Obama: 'From Chicago... I don't break'

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, who went home briefly last night, raised $2 million for his party with a fundraising dinner at the home of business executive and campaign fundraising chief Penny Pritzker and a reception at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

The president was full of praise for the friends who helped get him where he is today, yet full of sobering words about what he found when he got there - and also optimism about where things are heading.

"Give 'em Hell, Barack,'' someone called out from the crowd of donors at the Hyatt Regency.

"You know what Harry Truman actually said when somebody said, "Give 'em hell, Harry?'' the president replied. "He said, 'I'm going to tell the truth -- they'll think it's hell.' So we're just going to tell the truth about what's going on in health care right now.... Because it's going to affect every single one of you...''

Obama also had something to say about the Republican line that healthcare will be the president's Waterloo - "you've got Republican strategists who are telling the party... 'don't compromise, go in for the kill,' defeating health care reform is about 'breaking President Obama.'

"Let me tell you something. I'm from Chicago,'' the president said. "I don't break. And let me tell you something, what's even more important: This isn't about me. This is about a health care system that's breaking American families, and breaking American businesses, and breaking America's economy....

(President Barack Obama is pictured above at a Democratic fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago last night. Photo by Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images.)

"We arrived there at an incredibly difficult moment in this country's history,'' the president told his Chicago audience. "It was a time when we faced the worst recession in half a century. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Our financial system was on the verge of collapse. And because the folks running Washington got in the habit of spending money they didn't have, we inherited a deficit of $1.3 trillion.

"That's what we faced when I took office in January,'' Obama said. "But because of the actions that we took in those first weeks, we've been able to pull the economy back from the brink.

"We still have a long way to go, but the Recovery Act we passed has already saved jobs and created new ones, delivered billions in tax relief to families and small businesses, extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have been laid off,'' he said. "This plan will continue to save and create more jobs over the next two years -- just like it was designed to do...

"But here's the thing to remember: Even before the crisis hit, Chicago, we had an economy that was not doing everything it needed to be doing,'' he said in an address to supporters at the Hyatt Regency. " It was not firing on all cylinders. It was good at creating a great deal of wealth for folks at the very top, but not a lot of good-paying jobs for the rest of America.

"It was an economy that wasn't built to compete in the 21st century -- it was an economy where we've been slow to invest in clean energy technologies that will create new jobs and industries in other countries. We've been good at creating jobs in other countries because we have not invested in the clean energy that we need to.

"We've watched our graduation rates lag behind too much of the world. We spend much more on health care than any nation on Earth by far, but we're not any healthier for it.
"Now, that was the America of yesterday, Chicago, but that doesn't have to be the America of tomorrow,'' he said. "That cannot be the America that all these young people inherit. You see, what we're facing right now is more than a passing crisis. It is a transformative moment. We are at an unmistakable crossroads.

"There are some in Washington who want us to go down the path that we've already traveled for the last decade or so -- a path where we just throw up our hands and say, oh, this is too hard, too tough, we can't do it,'' he said. "So we do nothing more than just hand out more tax breaks to the wealthiest few that make the rich even richer and the deficit even larger. It's a path where our health care costs keep rising; our oil dependency keeps on growing; our financial markets remain an unregulated crapshoot; our workers lose out on the jobs of tomorrow. That's one path.

"That's not the future I accept for the United States of America... We did not come this far as a country because we looked backwards or stood in the face of great challenges. We didn't get here by lowering our sights or shrinking our dreams. We are a forward-looking people -- a people who have always faced the future not with fear, but with determination; not with doubt, but with hope.

"We've always taken great chances, we've reached for new horizons, and remade the world around us. And that's what we are going to do again,'' he said. "That's what are we are going to do again.... ''

This is where he got around to healthcare:

"Health insurance reform is not just about the 46 million Americans who don't have coverage,'' he said. "It is about them -- we have to, in a country this wealthy, recognize that it is unacceptable to have 46 million people without health insurance. That is unacceptable. There is a moral imperative for us to help.

"But this is also about those of you who have got health insurance. The vast majority of Americans still have their health insurance. But you know what's happening. Reform is about every one of you who has ever faced premiums and co-payments that are rising faster than you can afford. It's about every one of you who has ever worried that you might lose your health insurance if you lose your job, or if you change your job. It's about anyone who's ever worried that you may not be able to get insurance or change insurance companies if you or somebody in your family has a pre-existing medical condition...

"This nation cannot afford a future where our government spends more on Medicare and Medicaid than we spend on anything else. This is the price of doing nothing about health care -- a price that every taxpayer and every business and every family will have to pay. It is unacceptable, it is unsustainable, and it is why we are going to pass health care reform in 2009...

"If you already have health insurance, the reform that we're proposing will provide you with more security and more stability. It will keep government out of health care decisions. It will give you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it. It will prevent insurance companies from dropping your coverage if you get too sick. It will give you the security of knowing that if you lose your job, or you move, or you change jobs, you will still have coverage. It will limit the amount your insurance company can force you to pay for your medical costs out of your own pocket. It will cover preventive care like check-ups and mammograms that save lives and money.

"And if you don't have health care or you're a small business looking to cover your employees, you will be able to choose a quality, affordable health plan through a health insurance exchange -- a marketplace that promotes choice and competition, and you will get help on your premiums. And finally, no insurance company will be allowed to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition. Those days are over..''

This came on a day of setbacks for Obama's agenda, with the Senate indicating that there will be no vote on healthcare reform until September. The House was still promising a vote next week.

"Even though we still have a few issues to work out, what's remarkable about this point is not how far we have left to go -- it's how far we've already come...''

Rebutting the idea that this has become a personal fight, he reminded his audience: "I've got great health insurance. I said last night, I've got a doctor who follows me everywhere. Every member of Congress has great health insurance. So this is not about me. It's about the letters I read in the Oval Office, the stories I hear at town hall meetings. This is about that woman from Colorado, and the college graduate from Maryland, and the small business owner from New Jersey. It's about all of you -- all of you who are still shouldering the burden of a problem that should have been solved decades ago.

"It's not a game for those Americans. It's not a game for you. We can't afford to wait any longer. So when it comes to health care, when it comes to energy, when it comes to improving our schools, when it comes to regulating our financial markets -- we don't have time for the usual petty arguments. It is time right now for everybody to come together.''