Obama lauds House passage of health-care reform bill

One day after heading to the Capitol to urge House members to pass the Democrats' health care reform bill, President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden Sunday afternoon to congratulate members on the bill's narrow passage Saturday night and to express confidence that a final bill would soon become law.

Obama called the 220-215 vote "historic," noting that it has been decades since either chamber of Congress passed a comprehensive health reform bill on the scale of the Democratic proposal.

"Given the heated and often misleading rhetoric surrounding this legislation, I know that this was a courageous vote for many members of Congress, and I'm grateful to them and for the rest of their colleagues for taking us this far," he said.

"But more importantly, so are the millions of Americans whose lives will change when we achieve insurance reform . . . Their lives are what's at stake in this debate, and moments like this are why they sent us here -- to finally meet the challenges that Washington has put off for decades; to make their lives better and this nation stronger; to move America forward."