Speaking to the American Nurses Association in the Eisenhower buiding this morning, President Obama reiterated much of what he said on health care last night before a joint session of Congress – while tailoring a lot of it for his audience.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I just love nurses,” Obama said in his opening remarks. “I don’t know what it is – I love nurses. Michelle knows about it.”
He then adopted a more serious tone to address the new data released by the Census Bureau this morning, which shows that in the last year, both the poverty rate and the number of uninsured has risen.
“The reason I need nurses so badly is because now is the time to act and I will not allow reform to be postponed,” Obama said. “We don’t need more partisan distractions.”
In rhetoric very similar to what he said before Congress last night, the President also said “the time for talk is winding down, the time for bickering has passed…we’re not the first generation to take up this cause but we can and have to be the last.” He added that “nurses have a lot of credibility” and “we’re going to do health care reform this year with your help.”
He then acknowledged that his comments were “just in case folks weren’t tuned in last night” and in got in a subtle dig at the Fox network: “if they were watching So You Think You Can Dance, a show Michelle likes.” Fox aired the reality show instead of Obama’s speech last night.
