President Obama told an association of CEOs last night that healthcare is still too expensive and more reforms will be needed to the system.
Addressing the Business Roundtable, Obama took credit for moving trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, which was created under the Bush administration and stalled until the new White House gave into congressional pressure.
“I think I’ve shown that I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American goods,” the president said. “That’s why we worked so hard to secure Russia’s invitation into the WTO.”
“I’ve also shown that I won’t stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules,” he added.
Obama also pushed his “all-of-the-above” energy strategy and again touted U.S. manufacturing for electric-car batteries.
“And the final thing I just want to make mention of is the issue of how we pay for all these things,” he said at the end of the address, after ratting off his priorities ranging from rebuilding infrastructure to increasing community college training.
“The fact of the matter is that we have already made significant cuts when it comes to discretionary spending. We are pruning this government to make sure the programs that don’t work we eliminate, so that we can invest in the programs that are necessary for our growth,” Obama said.
“We’re going to have to make some continued reforms when it comes to, particularly, our health care system, because it is still too expensive and we’ve got an aging population that we’re going to have to take care of.”
He then called for “relatively modest adjustments” to increase revenue to “make sure that America wins for the future.”
“And that’s something that the American people instinctually understand — that if we do this in a balanced way, we can solve our problems,” Obama said.
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