President Barack Obama spoke about the upcoming implementation of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges and the Republican attempts to defund the health care law while speaking to voters at Prince George's Community College in Md., according to CBS News.
President Obama spoke angrily as he ridiculed the many attempts Republicans have made to repeal the law, including the current showdown that may lead to a government shutdown, since it was passed three years ago. President Obama brought up a remark made by New Hampshire legislator Bill O'Brien in which he said that the Affordable Care Act was "as destructive to personal freedom and individual liberty as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850," according to the New York Times.
"Think about that," President Obama said. "Affordable health care is worse than a law that lets slave owners get their runaway slaves back. I mean, these are quotes. I'm not making this stuff up."
"All this would be funny if it wasn't so crazy," President Obama continued. "A lot of it is just hot air, a lot of it is just politics, I understand that. But now the tea party Republicans have taken it to a whole new level because they're threatening either to shut down the government or shut down the entire economy by refusing to let America pay its bills for the first time in history unless I agree to gut a law that will help millions of people."
On Oct. 1 the health insurance exchanges that will provide a competitive market place for people to purchase insurance from will open. The president tried to assure people that there may be some problems when the program first goes active much of what they have heard about the law has been an overreaction, according to CBS News.
"Somewhere around the country there's going to be a computer glitch and the website's not working quite the way it's supposed to," President Obama said. That happens whenever you roll out a new program. Most of the stores you'll hear about how Obamacare can't work... are not based in facts."
The Associated Press has reported that the Spanish language version of healthcare.gov is not working properly. In addition, small businesses will be able to shop for insurance on the exchanges but will have to mail or fax their applications, according to CBS News.
"Did anyone tell the president that his administration is delaying another piece of Obamacare before he tried swindling the American people again?" Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.
President Obama said that while Republicans seem to be bending over backwards trying to destroy the law he thinks that eventually they will come around and embrace it.
"I believe eventually they'll come around because Medicare and Social Security faced the same kind of criticism," President Obama said. "A few years from now when people are using this to get coverage... there are going to be a whole bunch of folks who say, 'Yeah, I always that that provision was excellent, I voted for that thing.'"
