‘This is what change looks like.’ Barack Obama declared as he hailed the passing of his historic healthcare overhaul today.
The jubilant president was preparing to sign his £600billion plan into law after the House of Representatives passed the bill in a cliffhanger vote.
Speaking from the White House at midnight in Washington, Mr Obama celebrated his triumph in ushering through major reforms ‘after nearly 100 years of talk and frustration, after decades of trying and a year of sustained effort and debate’.
He added: ‘It’s a victory for the American people and it’s a victory for common sense.’
A huge cheer went up from House Democrats as the vote reached the 216 mark required to pass the reforms already adopted by the U.S. Senate.
The final tally was 219 to 212.
A short time later, Democrats also drove through a package of amendments by 220 votes to 211 that were agreed to make the bill more palatable for some rank-and-file members.
After going back to the Senate for approval the ‘fixes’ will be combined into the final legislation.
The rocky passage of the bill, coming after a thwarted mutiny by some Democrats, was seen in Washington last night as one of the most significant legislative triumphs in decades.
And it is a huge vindication for Mr Obama, who made health care reform his top domestic priority and the defining issue of his first year in office, setting off a tumultuous debate that left the country deeply divided.
‘Today’s vote answers the prayers of every American who has hoped deeply for something to be done about a healthcare system that works for insurance companies but not for ordinary people,’ he said.
‘We proved that we are still a people capable of big things.
‘We answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us,’ he added.
‘When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge, we overcame it. We did not avoid our responsibility, we embraced it. We did not fear our future, we shaped it.’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid tribute to the ‘extraordinary leadership and vision’ of the president.
‘It is with great humility and great pride that tonight we will make history for this country,’ she said minutes before the vote.
‘This is an American proposal that honours the traditions of this country,’ she added.
It wasn’t until the morning of the vote that Democrat whips in the House of Representatives finally nailed down the votes they needed in the 435-member chamber to prevent a defeat that would have rocked the Obama administration.
The president cancelled his planned trip to Australia and Indonesia to lead the arm-twisting and cajoling that carried on right up until the rare make-or-break Sunday congressional session.
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