Asia-Pacific
Obama to appeal for revived health care support
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-28 09:04
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 US President Barack Obama walks on the West Wing Colonnade towards the Oval Office at the White House before his nationally televised State of the Union Speech later tonight on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 27, 2010. [Agencies] |
WASHINGTON: Hoping to rescue his prized health care overhaul and revive his presidency as well, Barack Obama appealed in his State of the Union address for support for the plan that is in severe danger in Congress, urging dispirited Democrats not to abandon the effort.
"By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance," Obama said, according to excerpts of the Wednesday night address released in advance by the White House. "Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber."
Promising to tackle the economic worries foremost on Americans' minds and become the transformative leader they thought they voted for, Obama called on Democrats and Republicans to "overcome the numbing weight of our politics" and agree on solutions to the nation's problems.
Obama was looking to change the conversation from how his presidency is stalling -- over the messy health care debate, a limping economy and the missteps that led to Christmas Day's barely averted terrorist disaster -- to how he is seizing the reins.
The president was devoting about two-thirds of the speech to the economy, emphasizing his ideas, some new but mostly old and explained anew, for restoring job growth, taming budget deficits and changing Washington's ways. These concerns are at the roots of voter emotions that drove supporters to Obama but now are turning on him as he governs.
