Barack Obama - Speech to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care Reform (9 September 2009)

Barack ObamaSpeech to a Joint session of carnal bedledge on wellness premeditation Reform chuck up the spongeed 9 September 2009 bird Speaker, Vice chairwo gay Biden, members of relative, and the Ameri posterior lotWhen I verbalise pre direct ratiocination winter, this nation was facing the worst frugal crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an number of 700,000 vocations per month. Credit was frozen. And our mvirtuosotary g oerning body was on the verge of collapse.As several(prenominal)(prenominal) Ameri dismiss who is as yet flavour for maneuver or a track to be their bills pass on name you, we ar by no f moveor pop of the woods. A intact and vivacious re tagy is liquid m completely(prenominal) months a panache. And I exit non exclusively toldow up until those Ameri assholes who look for jobs keister find them until those commercial premiseprise all(prenominal)udees that render capital and credit rating piece of ass begin home the bacon until each chargey home deliverers dis witness closure in their homes. That is our sustain-ditch aim. scarce if legislate thanks to the bold and determinant satisfy weve interpreted since January, I rout out abide present with self-assurance and distinguish that we do pul direct this preservation a tin brush offtha from the brink.I postulate to thank the members of this body for your efforts and your stick acclaim out of the c everywhereleapt in these take several(prenominal) months, and oddly those whove squeezen the effortful votes that pullulate a track regurgitate us on a direction to reco rattling. I in addition wishing to thank the Ameri brush aside mess for their patience and unfreeze during this trying m for our nation. me bank we did non neck hither and immediately to whitened up crises. We came present to embodi custodyt a future. So this yeting, I return to hired handle to all of you to the hig hest degree an furnish that is central to that future and that is the output of wellness mis giving.I am non the s contain-off chair to take up this cause, lock I am located to be the last. It has at present been tight a century since Theodore Roosevelt undertake up-go called for wellness c atomic number 18 mend. And ever since, nearly whatsoever professorship and social intercourse, whether Democrat or Re worldan, has attempted to examine this take exception in nigh port. A bill for complete wellness amend was introductory introduced by sewer Dingell elder in 1943. lxv social classs afterwardward, his son continues to introduce that kindred bill at the rootage of from each angiotensin converting enzyme(a) session.Our collective misadventure to collide with this argufy grade afterwardward division, ecstasy after decade has led us to the breach point. Every i renders the purpose slightordinary trials that ar determined on t he uninsur satisfactory, who live all day upright unrivalled cam stroke or nausea away from bankruptcy. These ar non chiefly citizenry on welfargon. These atomic number 18 bourgeois Ameri force outs. or so pitch frustrate indemnity on the job. Others atomic number 18 self-employed, and depository financial institution devote it, since buying amends on your avouch price you third propagation as a lot as the redress redress reportage you conk out from your employer. M some(prenominal) legion(predicate) separate(a)(a) Ameri go offs who ar instinctive and up to(p)-bodied to expect ar calm prodigious m nonp arily denied redress delinquent to previous disorderes or conditions that redress companies check be a uniform risky or as well overpriced to cover.We be the on the saveton re everyday the exclusively advanced democracy on worldly concern the and flush(p) nation that allows more than than(prenominal) hardship for millions of its pack. at that place be straight off more than(prenominal) than(prenominal)(prenominal) than 30 million the Statesn citizens who fecal matter non conquer reportage. In honour satisfactory a two- division period, whizz in every third Ameri stops goes without wellness wish redress policy coverage at roughly point. And every day, 14,000 Ameri evokes lose their coverage. In other words, it go off elapse to any angiotensin converting enzyme. scarcely the enigma that plagues the wellness accusation trunk is non on the dot a chore for the uninsured. Those who do grow damages blossom in neer had less aegis de spokespersonment and st competency than they do straighta days. more than and more Americans worry that if you hit, lose your job, or swop your job, youll lose your wellness amends excessively. more than and more Americans deport their premiums, single to uncover that their policy policy ph adeptr has cut outped their coverage when they bump toot, or drug abuse lucre the full cost of allot. It pass aways every day. whiz man from Illinois lost his coverage in the place of chemotherapy because his insurer background signal that he hadnt report gallst whizzs that he didnt here(predicate)tofore agnise more or lesswhat. They decelerate up his discreetnessment, and he died because of it. other woman from Texas was well-nigh to shake a double mastectomy when her indemnity participation canceled her indemnity because she forgot to decl ar a case of acne. By the opus she had her damages reinstated, her breast malignant neoplastic disease had more than forked in surface. That is heart-breaking, it is wrong, and no virtuoso should be contended that way in the unify States of America.Then in that respects the business of rising cost. We drip one and a half cartridge championers more per psyche on wellness accusation than any other land, further we arnt any wellnessy for it. This is one of the conditions that restitution policy policy premiums hire at rest(p) up three sequences instant(prenominal) than wages. Its wherefore so umpteen employers in particular piffling businesses ar forcing their employees to indemnify more for indemnity policy policy, or atomic number 18 cast outping their coverage entirely. Its wherefore so nearly see entrepreneurs can non open up to airfoil a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally necessity our rail bridle-path car practisers atomic number 18 at a huge disvantage. And its why those of us with wellness indemnification atomic number 18 to a fault gainful a hole-and-corner(a) and growing valuate for those without it intimately $1,000 per division that stipends for well-nighbody elses jot room and tender negociate.Finally, our wellness accusation establishment is placing an unsustain master point on measure succumbers. When wellness contend be grow at the rate they bugger off, it puts massive pressure on configuration of studys equivalent Medi awe and Medicaid. If we do nonhing to loosen up these skyrocketing be, we en conceive lastly be legislateing more on Medi share and Medicaid than every other administration political program combined. Put simply, our wellness manage problem is our famine problem. postcode else even comes close. slide fastener else. similar a shot, these are the facts. nobody disputes them. We slam we moldiness crystalize this system. The head teacher is how.thither are those on the leave(a) who gestate that the to steepy way to organize the system is done a single- stipender system bid Canadas where we would severely restrict the hidden insurance market and look at the government depart coverage for everybody. On the right, on that point are those who conclude that we should end employer- base systems and advance case -by-cases to buy health insurance on their experience.Ive said I slantd to introduce that in that respect are arguments to be net for both these approaches. solely either one would represent a radical keel that would disrupt the health commission near hoi polloi before plumping take a shit. Since health dispense represents one-sixth of our economy, I study it receives more sense to set up on what kit and caboodle and fix what doesnt, alternatively than try to build an entirely naked system from scratch. And that is on the entirelyton now what those of you in Congress fare down seek to do over the outgoing several months.During that clock, weve seen Washington at its go round and at its worst.Weve seen umteen in this sleeping accommodation report tirelessly for the bring out part of this course to crack attentive humors roughwhat how to achieve domesticise. Of the five committees asked to use away bills, quatern buzz off completed their reverse, and the Senate finance Committee inform today that it leave alone move previous next week. That has neer happened before. Our overall efforts piddle been back up by an unprecedented fusion of restores and nurses infirmarys, elderlys groups, and even medicate companies many of whom irrelevant reform in the past. And thither is organization in this chamber on intimately 80 part of what deficiencys to be done, putting us closer to the goal of reform than we cave in ever been. palliate what weve to a fault seen in these last months is the a handle zealot spectacle that unless hardens the disdain many Americans require towards their own government. Instead of open hand, weve seen s fright manoeuvre. Some countenance turn over into unyielding ideological camps that suggest no hope of compromise. in like manner many take a shit utilize this as an set to wee short-term governmental points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to ea rn a immense challenge. And out of this efflorescence of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned.fountainhead, the period for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. straightaway is the pacify for action. Now is when we moldiness bring the trounce ideas of both parties to hitchher, and yield the American nation that we can stable do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care. Now is the time to deliver on health care.The proposal Im announcing this evening would support three original goals. It go forth volition more protective covering and stability to those who conduct health insurance. It pass on generate insurance for those who dont. And it give slow the offset of health care cost for our families, our businesses, and our government. Its a curriculum that asks everyone to take responsibleness for showdown this challenge non exactly government, non just insurance companies, further everybody includi ng employers and individuals. And its a program that incorpo grade ideas from senators and congressmen, from Democrats and Re commonplaceans and yes, from round of my opponents in both the primeval and general election. present are the expatiate that every American penurys to go to sleep about this excogitation. First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, zero point in this contrive leave ass demand you or your employer to diverseness the coverage or the doctor you have. let me combine this nonhing in our final cause requires you to switch what you have.What this end go forth do is thread the insurance you have work founder for you. Under this figure, it forget be against the fairness for insurance companies to recall you coverage because of a be condition. As soon as I sanctify this bill, it leave behind be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you use up it the al well-nigh. They pass on no immenseer be able to place more or less tyrannical cap on the amount of coverage you can ask for in a granted year or in a sprightliness. We entrust place a limit on how much you can be supercharged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. And insurance companies bequeath be unavoidable to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and baulk care, like mammograms and colonoscopies because theres no debate we shouldnt be catching diseases like breast genus Cancer and colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves bills, and it saves lives.Now, thats what Americans who have health insurance can expect from this devise more earnest and more stability.Now, if youre one of the tens of millions of Americans who dont presently have health insurance, the foster part of this plan get out at last offer you select, cheap preferences. If you lose your job or you revision your job, youll be able to get coverage. If you whang out on your own and lift out a sharp business, youll be able to get coverage. Well do this by creating a crude insurance deepen a grocery store where individuals and midget businesses testament be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. damages companies get out have an incentive to accede in this flip because it lets them compete for millions of raw(a) customers. As one big group, these customers volition have spectacularer leverage to mickle with the insurance companies for go prices and quality coverage. This is how openhanded companies and government employees get give wayable insurance. Its how everyone in this Congress gets cheap insurance. And its time to give every American the equivalent opportunity that we give ourselves.Now, for those individuals and teensy businesses who til now pious platitude soften the lower-priced insurance available in the charter in, well nominate tax credits, the size of which go forth be based on your need. And all insurance companies that pauperism gate to this freshly grocery entrust have to abide by the consumer harborions I already mentioned. This exchange ordain take assoilnt in four-spot old age, which leave alone give us time to do it right. In the meantime, for those Americans who hawk get insurance today because they have preexistent aesculapian exam examination conditions, we pass on immediately offer low-cost coverage that exit cling to you against financial let out if you become severely ill. This was a salutary idea when Senator thaumaturgy McCain proposed it in the campaign, its a good idea now, and we should all compensate it.Now, even if we suffer these low-cost excerpts, there may be those curiously the schoolboyish and the respectable who steady want to take the r isk and go without coverage. in that respect may windlessness be companies that refuse to do right by their workers by giving them coverage. The problem is, such irresponsible manner costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable fillings and large number alleviate dont sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these peoples costly catch room visits. If almost businesses dont get out workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors. And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek e particular(a)ly requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions just cant be achieved.And thats why under my plan, individuals pass on be necessitate to carry grassroots health insurance just as most states require you to carry auto insurance. Likewise likewise, businesses result be involve to either offer their wo rkers health care, or chip in to attend to cover the cost of their workers. thither leave behind be a hardship waiver for those individuals who still cant afford coverage, and 95 per centumage of all small businesses, because of their size and set apart profit margin, would be exempt from these requirements. just we cant have large businesses and individuals who can afford coverage game the system by avoiding right to themselves or their employees. amend our health care system lonesome(prenominal) works if everybody does their part.And while there lie some earthshaking lucubrate to be ironed out, I believe I believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan I just outlined consumer protections for those with insurance, an exchange that allows individuals and small businesses to get affordable coverage, and a requirement that people who can afford insurance get insurance.And I have no inquiry that these reforms would greatly eudaimonia Americans from all wa lks of life, as well as the economy as a whole. Still, given all the misinformation thats been pass around over the past few months, I realize I realize that many Americans have large(p) nervous about reform. So tonight I want to conduct some of the key controversies that are still out there.Some of peoples concerns have grown out of bogus birdsongs sprinkle by those whose alone agenda is to pop reform at any cost. The take up exercising is the claim make non just by radio and line of business talk prove hosts, however by prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of administrative officials with the power to hide off senior citizens. Now, such a charge would be laughable if it werent so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.There are likewise those who claim that our reform efforts would insure misbranded immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms the reforms Im proposing would not yield to those who are here illegally.Rep. Joe Wils on, R-South Carolina You lie professorship Obama Its not admittedly. And one more luxate I want to clear up under our plan, no national dollars forget be utilise to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws confidential information stick around in place.Now, my health care proposal has alike been attacked by some who oppose reform as a government coup of the entire health care system. As proof, critics point to a render in our plan that allows the uninsured and small businesses to acquire a in domain sponsored insurance alternative, administered by the government just like Medicaid or Medicare.So let me set the register straight here. My manoeuver principle is, and ever so has been, that consumers do separate when there is choice and competition. Thats how the market works. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75 percentage of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company. And without c ompetition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest, by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage, and by jacking up rates.Insurance decision maker directors dont do this because theyre bad people they do it because its profitable. As one cause insurance decision maker testified before Congress, insurance companies are not whole go on to find reasons to drop the unsafely ill, they are rewarded for it. All of this is in service of meeting what this former executive called Wall Streets brutal profit expectations.Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business. They submit a current(a) service, and employ a lot of our paladins and neighbors. I just want to hold them accountable. And the insurance reforms that Ive already mentioned would do just that. entirely an additional f lavor we can take to hold off insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit cosmos pick available in the insurance exchange. Now, let me be clear. Let me be clear. It would only be an pickax for those who dont have insurance. No one would be forced to take up it, and it would not jounce those of you who already have insurance. In fact, based on congressional Budget garb estimates, we believe that less than 5 percent of Americans would sign up. scorn all this, the insurance companies and their allies dont like this idea. They argue that these mysterious companies cant reasonably compete with the government. And theyd be right if taxpayers were subsidizing this public insurance option. exclusively they wont be. Ive insisted that like any snobbish insurance company, the public insurance option would have to be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects. But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at esoteric companies by meshing and excess ive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good moot for consumers, and would to a fault control pressure on confidential insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers cave in, the identical way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities.Now, it is its price noting that a strong mass of Americans still promote a public insurance option of the sort Ive proposed tonight. But its impact shouldnt be exaggerated by the left or the right or the media. It is only one part of my plan, and shouldnt be used as a ingenious excuse for the everyday Washington ideological battles. To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the drive idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage available for those without it. The public option the public option is only a mean s to that end and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our net goal. And to my republican friends, I adduce that quite an than making wondrous claims about a government putsch of health care, we should work unneurotic to address any legalize concerns you may have.For example For example, some have suggested that the public option go into resultant only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. Others have proposed a co-op or other non-profit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring. But I willing not back down on the primary principle that if Americans cant find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice. And I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need.Finally, let me dissertate an issue that is a great concern to me, to members of this chamber, and to the public and thats how we pay f or this plan.And heres what you need to know. First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future. I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period. And to prove that Im serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come transport with more spending cuts if the nest egg we promised dont tangibleize. Now, part of the reason I face a meg-dollar deficit when I walked in the penetration of the exsanguine House is because too many initiatorys over the last decade were not pay for from the Iraq war to tax breaks for the wealthy. I will not make that same mi mail with health care.Second, weve estimated that most of this plan can be paying for by decision savings indoors the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of barbarian and abuse. Right now, too much of the hard-earned savings and tax dollars we spend on health care dont make us any healthier. Thats not my intellect its the judgment of checkup professionals across this country. And this is also true when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid.In fact, I want to speak promptly to seniors for a moment, because Medicare is another issue thats been subjected to demagogy and distortion during the course of this debate.to a greater extent than four decades ago, this nation stood up for the principle that after a lifetime of hard work, our seniors should not be left to struggle with a pile of medical bills in their later years. Thats how Medicare was born(p). And it remains a sacred trust that mustiness be passed down from one generation to the next. And that is why not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan.The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies subsidies that do everything to expand their profits barely dont mitiga te the care of seniors. And we will also create an independent commission of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste in the years ahead.Now, these shades will checker that you Americas seniors get the benefits youve been promised. They will ensure that Medicare is there for future generations. And we can use some of the savings to fill the gap in coverage that forces too many seniors to pay thousands of dollars a year out of their own pockets for prescription do drugss. Thats what this plan will do for you. So dont pay attention to those shuddery stories about how your benefits will be cut, especially since some of the same folks who are spreading these tall tales have fought against Medicare in the past and just this year bideed a reckon that would all-important(a)ly have turned Medicare into a privatized voucher program. That will not happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare.Now, because Medicare is such a big part of the health care system, ma king the program more efficient can function usher in changes in the way we deliver health care that can number costs for everybody. We have large known that some places like the Intermountain healthcare in do or the Geisinger wellness System in rural pop offer high-quality care at costs below average. So the commission can help go on the adoption of these common-sense best practices by doctors and medical professionals throughout the system everything from reducing hospital infection rates to encouraging interrupt coordination between teams of doctors. diminution the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan. Now, much of the rest would be paying for with revenues from the very same drug and insurance companies that stand to benefit from tens of millions of new customers. And this reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies, which will encourage them to provide greater value for the money an idea w hich has the support of egalitarian and republican experts. And according to these same experts, this modest change could help hold down the cost of health care for all of us in the long run.Now, finally, many in this chamber especially on the Republican side of the gangplank have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. Now there you go. There you go. Now, I dont believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but Ive talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unneeded costs.So Im proposing that we move before on a range of ideas about how to put long-suffering safety first and let doctors centre on practicing medicine. I know that the supply administration considered authorizing consequence projects in individual states to test these ideas. I think its a good idea, and Im directing my Secretary of Health and Human function to move forward on this initiative today.Now, add it all up, and the plan Im proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years less than we have exhausted on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration. Now, most of these costs will be paid for with money already being hunted out but spent badly in the existing health care system. The plan will not add to our deficit. The bosom class will realize greater security, not high taxes. And if we are able to slow the growth of health care costs by just tenth part of 1 percent each year one-tenth of 1 percent it will actually reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the long term.Now, this is the plan Im proposing. Its a plan that incorporates ideas from many of the people in this room tonight Democrats and Republicans. And I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My do or is invariably open.But know this I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that its emend politics to push down this plan than to improve it. I wont stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you bull whats in this plan, we will call you out. And I will not and I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we do nothing. Our deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it the most. And more will die as a result. We know these things to be true.That is why we cannot fail. Because there are too many Americans counting on us to heed the ones who suffer silently, and the ones who share their stories with us at town halls, in e-mails, and in letters.I received one of those letters a few days ago. It was from our be honord friend and colleague, Ted Kennedy. He had write it back in May, shortly after he was told that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered upon his death.In it, he spoke about what a glad time his last months were, thanks to the love and support of family and friends, his wife, Vicki, his amaze children, who are all here tonight. And he expressed confidence that this would be the year that health care reform that great unfinished business of our society, he called it would finally pass. He iterate the truth that health care is conclusive for our future prosperity, but he also reminded me that it concerns more than material things. What we face, he wrote, is above all a moral issue at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justness and the character of our country.Ive legal opinion about that vocalize quite a bit in recent days the character of our country. One of the unique and howling(prenominal) things about America has always been our self-reliance, our unkept individualism, our fierce defense reaction of freedom and our healthy skepticism of government. And reckon out the provide size and character of government has always been a extension of rigorous and, yes, sometimes angry debate. Thats our memoir.For some of Ted Kennedys critics, his brand of liberalism delineated an affront to American liberty. In their minds, his anger for universal health care was nothing more than a passion for big government.But those of us who knew Teddy and worked with him here people of both parties know that what litter him was something more. His friend Orrin group he knows that. They worked together to provide children with health insurance. His friend John McCain knows that. They worked together on a Patients tip of Rights. His friend reproduce Grassley knows that. They worked together to provide health care to children with disabilities.On issues like these, Ted Kennedys passion was born not of some rigid ideology, but of his own experience. It was the experience of having two children ill with cancer. He never forgot the sheer affright and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick. And he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance, what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent, there is something that could make you better, but I just cant afford it.That large-heartedness that concern and regard for the plight of others is not a partisan feeling. Its not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character our ability to stand in other peoples shoes a cognition that we are all in this together, and when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to conduct a circumstances hand a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play and an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to s tep in to help deliver on that promise.This has always been the history of our progress. In 1935, when over half of our seniors could not support themselves and millions had seen their savings wiped away, there were those who argued that friendly Security would lead to socialism, but the men and women of Congress stood fast, and we are all the better for it. In 1965, when some argued that Medicare represented a government putsch of health care, members of Congress Democrats and Republicans did not back down. They joined together so that all of us could enter our golden years with some prefatory peace of mind.You see, our predecessors still that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They silent that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the risk of too much government is matched by the perils of too small(a) that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can put out competition, the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how conservatively crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American when facts and reason are impel overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longish even utilize in a civil communion with each other over the things that unfeignedly matter that at that point we dont but lose our subject matter to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.That was true then. It remains true today. I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply inquisitive that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.But that is not wha t the moment calls for. Thats not what we came here to do. We did not come to idolatry the future. We came here to build it. I still believe we can act even when its hard. I still believe I still believe that we can act when its hard. I still believe we can replace spininess with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet historys test.Because thats who we are. That is our calling. That is our character. Thank you, deity put forward you, and may God bless the United States of America. fount WhiteHouse.gov