President Barack Obama on Tuesday will deliver what some are calling a controversial back-to-school message to students.
(Ron Edmonds/AP Photo)
Today, Obama pinned the possible changes on employers, who may adjust their health care plans due to costs, and maintained that the government will not be the force behind the changes.
"I can guarantee you that there's the possibility for a whole lot of Americans out there that they're not going to end up having the same health care they have," he said. "Because what's going to happen is, as costs keep on going up, employers are going to start making decisions. We've got to raise premiums on our employees. In some cases, we can't provide health insurance at all."
Obama aimed a message squarely at his critics who say his reform proposals will cost too much but did not provide a detailed plan for where the money comes from.
"This is legislation that will be paid for. It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health care system -- some of which we've already announced," he said.
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Obama started off the news conference with a 10-minute prepared statement that addressed Iran, energy legislation and health care.
He issued his strongest statement yet on the recent violence in Iran, deploring the loss of innocent civilian life and condemning what he called "unjust actions" taken by the government there.
"The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days," he said. "I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost."
Amid criticism from Republicans who say he has not offered strong enough backing of the protests of the contested Iranian election, Obama today repeatedly stressed that the United States respects Iran's sovereignty and does not want to meddle it its affairs but acknowledged the "courage and dignity" of the Iranian people.
Obama called energy legislation making its way through the House "historic" and said it will "transform the way we produce and use energy in America."
Obama pinned the legislation's price tag on the "the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe."
"It is legislation that will finally spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet," he said.
The president also stood by his statement that the nation's unemployment will end up going over 10 percent and said that jobs are a lagging indicator of economic recovery.
He said he does not see a need for a second stimulus package because he wants to see how effective the first one can be, which he credited with stabilizing the economy.
"In the absence of the stimulus, I think our recession would be much worse. It would have declined," he said. "Without the Recovery Act, we know for a fact that states, for example, would have laid off a lot more teachers, a lot more police officers. And a lot more firefighters."
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