Reflections on Arcadia

March 9, 2010

I was lucky and got tickets in the VIP section in front of the audience literally 10 feet from Obama at Arcadia University. It was a pretty awe inspiring speech with a very supportive and enthusiastic crowd. A few dissenting shouts could be heard and one moment he looked up and people reacted by saying “let the President finish”.

The President was introduced by a single woman faced with a doubling of her insurance premiums and saying that something had to be done. The audience had been standing waiting for 3 hours to hear Obama and when he came in, it was a thunderous reception. He began by saying it was good to get out of Washington.

His loudest ovations came when he said that insurance abuses had to end like exclusions for preexisting conditions, that people should be able to buy the same plan as members of Congress and that Republicans had 10 years to do something about health care costs and did nothing and now they are critics of his plan. “If not now, when? If not us, who?”.

His message was that Congress needed to pass the bill and that Washington spent more time worrying about the elections and not enough time about the concerns of the people.

At one point he said that, “some people want a government takeoever of health care” to which there was a loud applause including a few of us who shouted, “single payer”. He seemed to ignore it, but it was notable and unlikely to be reported by the media.

His final comment was that he wanted us to get Congress to pass his health care bill. Nothing new that hasn’t been said.

Written by admin · Filed Under Updates