VOA标准英语2009年-Obama: Health Reform Will Help Small Busin

By Kent Klein
Washington
03 October 2009

As the U.S. unemployment rate continues to rise, President Barack Obama says reforming the nation's health care system will help small businesses put people back to work. The president is making his case for reform legislation in his weekly radio and Internet address.
Unemployment in the United States edged up to 9.8 percent in September, and President Obama says the ballooning cost of health care is part of the reason for it.

 
President Barack Obama (file photo)
"Rising health care costs are undermining our businesses, exploding our deficits¹, and costing our nation more jobs with each passing month," he said.

Mr. Obama says there is an urgent need to pass the reform legislation before Congress, to allow small businesses to expand and put people to work.

"One small business owner wrote to me that health care costs are-and I quote-'stifling my business growth,'" he added. "He said that the money he wanted to use for research and development, and to expand his operations, has been instead been 'thrown into the pocket of health care insurance carriers.'"

The Republican Party response comes from Congresswoman Candice Miller², of the state of Michigan, where unemployment is 15.2 percent. She disputes Mr. Obama's claim that fixing health care will reduce joblessness.

"Of course, a costly³ government takeover of health care remains⁴ the centerpiece of Democrats⁵' domestic agenda," she said. "And when I say costly, I mean for you and for your families."

Miller says the Republicans' economic recovery plan, featuring tax cuts, would have created twice the jobs as Mr. Obama's $787 billion stimulus⁶ plan, at half the cost.

"Our plan is based on the belief that fast-acting tax relief is the most effective way to put our economy back on track," she added. "It focuses on helping⁷ small businesses create jobs, not spending more taxpayer⁸ dollars to expand government."

September's 9.8 percent unemployment rate is the highest since 1983. More than 15 million Americans are out of work, and 7.2 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December, 2007.

1 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

2 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。