President Rouses Labor Day Crowd with Health Care Reform

President Obama, speaking at AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati, moved into his campaign speech mode to excite the crowd about health care reform. Judging from the video footage above, his efforts succeeded. Addressing those who are already insured, he promised that reform would bring "stability and security" to their coverage. Addressing his critics, the President asked:

“I’ve got a question for all those folks who say we’re going to pull the plug on Grandma. What’s your answer? What’s your solution? And you know what? They don’t have one. Their answer is to do nothing.”

He also continued to support a public option: “I continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs.”
And he also indicated that the time for debate was nearly done and that the time for action has arrived:

“The Congress and the country have now been vigorously debating the issue for many months. And debate is good, because we have to get this right. But every debate at some point comes to an end. At some point it’s time to decide, at some point it’s time to act. Ohio, it’s time to act and get this done.”

This speech was widely viewed as a warm up for his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. You can see the New York Times' story on the Labor Day speech here.