奥巴马: 医疗改革有助经济恢复

In his first six months in the White House, President Barack Obama has seen his approval ratings slip about 10 percentage points as he takes on a battered U.S. economy.

自从奥巴马入主白宫，接手了糟糕的美国经济，时间已经过去了六个月，而他的支持率下降了约10%。

Obama, insisting the "stars are aligned" for approval this year despite discord in Congress over the plan, warned inaction would undermine the economy, worsen the deficit and cripple millions of Americans financially.

尽管国会对医改方案不支持，奥巴马仍坚持“美国是团结的”，并警告人们说，“不作为”将使经济雪上加霜，加重赤字危机，并继续让上百万美国人陷入金融困境。

"I understand people are feeling uncertain about this. They are feeling anxious," he said in a prime-time televised news conference.

“人们对这一方案感到怀疑，这一点我可以理解。他们心里比较焦虑。”奥巴马在黄金时段播出的新闻发布会上这样讲。

But he said he was confident people would support it when they looked "at the cost of doing nothing."

同时他也提到，只要想到“无所事事的成本”，有信心的人们最终会支持这一计划。

The healthcare debate is reaching a critical juncture in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Obama wants both the House of Representatives and Senate to vote by early August but many lawmakers want more time to consider such an expansive set of proposals.

医改计划正在艰难地寻求国会的支持。奥巴马原本打算让两院在八月初就对方案进行投票，但立法者们希望能有更多时间来考虑这一花费巨大的方案。

Several polls show Obama's job approval rating dropping and that Americans are having doubts about his prescriptions for the economy and healthcare.

一些调查显示，奥巴马的支持率正在下降。人们逐渐对他的经济政策和医改方案产生了怀疑。

Obama said people were "understandably queasy" about government spending and the debt piling up, but argued the health of the economy depended on stemming healthcare costs, which account for 17.6 percent of gross domestic product.

奥巴马说，因为政府花费和债务高筑，人们对此有一种“可以理解的困惑”。但他也辩论说，经济的健康程度取决于能否减少医疗卫生费用，因这方面费用已占据高达17.6%的GDP。

"That is why I've said that even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before. And health insurance reform is central to that effort."

“这就是为什么我会说，就算我们拯救了千疮百孔的经济，我们仍要努力将经济重建地更加稳固。而医疗卫生改革正是这种努力的关键。”