14 DAY TRIAL // In a move that is being hailed as the most daring social reform the United States experienced in the last 40 years, the US Congress passed the new health care reform bill on Sunday night. The vote, 219 to 212, was decided for by a Democrat-held Congress, although some of the most conservative democrats voted against the measures. When President Barack Obama signs the new document into law, an additional 32 million Americans will receive coverage. The reform is being widely applauded as a giant step towards providing medical cover for all Americans, as would be ethical, PhysOrg reports.
The decision to pass the bill also represents an accomplishment of a major political goal on which Obama based his 2008 campaign. Although some time passed since he took office, and many have said that he failed to keep his promise, the recent move is bound to win him back increased political support. As the number of votes in Congress reached 216, the minimum required for the document to pass, Democrats in the room began chanting the 2008 campaign slogan of “Yes, we can!”
“Tonight we answered the call of history as so many Americans have before us. We did not avoid our responsibility we embraced it. We did not fear our future, we shaped it,” Obama said as soon as the voting ended. He also personally thanked Congressmen who voted for the reform, saying that they proved naysayers wrong. Many experts and analysts had predicted that the bill would fall prey to the huge political differences, and other obstacles of the sort, that currently plague Congress.
Naturally, not everyone was ecstatic about the new measure. All Republicans in the room, about 178 of them, as well as 34 more conservative Democrats, voted against the bill. They now say that Obama and the Democrats will pay a hefty price in November, when new elections will again dictate which party controls Congress. “I know this wasn't an easy vote for a lot of people. But it was the right vote,” Obama said as the meeting ended. He personally spent the last week meeting with over 100 lawmakers, in a bid to gain the political momentum for passing such an important bill.