejected Lane’s arguments, but praised his boldness and respectful tone, implicitly comparing it to raging tirades replayed over and over again from congressional town hall events.
Obama denies claims he is trying to introduce a “socialized” system like the national health services in Canada and the UK.
Republicans say “Obamacare” would be too expensive, worsen the quality of care now offered by the private system and strangle the industry with bureaucracy.
Obama promises to expand coverage, control spiraling health care costs, rein in insurance companies and prioritize preventative care.
Also See: Town hall talks on US healthcare: Anger, fear, lunacy and lies
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS