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WASHINGTON - A jobless Martinsville man and his family sat in the front row among a crowd of dignitaries at the White House Wednesday as President Barack Obama highlight their plight before signing a bill to expand the children's health insurance program.
Obama mentioned Gregory Secrest before he signed the law that is expected to extend health care coverage to four million children nationwide by 2013 and continue coverage for seven million more.
When Secrest, 40, lost his job and his health insurance last August, his 9-year-old son, Blake, "handed over his piggy bank with four dollars in it and said, 'Daddy if you need it, you take it,'" Obama said.
"This is not who we are. We are not a nation that leaves struggling families to fend for themselves," the president said, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, senators and representatives looked on in the ornate East Room of the White House.
To pay for the children's health care expansion, tobacco taxes will rise more than $32 billion over four and a half years.
Secrest had worked 10 years with American of Martinsville when the furniture maker cut 400 production jobs.
The White House invited the Secrest family only on Tuesday night to the Wednesday afternoon ceremony. The family drove the 300 miles to Washington.
After the ceremony, Obama talked to the family. The Secrests also took a picture with first lady Michelle Obama.
"I hated that the hard times and everything brought forth that example and everything, but I'm very honored and grateful that ... some of my words got through to certain people," Secrest said in an interview.
Secrest, who is living on unemployment benefits while he seeks education and a new job, had no connection with Obama's presidential campaign. He said the White House found him through his participation in a study by Virginia's Family Access to Medical Insurance Security program and letters he wrote on the issue that were published in the Martinsville Bulletin.
Secrest would not say whether he voted for Obama, but he said he's happy with how Obama has governed so far.
"A whole lot more kids are going to have a better future because they have insurance. And that's what we're here for," he said.
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