Health Care Reform | A Letter to the President + Democratic Leaders

Dear Mr. President, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid,

We sent you from the Senate to the White House, Mr. President—and from the minority in Congress to the majority, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid—to lead change. That commission was not based on vague and viral discontent but on a focused agenda for renewing this nation's committed exercise of the rule of law and the common good.

Today, I value truth-telling and fairness as much as ever but I could hardly care less about gestures of empty bipartisanship toward your elected colleagues who have made it clear that truth-telling and fairness are in their eyes signs of weakness.

We need thorough and robust health care reform and we need it now if we are to be competitive in the 21st century—let alone find our way back to the path of liberty and justice for all.

Be fair in your dealings; tell the truth to your colleagues and the American people; and lead the change we need with clarity and integrity. Let your opponents know it's time to push or pull or get out of the way, because we are going forward.