Print
EmailHis policies may be unpopular in some quarters right now, but President Obama believes his decision to push for health care reform, the economic stimulus, and new financial regulations will someday be "vindicated." In a sometimes testy exchange [12] with Fox News "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier yesterday, the president defended his push for health care reform, which is close to a crucial vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
BAIER: Mr. President, I'm getting wrapped up, and I don't want to interrupt you, but to finish up, do you think this is going to pass?
OBAMA: I do. I'm confident it will pass. And the reason I'm confident that it's going to pass is because it's the right thing to do. Look, on a whole host of these measures, whether it's health care, whether it was fixing the financial system, whether it's making sure that we passed the Recovery Act, I knew these things might not be popular, but I was absolutely positive that they were the right thing to do and that, over time, we would be vindicated in having made those tough decisions.
I think health care is exactly the same thing. We - I've got a whole bunch of portraits of presidents around here, starting with Teddy Roosevelt, who tried to do this and didn't get it done. The reason that it needs to be done is not its affect on the presidency. It has to do with how it's going to affect ordinary people who right now are desperately in need of help.
BAIER: I apologize for interrupting you, sir. I tried to get the most for our buck here.
SOURCE: Fox News [13]
Here is a full transcript [13] of the interview provided by Fox News.
And below is a video excerpt of the tense exchange.
Comments