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Obama to sign healthcare bill on Tuesday
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U.S. President Barack Obama is flanked by Vice President Joe Biden (L) as he makes a statement about the House of Representatives' final passage of health care legislation, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 21, 2010. Obama on Sunday hailed the House of Representatives vote for his sweeping healthcare plan as a victory for the American people that answered the call of history.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will sign his healthcare reform bill into law Tuesday and travel Thursday to promote the plan in Iowa, a farming state split over the overhaul of the $2.5 trillion healthcare system.
The landmark legislation narrowly passed by the House of Representatives Sunday after a year-long political battle faces unanimous Republican opposition and promised legal challenges by Republican politicians in several states.
Obama will sign the bill at the White House and then attend a post-signing event with legislators at the Department of the Interior, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Obama will go to Iowa City, where he first outlined his healthcare plan in 2007, Gibbs told a press briefing.
Obama will speak repeatedly about healthcare during the months ahead, including campaigning for Democrats before November's congressional elections, Gibbs said.
"I assume the president will talk about healthcare for a long time," he said.
Opinion polls show many Americans oppose the healthcare reforms or are confused about them.
Republicans said they would fight a package of changes designed by House Democrats to improve the bill, which will be taken up this week in the Senate.
The top legal officials in at least 11 states said they would file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the overhaul and contending it infringes on state sovereignty.
Gibbs said he did not expect those suits to be successful.
Reform opponents said they would work to defeat any legislator who backed the healthcare plan in the elections, in which more than one third of seats in the Senate and all of the seats in the House are up for grabs.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Chris Wilson)
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The Obama congress thumbed their nose at the US Constitution and rules of the house to pass this european socialist health care bill and now Obama has not challenges to stop him from the next step on the socialist agenda. REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER AND VOTE OUT THE OBAMA CONGRESS.
Funny how the Europeans have better health care, longer paid vacation (quality of life), live longer, are more healthy, and better educated.
Hmmmm ditto heads, Sarah Palin, Rush the clown, or tea baggers, hard choice here, I think I will take Euro Socialist state over peoiple too dumb to vote yes for their own self-interest.
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