A fired-up US President Barack Obama turned his populist ire from Wall Street to the insurance sector on Monday as he sought to rally support for a last-ditch bid to pass an historic healthcare overhaul bill.
Obama laid a bold bet with his remaining political capital in an event in metropolitan Philadelphia, painting insurance firms as villains and seeking to win over lawmakers wavering over tough votes crucial to his presidency.
“I’m kind of fired up,” Obama said.
Obama is piling pressure on the US House of Representatives to back his plan by March 18, before he leaves on a trip to Indonesia and Australia — a week-long voyage that could drain political momentum from the healthcare push.
He wants the House to ditch legislation it approved in November and pass the US Senate’s version, coupled with “fixes” to that bill — but the approach is high-risk as some conservative Democrats oppose it.
“The United States Congress owes the American people a final up-or-down vote on healthcare. It’s time to make a decision,” Obama said in Pennsylvania.
With millions of Americans lacking coverage, Obama accused insurance giants of making a cynical calculation that even if rate hikes cost them customers, they could rake in more cash through higher premiums on remaining plan-holders.
“Every year, they drop more people’s coverage when they’re sick and need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher,” Obama said. “How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it? How many more Americans have to lose their health insurance?”
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