Obama's Health Care Speech wrap up

I just got back to my office after being in the East Room for President Obama's speech about health care reform.  He gave his speech in front of about 150 health care professionals who were all friendly to his opinions. The big news out of the speech?  Obama "went there" on "reconciliation."  He is calling on Congress to have an up-or-down final vote on health care in the next few weeks.

He said, "Now is the time to make a decision about how to finally reform health care so that it works." 

He says this plan will cost $100 billion a year.  But, Obama claims, "The bottom line is, our proposal is paid for."

You can read my play-by-play tweets from the speech on Twitter under @TheBrodyFile. 

You know who else was doing their own play-by-play? Senate Republicans! 

My mobile phone was buzzing with emails from the SRCC. One drew attention to Obama's claim that "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor." The Republicans say that doesn't jive with what POTUS said before:

“Well, let me, since you asked me a question, let me respond. The eight to nine million people that you refer to that might have to change their coverage, keep in mind, out of the 300 million Americans that we're talking about.” (President Obama, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10)

Sen. McConnell's response:

McConnell said Obama didn't mention half a trillion dollar cuts in Medicare, and new taxes. McConnell calls it $2.5 trillion in new spending. He says he appreciates the bipartisan approach, but by using reconciliation, the only thing that will be bipartisan will be the opposition to it.
 
I'm going to sign off of here to go tweet McConnell's response.  Be back in a few.