President Obama just finished speaking to the public following the election. If you missed it, here is what he said on immigration and healthcare, as reported by our own Sawait Hezchias-Seyoum:
On immigration, President Obama stated that in the absence of action by Congress, he will via executive authority take action to improve the immigration system before the end of the year. In response to questions from reporters around concerns raised that EA would make it harder to pass immigration reform, the President expressed that there is a cost to waiting to pass immigration reform. He referenced the recent issue of unaccompanied children, how that represented a major crisis in our immigration system and further, that it identified a real problem with respect to our border. He added that where he has EA to address the problem with our border and specifically the impact that the misallocation of resources has had on our ability to enforce border control, he would use it.
On healthcare, the President will not entertain any efforts to take away health care from people nor recommendations for changes that would undermine the structure of the law. He reminded people that there is no law that has ever been passed that is perfect, that there are areas where we know we can do better and he is open and receptive to responsible changes to the ACA. He added, despite all the contention surrounding the law when it was passed, we now know the law works, millions of people who didn’t have insurance before now have it and despite predictions, even as we’ve enrolled more people into the system, health care inflation has gone down and we saw the lowest increase in health costs in 50 years which has resulted in $150 billion in savings to the federal government.