Obama to clergy: health reform is "moral obligation"

President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on religious leaders to back his heath care reform plan.

“I know there’s been a lot of misinformation in this debate, and there are some folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness,” Obama told a group of supportive religious leaders during a conference call.

Hope for a bipartisan bill is fading although Obama still wants an all-out effort in persuading Republicans to come aboard. According to Washington insiders though, Democrats are willing to push ahead even without bipartisan support.

Obama fired back at conservative critics who have characterized his health reform plan as "socialism."

“These struggles always boil down to a contest between hope and fear,” he said. “That was true in the debate over Social Security, when F.D.R. was accused of being a socialist. That was true when J.F.K. and Lyndon Johnson tried to pass Medicare. And it’s true in this debate today.”

Telegraph.co.uk

Obama Calls Health Plan a 'Moral Obligation'

New York Times - Jeff Zeleny, Carl Hulse

WASHINGTON - President Obama sought Wednesday to reframe the health care debate as “a core ethical and moral obligation,” imploring a coalition of religious leaders to help promote the plan to lower costs and expand ...

Video: New Health Care Strategy CBS