--- description: Former President Barack Obama delivered remarks at an event sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation held in New York City title: Read Barack Obama's Speech Bashing the GOP's '50th or 60th' Attempt to Repeal Obamacare image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc4bd8ff2f164ae2/6988de9d0b72e3d7a36ef861/barack-obama-goalkeers-bill-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Barack Obama](/tag/barack-obama/) ## Barack Obama Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read Barack Obama's Speech Bashing the GOP's '50th or 60th' Attempt to Repeal Obamacare by [Aric Jenkins](/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 20, 2017 7:32 PM CUT  NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 20: President Barack Obama speaks at Goalkeepers 2017, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 20, 2017 NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 20: President Barack Obama speaks at Goalkeepers 2017, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 20, 2017Jamie McCarthy—Getty Images for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by [Aric Jenkins](/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 20, 2017 7:32 PM CUT Former President [Barack Obama](http://time.com/4926116/barack-obama-letter-to-trump/ "undefined") delivered remarks Wednesday at an event sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation held in New York City. The event, called Goalkeepers, was aimed at “accelerating world progress,” its website [states](http://www.globalgoals.org/goalkeepers/ "undefined"). Obama took the stage as the keynote speaker following remarks from Bill and Melinda Gates, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, and more. Obama touched upon the various global challenges facing the current generation and how young people must remain optimistic in light of increasing issues with “growing economic inequality, a changing climate, terrorism,” and more. At one point, the former president appeared to [call out the GOP for its efforts to dismantle his signature health care policy](http://time.com/4949837/obamacare-repeal-barack-obama-graham-cassidy/ "undefined"), saying: “\[A\]ll of this being done without any demonstrable economic, or actuarial, or plain common sense rationale — it frustrates. And it’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents.” Read former President Obama’s full speech at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation event below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4950410/barack-obama-speech-bill-melinda-gates-goalkeepers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4950410/barack-obama-speech-bill-melinda-gates-goalkeepers/"},"headline":"Read Barack Obama's Speech Bashing the GOP's '50th or 60th' Attempt to Repeal Obamacare","datePublished":"2017-09-20T19:32:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:31:20.472Z","description":"The former President praised the efforts of young people while firing shots at the GOP","url":"https://time.com/4950410/barack-obama-speech-bill-melinda-gates-goalkeepers/","keywords":["Barack Obama","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc4bd8ff2f164ae2/6988de9d0b72e3d7a36ef861/barack-obama-goalkeers-bill-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc4bd8ff2f164ae2/6988de9d0b72e3d7a36ef861/barack-obama-goalkeers-bill-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Goalkeepers: The Global Goals 2017","caption":"Goalkeepers: The Global Goals 2017","creditText":"Jamie McCarthy—Getty Images for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/barack-obama/","name":"Barack Obama"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4950410/barack-obama-speech-bill-melinda-gates-goalkeepers/","name":"Read Barack Obama's Speech Bashing the GOP's '50th or 60th' Attempt to Repeal Obamacare"}}]}] ```