Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyWith the last best chance for health reform in this generation on the line, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight delivered the message in support of this crucial legislation that America has been waiting to hear. Sitting in the Capitol, in an interview with Rachel Maddow, Pelosi said lawmakers and citizens need to stop talking about side issues like reproductive rights and start talking about what health reform could do for America. Pelosi:
Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance. Or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risks, but not be job-locked because a child has a child has asthma or diabetes or someone in the family is bipolar. You name it, any condition is job-locking. Think of a situation where we can be internationally competitive because we don't have this weight on us that other countries, that other businesses really don't have in other countries because they don't have this expense of health care which will all be reined in, those costs, under this bill.
We cannot afford the status quo. We will make this difference, and it will make a wonderful difference in the lives of our people, but also in the vitality of our economy. That's what we want people to talk about, not about, you know who has that number of votes.
Plus: Pelosi dodges the question, politely, on Rep. Eric Massa.// Pelosi on reforming the filibuster // Pelosi on accountability for the last Bush administration and campaign financePelosi's full pitch for health reform, after the jump.
[T]he more we talk about [abortion], the less we talk about innovation and prevention and wellness, about affordability for America's middle-income families, about access for those who have not been able to access health care before; about holding the insurance companies accountable, ending any denial of access to health care because of preexisting condition, capping the premiums but not capping the benefits either annually or on a lifetime basis; about what it does for children and young people to stay on their parents' policy until they're 26 years old; about what it does for seniors, in terms of closing the [Medicare] doughnut hole.
If you're not a senior, which you are not, but which I am, the closing the doughnut hole means it makes purchasing of . . . prescription drugs more affordable for them.
And if you are a woman, women have so much to gain from this bill. Right up until now, being a woman is a preexisting medical condition. If you're a woman, if you're of child-bearing age and you've had children, preexisting condition. If you can't have children, it's a preexisting condition. If you have a c-section, it's a preexisting condition. A victim of domestic abuse, it's a preexisting condition.
So you can't -- everybody has so much to gain from this. Small businesses, as I say, seniors, young people, women, our economy.
Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance. Or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risks, but not be job-locked because a child has a child has asthma or diabetes or someone in the family is bipolar. You name it, any condition is job-locking. Think of a situation where we can be internationally competitive because we don't have this weight on us that other countries, that other businesses really don't have in other countries because they don't have this expense of health care which will all be reined in, those costs, under this bill.
We cannot afford the status quo. We will make this difference, and it will make a wonderful difference in the lives of our people, but also in the vitality of our economy. That's what we want people to talk about, not about, you know who has that number of votes.
The full text transcript for tonight's show can be found here.