President Obama is back on the road again today promoting health care reform with a town hall at Broughton High School in Raleigh, NC to begin at 11:55 and then another in Bristol, VA with Kroeger Supermarket employees.
According to the Washington Post President Obama will be unveiling an 8-point argument for health care reform:
President Obama on Wednesday will take his plea for health-care reform to audiences in North Carolina and southwest Virginia, armed with a bullet-point-style message that his aides are hoping will be persuasive.
The re-tooled pitch highlights eight ways that, the White House says, health-care consumers would be treated better by insurance companies if reform efforts pass. It isn't exactly prime sound-bite material -- the catchiest title we could come up with is 'Eight No's, an Extension and a Guarantee,' which doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
But the message is the latest attempt by the White House to cut through dense policy discussions in a way that busy, distracted citizens can understand.
In his opening remarks, President Obama gave a progress report on the economy highlighting the benefits of the stimulus package. He then went on to talk about what health care reform will mean for everyone.
...Let's look at the facts. When my administration came into office, we were facing the worst economy of our lifetimes. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. It was nearly impossible to take out home loans, auto loans, student loans, and loans for small businesses to buy inventory and make payroll. And economists across the ideological spectrum feared a second-coming of the Great Depression.
At the time, there were some who thought doing nothing was somehow an option. But we knew that what was required was action. We knew that ending our immediate economic crisis would require ending the housing crisis where it began. That is why we took unprecedented action to stem the spread of foreclosures by helping responsible homeowners stay in their homes and pay their mortgages.
To date, roughly a quarter of the Recovery Act's funding has been committed, over 30,000 projects have been approved, and thousands have been posted online, as part of an effort to uphold the highest standards of transparency and accountability when it comes to our economic recovery.
The Recovery Act is divided into three parts. One-third of the money is for tax relief that is going to families and small businesses. For Americans struggling to pay rising bills with shrinking wages, we have kept a campaign promise to put a middle class tax cut in the pockets of 95 percent of working families – a tax cut that began showing up in paychecks about three months ago. And we also cut taxes for small businesses on the investments they make.
Another third of the money in the Recovery Act is for emergency relief that is helping folks who have borne the brunt of this recession. For Americans who were laid off, we expanded unemployment benefits – a measure that has already made a difference for 12 million Americans, including over 300,000 folks in North Carolina. We are making health insurance 65 percent cheaper for families relying on COBRA while looking for work. And for states facing historic budget shortfalls, we provided assistance that has saved the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and police officers.
The last third of the Recovery Act is for short-term and long-term investments that are putting people back to work and building a stronger economy for the future.
[snip]
Well let me explain why the health of America's people and America's economy demand health insurance reform. Let me explain what reform will mean for you.
First of all, no one is talking about some government takeover of health care. Under the reform I've proposed, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. And if you're one of the 46 million Americans who don't have coverage today, you will finally be able to get quality, affordable coverage.
[snip]
Back in Washington, there's been a lot of talk recently about the politics of health care; about who's up and who's down; and what it will mean for my party or this presidency if health insurance reform is passed or defeated. But here in North Carolina, you know this isn't about politics. This is about people's lives. This is about people's businesses. This is about our future.
And when our children and grandchildren look back on this moment, I don't want them to say that we were focused on petty politics when we were called to something better. I don't want them to say that we protected the status quo for special interests when we had a chance to reform health insurance for all Americans. I don't want them to say that we wasted our best chance – and maybe our last – to get health care right. I want my daughters and your sons to say that we seized this moment; that we rose to this challenge; and that, like our parents and grandparents before us, we left the United States of America more prosperous, more secure, and more hopeful than we found it.
You can read the full remarks here: http://thepage.time.com/...
WRAL.com in NC is carrying the town hall live and you can watch here: http://www.wral.com/...
So is MSNBC.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
and CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/...
and WhiteHouse.gov http://www.whitehouse.gov/...