- My Fellow Americans.
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- I
stand before you a chastened president. I made a mistake. Two mistakes
really. (wild applause from Republican side)
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- I
thought that Congress could do its job and through the deliberative process,
produce a health care reform plan that would win broad support across the
aisle and among all of you. But I'm afraid that I was wrong. Health care
is an enormous industry-maybe the biggest and most powerful industry in
the country-and it has far too much power in Congress. Literally thousands
of lobbyists, carrying tens of billions of dollars in campaign contributions-have
invaded these halls and distorted the process, and in the end have stymied
reform. (some hissing)
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- Meanwhile,
I have realized that the answer has been staring us in the face all along.
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- And
that was my second mistake. I told the American Medical Association
that while single-payer medical plans, where the government is the insurer,
might work well in other countries, the idea of government running health
care was not part of our American tradition. In fact, it is, and has been
since 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Medicare
program. Medicare is a single-payer program, and polls and surveys show
it is enormously popular with older and disabled Americans. Medicare has
relieved our parents and grandparents from the fear that they will not
get medical care when they stop working, and it has lifted the enormous
burden and worry off of younger Americans over how to pay for the care
of their elders, and it has done this with enormous efficiency, all while
allowing recipients to choose their own doctors and hospitals. (applause)
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- So
we really don't need to re-invent the wheel. There is no point in
members of Congress having to hold endless hearings, and to sit and listen
to the pitches of lobbyists from the medical establishment. We can just
expand Medicare to cover everyone. (applause)...
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