Obama Receives JFK Courage Award, Appeals To Congress To Save Obamacare

[caption id="attachment_19792" align="alignnone" width="800"]Barack Obama[/caption]

Former U.S. President Barack Obama, on Sunday, received the 2017 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

The annual Profile in Courage award honours a public official whose leadership resembles that of the senators in Kennedy’s book.

The award comes days after House Republicans won passage of a bill dismantling much of Obama’s signature health insurance law, Obamacare.

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In one of his first speeches since he left the White House, Obama called on members of Congress to put conscience ahead of party loyalty, and oppose the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

“I hope that current members of Congress recall that it actually doesn’t take a lot of courage to aid those who are already powerful, already comfortable, already influential — but it does require some courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm,” Obama said.

He said he hopes they understand that “courage does not always mean doing what is politically expedient, but what they believe deep in their hearts is right.”

The former President also said there was a reason why health care reform had not been accomplished earlier: “It was hard.”

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He spoke of the courage of the men and women who were in Congress when he was President, who risked their political futures to pass the Affordable Care Act.

“They had a chance to insure millions,” Obama recalled. “This same vote would likely cost them their new seats and perhaps end their political careers. And these men and women did the right thing, the hard thing, and theirs was a profile in courage.”

Democrats say the bill would undermine poor people’s health care while cutting taxes for the rich. The bill’s supporters argue it would help reduce health costs for many people.

The annual award is named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Kennedy that profiled eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled though unpopular positions.

Obama joins former Republican Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush as recipient for the award.

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