(applause) The President: Dear
President Obama, I do not yet qualify for Medicare,
and corporate is about to run out. I am desperate and do
not know what to do. Do it for them. Do it for people who are
really scared right now, through no fault
of their own. Who have played by the
rules, who have done all the right things. (applause) Let's get this done. Somebody knows where
Alonya Sanchez is? (laughter) (talking simultaneously) (applause) (applause) The President: The - so
everybody know about - Male Speaker: Right yeah,
but it going to be - it's not going to be for
another forty to fifty minutes. The President: Okay forty
minutes, all right, so Katie? Female Speaker:
Yeah, we are good. The President: You are
going to let me know? Female Speaker: Yeah so
it will be about forty minutes, then you will
have fifteen minutes of calls, then the talks. Male Speaker: What do you
think they're going to do - The President: You guys
could have had some popcorn. (laughter) The President: I want to
thank my outstanding Vice President, Joe Biden. And my wonderful secretary
of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius
for her fantastic work on this issue. I want to thank the many
staffers in congress, and my own incredible staff
in the White House. Who have worked tirelessly
over the past year to give Americans of all walk
of life, towards reform package finally worthy of
the people we were sent here to serve. All right, the
party's upstairs. Whenever you got people
running up, and someone else can come with me now. (talking simultaneously) Multiple Speakers:
(cheering) The President: Nancy
Ann, Nancy Ann. Multiple Speakers:
(cheering) The President: That
does not work as well. (laughter) I am not going to ruin
a good party with long speech. So many of you guys have
worked so hard during the course of this year
under incredibly adverse circumstances. Your families have,
you know, shared the sacrifices with you. You are all
younger than me. (laughter) So you can work on three
hours sleep, but I cannot. So I am going to start
retiring you guys can stay as long as you want. All right, thank you guys. (applause) The Vice President: Hey
Al, how are you doing buddy? Male Speaker: I am doing
fine Mr. Vice President. How are you? The Vice President:
Good to see you. I'm well. How are you? Good to see you. So it really is 220 pages. Male Speaker:
Yeah, it's -- The Vice President:
599 pages. I'm just joking. Male Speaker: Well it's --
in this format it is 906 pages. The Vice President: All
right, I like big bills. You what I mean,
I am a Democrat. Male Speaker: Here you go. The Vice President:
All right. Male Speaker: That's it. Female Speaker: Woohoo. The Vice President: Tell
you what, I never thought being president's second I
would get to sign a bill. (laughter) Male Speaker: Yes you do. There are perks. The Vice President: My
Lord Al this thing is - Male Speaker: Want
to sign them all? The Vice President:
Yeah, no. Male Speaker: Greetings. Female Speaker: Holy cow. Male Speaker: Yes. (laughter) Female Speaker: That's
the biggest one yet. Male Speaker: Yeah it's - Female Speaker:
Here we go. Male Speaker:
-- pretty large. Male Speaker: There it is. Female Speaker:
Here it is. The President:
What's going on? Let's do this. (talking simultaneously) I've got to sign it 22 times. That's a lot of pens man. (talking simultaneously) Male Speaker: Ladies and
Gentleman please take your seats the program
is about to begin. The President: The reason
we made history today was because of you guys. And, you know, I -- this
place is kind of a bubble, and one of the ways I
remind myself of why I ran, and why this is
important is to be able to read the letters, or
emails, or meet people at town halls who tell me
stories all the time about what they are
going through. And sometimes the stories
are heartbreaking, you know, because as powerful
as it seems the President is, you know, you can't
solve these things overnight sometimes. So, you know, you will get
a letter from somebody who just lost their job, or is
about to lose their house and you want nothing more
than to be able to help them. And you can't do it as
fast as you want, or as immediately as you would
like, but if you stay with it every once in a while
you actually get something that helps some folks, and
it might not even help them tomorrow, but it will
help them a year from now or five years from now. And, you know that's --
Male Speaker: It will help our kids -- The President:
Yeah, it will help - Male Speaker: And
our grandkids. The President: -- our
kids and our grandkids. And that's really what
this is all about, so this really was your day. You know, I know it may
sound corny, but I really believe it. That if it were not for
you just telling your stories, and letting
yourselves be heard that we would not have been
able to overcome so much of the resistance
to get it done. So, you should pat
yourselves on the back. All right. Okay, I am going to write
this note for you, myself.
