Time is now on healthcare, Obama says

Well listen, it is great to talk to everybody and I just want to start out by saying thanks, to everybody. Everybody who’s made phone calls and knocked on doors and registered voters and dug deep because you guys were hungry for new ideas and new leadership and a new kind of politics. And you had the confidence that we could reclaim a sense of responsibility in Washington, instead of an economy built on huge inequalities and fumbles, we could restore a sense of fairness and responsibility in our economy and build a new foundation for lasting growth. You believed that we had to keep ourselves safe, but we had to be true to our ideals as well and that’s the kind of change you believed in, that’s the trust you placed in me, that’s the reason I’m president and that’s something I’ll never forget. Just because you were with me during the campaign, you’ve been with us over the last several months as we’ve started to make some progress.

We passed an economic recover act, partly because of the economic recovery house meetings you hosted and attended, they were invaluable to get the message out about my plans to rebuild the economy. Hundreds of thousands of pledges in support of my budget were collected by all of you and delivered to members of Congress and that helped send a message that Americans coast-to-coast, were committed to making long term investments in energy and healthcare and education that would lead to new jobs and new industries and a better competitive edge for America. We passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we passed the budget plan, but now we’re moving to one of our biggest priorities, something that all of us who are on the phone have been talking about since the earliest moments of this campaign and that’s finally achieving the reform that ensures quality affordable healthcare for all Americans. You know what’s at stake, you know we need reforms.

Healthcare costs are crushing families, businesses, government budgets. Americans now spend more on health care than on housing or food. Costs have doubled in the last decade. It by far represents the biggest threat to our long term fiscal situation in Washington. More importantly, businesses and families are just getting hammered each and every day, and it makes it harder for businesses to expand, or raise wages, or compete. Millions of Americans have lost their healthcare. And I’ve heard these stories from many of you, who have, either in email or other forms, told us what’s happening in your lives. People like Anna Peters in Minneapolis. She wrote to OFA about her mother in law Lynn. Lynn and her husband Jack worked hard, they saved diligently, they built a solid nest-egg, but when Jack passed away and Lynn suffered a stroke, Anna tells they had no choice but to dig into Lynn’s savings. And at this point Anna’s fighting daily against insurance coverage that’s threatening to cut of her health insurance and watching their life savings dissipate just on healthcare costs. You’ve got Lisa Smith and Jennifer Davis who wrote OFA about how the cost of healthcare is prohibitive and only in emergences can they afford to go to a Doctor.

So we need healthcare reform legislation that works, that preserves what works about healthcare, but fixes the things that are broken. And I think the status quo is unacceptable and that we’ve got to get it done this year. If we don’t get it done this year we’re not going to get it done. And to do that we’re going to need all of you to mobilize. We’ve got to have you knocking on doors, making calls, educating your neighbors. I truly believe that with your help we can reduce costs for families, businesses and government. We can protect people’s choice of doctors and hospitals and health plans and we can assure affordable, quality, health insurance for all Americans. This is our big chance to prove that the movement that you started during the campaign isn’t over, we’re just getting started. And I’m grateful for all of you for staying involved and continuing to organize for America. So I know people have some questions out there, Mitch do you want me to call on the questions or are you going to call for me?

MITCH STEWART: The first question, sir, is from Mary Alice in Grand Rapids Michigan. Mary Alice, are you on the phone?
MARY ALICE: Yes, I am. Thank you, Mr. President for your strong leadership—
POTUS: Hi, Mary Allen.
MARY ALICE: Hi, Mr. President. I am Mary Alice Williams from Grand Rapids Michigan. Part of an OFA team member-- group, that turned that turned our county blue for the first time since 1968, so we are ready to go to war. My question is: As volunteers for Organizing For America, what do you need us to do in order to grow this grassroots movement to create community and to bolster our “change” agenda.
POTUS: Well, you need to do what you already doing, Mary Alice, and thats-- we need you to stay involved. The election in November--that did not bring about change, it just gave us an opportunity for change. So now, we are really going to have to remobilize, we have all had a chance to catch our breath after election and we have gotten a lot of things done during our first four months, but healthcare—that’s a big push. And so we are going to need you guys to reach out to your friends and neighbors about the work that OFA is doing in your community and we need you to support our agenda for change. So on June 6th you can host a kickoff event to help launch our campaign for healthcare reform. You can get a special video message that I recorded, then work in your community to make sure healthcare reform is talked about, discussed, that we are refuting arguments as to why we can’t drive down costs and improve quality.
That is really the most important we can do to mobilize people in local communities, block by block, neighbor by neighbor, one conversation at a time, so that they understand that healthcare reform can happen. And when that happens I promise that politicians take notice, members of Congress take notice. Some of you are in already Democratic districts where your elected officials are strong allies, but some of you are in districts or in states that where, right now, politicians are resistant to bringing about change, and you need to help to mobilize these communities to say it is not acceptable to preserve the status quo. And if you want more information about how to get involved then just go to the Organizing for America website, the OFA website on www.barackobama.com. Alright?
MARY ALICE: Thank you, Mr. President.
MITCH STEWART: Alright, Thank you sir. Bonnie from Portland, are you on?
BONNIE BLYTHE: Yes, I am.
POTUS: Hi Bonnie.
BONNIE BLYTHE: Hi, Mr. President. Thank you so much. I am humbled by this opportunity and your campaign was one of the most inspiring things of my life and the fact that you are here talking and listening to us and remembering us and employing us just reinforces that so, I am humbled Mr. President, Thank you so much.
POTUS: I appreciate you. Thank you
BONNIE BLYTHE: My question is—my son just graduated from college this past winter and he is burdened with college loans and cannot afford healthcare. What would you like to see be made available for young people who are burdened with student loan debt?
POTUS: Well, you know, this is something that I have personal experience in, so I know how tough it is. One of the things we are trying to do is to alleviate the pressure off of young people like your son. So the recovery act that we signed not only makes higher education more affordable by increasing Pell Grants, but it also creates what we are calling the American Opportunity Tax Credit which gives millions of students who need some help paying their tuition bills. And this year my administration will implement an income based repayment plan for student loans that will provide an option to repay outstanding debt with a monthly rate that is affordable for individual students especially if they are experiencing financial hardship. I am also dedicated to simplifying the student loan aid application process to make it easier for students to understand the financial aid procedures. To fund these programs, all we need to do is eliminate the middle man in the current student loan program, where you’ve got banks and other intermediaries that are getting their—the loan is guaranteed to be repaid by the federal government, but they are taking fees off the top as well, costing us tens of billions of dollars that could go to providing relief to young people that are going to school. The other issues around health care for young people, one of the proposals I made during the campaign, was that we ensure that young people could stay on health insurance up to the age of 25, during that transition period between college and getting a job that has steady health care. That is something that we would like to potentially include in any health care reform package.

MITCH STEWART: Great, thank you Mr. President.

POTUS: Alright.

MITCH STEWART: And we have one last question

POTUS: We have one more time

MS: Yep, for Leanne in Birmingham, AL. Leanne are you on?

LEANNE TOWNSEND: I’m on, Hi Mr. President, it’s such an honor and I have to say hello for my daughter drew

POTUS: Ok, well tell Drew I say hi.

LEANNE TOWNSEND: I will tell her. My question is, in a state as conservative as Alabama what do you think is the most important goal that we can accomplish to further our country?

POTUS: Well, first of all there are a whole lot of states that folks said were conservative like North Carolina and Virginia that we ended up turning blue this election and if we keep organizing and working and talking to people, especially people who historically haven’t voted like young people. A lot of times we can bring them back for some positive changes.

There are some issues that we’re dealing with that are huge. Two wars, fiscal and financial crisis, the deepest recession in 70 years and what I think that the American people want, even in the most conservative communities, is they want action they don’t want Washington to stop delaying and deferring action. I think that’s not a red state or blue state thing, its an American recognition that Washington needs to get up with the times.

So, inaction on health care leads to unsustainable rises in costs everywhere, not just in CA where I am flying back from, but in Alabama. If we want to cut our deficits and a lot conservative communities are rightly concerned about all the national debts that accumulated over the last 8 years, and frankly the additional cost that we are bearing of trying to clean up this economic recession that we’ve got. The most important thing we can do to close our budget gap is to reign in health care cost, its going to be absolutely critical

As we proved during the campaign, change comes from bottom up it only happens when people in their individual communities are out there talking, persuading,g presenting facts, giving people information. That’s true on health care, that’s true on energy, its true on education, its true whether you are in AL or MA Grassroots work makes the difference primarily because people trust their neighbors, friends and co workers more than they trust some talking head on TV. Especially these days when commentaries on TV, everybody just seems to be screaming at each other. Having that tone to reasonably have to case for why change is needed that is going to work everywhere. I know that is what you guys did during the campaign. That’s why I was successful and I know that’s why we can keep on being successful.

Thanks to all of you. And Mitch, I know you have a few more things to say but I wanted to say thanks to you as well. You did a great job during the campaign and you continue to do a great job now.