by Mark Silva
The late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who died this summer after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, hoped to live to see a career goal accomplished this year, health-care reform providing coverage for the millions of Americans lacking it.
His widow, Vicki Kennedy, held back tears tonight in a gallery of the House of Representatives where President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and a national television audience and cited a letter that Kennedy had written to him months before his death, in May. First Lady Michelle Obama held her hand.
Behind the president, Vice President Joe Biden wiped a tear from his eye at the mention of an old friend from the Senate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to compose herself as well as the president spoke of summoning the "American character'' in his call for health-care reform.
"There will be struggles - there always have been - and they are already underway again,'' Kennedy wrote to Obama. "But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won.''
Here's the letter, released by the White House:
(Photo above of Vicki Kennedy, widow of Sen. Edward Kennedy, in the gallery of the House tonight, by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
May 12, 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me - and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.
On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.
You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.
When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.
There will be struggles - there always have been - and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.
And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family's health will never again depend on the amount of a family's wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will - yes, we will - fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.
In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America's behalf inspires the entire world.
So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.
At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.
And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.
With deep respect and abiding affection,
[Ted]
Comments
Money doesn't grow on tree's, which leads me to wonder why Wingnuts were standing up on their hind legs and clapping like trained seals when Bush and Cheney gave tax cuts to the richest 1%, big corporations and big oil and started a phony war in Iraq?
BushCo's excellent adventure in Iraq is going to cost waaaaay more than health care ever will, we're not going to be totally out of that mess for years.
And by the way, where is this final health care bill that the Wingnuts are claiming is going to cost more than Iraq? They haven't seen a final health care bill yet because it doesn't exist yet.
Posted by: I wanna be a Republican idiot | September 9, 2009 10:29 PM
The Dems should ignore the corporate loving Republicans and go ahead and implement the health care reform that they were voted into office to do. The Dems need to quit listening to a Republican party that has been taken over by the dumber than a brick toothless rednecks who make up what's left of their base.
Screw the Republicans, they didn't have any problem going it alone when they passed their tax cuts for multi millionaires in 2003 and less than 30% of Americans approved of it at the time they did it.
Posted by: Do it for Teddy! | September 9, 2009 10:36 PM
Americans Can't Trust Republicans With Medicare
You want a simple message to counter dishonest Republican fear mongering on healthcare? How's this, Republicans want to do away with Medicare. They've always wanted to take it away, and if they get half a chance in the future they'll get rid of it then. It's not hard to find examples of them saying so in their own words since Medicare started.
Saint Ronny Raygun in the 60s: "if you don’t [stop Medicare] ... you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free."
Republican Bob Dole openly bragged in 1996 that he was one of 12 House members who voted against creating Medicare. "I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare ..."
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http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/07/29/medicare-44/
GOPer nutjob/ "guru" Newt Gingrich said of Medicare, "We don't get rid of it in round one because we don't think that's politically smart, we don't think that's the right way to go through a transition, but we believe it's going to wither on the vine." He then went on to propose cutting Medicare by 14% and forcing millions of senior citizens to seek out private HMOs or go without, all to help make sure Medicare would 'wither on the vine.' And it continues right into present day.
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http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/16/us/gop-s-plan-to-cut-medicare-faces-a-veto-clinton-promises.html?sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all
Roy Blunt: "You could certainly argue that government should have never have gotten in the health care business, and that might have been the best argument of all, to figure out how people could have had more access to a competitive marketplace."
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http://www.firedupmissouri.com/content/radical-roy-blunt-it-would-have-been-best-if-medicare-and-medicaid-never-existed
Former Republican House Majority Leader the Dick Armey reaffirmed this week on MtP that he thinks Medicare is "tryanny" and if that's not worrisome enough, he wants to "phase out" social security too.
Republicans want to do away with Medicare because they're against government healthcare, always have been, always will be. That's a core plank in GOP ideology, they hold it as dear and precious as some holy theology. Just yesterday, when asked about government healthcare, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said the "government is a predator, not a competitor" and went on to note he wouldn't vote for any healthcare reform bill as a matter of conservative principle, even if it has everything he wants in it. So when a Republican talks about "reform," says we must "get the government out of healthcare," pitches convoluted tax schemes and private accounts for the affluent, or spits out terms like "socialized medicine," like a dog whistle they all mean the same thing: getting rid of Medicare.
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http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/sen-grassley-on-health-care-the-government-is-a-predator.php?ref=fpblg
Forget about grandma being unplugged, grandma won't be able to afford being seen, much less be able to pay for hospital admission. Grandma is on her own. All so that conservative zillionaires and their Republican congressional lackeys can save an extra 0.0145 of their gross, bloated paycheck, the same flat rate we all invest to keep millions of senior citizens alive and healthy today.
Posted by: Darksyde | September 9, 2009 10:39 PM
Idiot,
Because those income tax cuts, which went to the all income tax payers not just the top 1%, spurred a six year economic growth cycle that led to more gov't revenue, not less.
Posted by: Terry | September 10, 2009 6:46 AM
" Darksyde": Didn't you post this same cut and paste on another thread? Why, yes you did. Is it possible for you to have an original thought or at least put something in your own words so we can see if you actually understand your own post?
Rick
Posted by: Rick Caird | September 10, 2009 6:47 AM
Because those income tax cuts, which went to the all income tax payers not just the top 1%, spurred a six year economic growth cycle that led to more gov't revenue, not less.
Posted by: Terry | September 10, 2009 6:46 AM
Of course supply side tax cutting strategy also lead to ballooning deficits. History has made that clear to people who aren't blinded by partisanship like Terry. It happened with Reagan,, it happened with Bush. The so called "increased" revenues never leave the overall budget position better than before the cuts.
Posted by: History calling | September 10, 2009 9:26 AM
Yes, cancel a war and a few aircraft carriers and you'd be surprised how much health care this country can afford.
Footnote: the upholstery on V Kennedy's seat?
Is that H of R redecoration?
If so, who picked out the swastika embedded in the design?
Posted by: ornery | September 10, 2009 9:43 AM
It was great to see the family of the late, Senator Ted Kennedy, attending this good call, by President Obama, on our nation to live up to her promises. That we have many, many citizens suffering, in need and ignored doesn't not speak well for this good nation. Healthcare in our nation is a right, and if some do not see it as a right, than we should proceed to make it so. Women's voting wasn't a right and we remedied that problem. The denial of African-Americans their rights as citizens of America were denied and we are still trying to remedy that deplorable time in our nation's history. There have been several issues that should have been rights and weren't, until we saw the light and rectified the problem. Healthcare is another of those issues that must be addressed as a right. We are a nation, made up of citizens. Each of us plays a part in our national life, which contributes to the totality of our good nation. What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. If we abandon that motto, we have abandoned our notion of our nation and I know all of us, that are thinking intelligently and honestly, will not want to see us abandon that basic motto. I know there are some, that would be willing to sacrifice America to maintain their agenda, but fortunately, they are only a very vocal minority. May God, and reason, allow them to find themselves and correct those unAmerican ideals, that they harbor !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | September 10, 2009 10:23 AM
History,
The cause of the deficits is not on the revenue side of the deficit equation - it is on the spending side of the equation. I would suggest you take a re-read of history.
Posted by: Terry | September 10, 2009 12:40 PM