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Rahm Emanuel made a rare public appearance at a Wall Street Journal CEO conference last night, where he challenged business leaders to join the new administration in working for real health care reform:

President-elect Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff challenged chief executives and other business leaders Tuesday night to join the new administration in a push for universal health care, saying incremental increases in coverage won't be acceptable.

"When it gets rough out there, a lot of business leaders get out of the car and say, 'We're OK with minor reform.' I'm challenging you today, we're going to have to do big, serious things," Rahm Emanuel said, speaking to The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, a conference convened to elicit corporate opinion on the challenges facing the new president.

Since the president-elect named Mr. Emanuel his chief of staff, the famously voluble Chicago congressman has limited his public appearances and strained to stay out of the news. But on Tuesday night, he was combative with a business audience.

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He stressed that the new administration would "throw long and deep," taking advantage of the economic crisis to push wholesale changes in health care, taxes, financial re-regulation and energy. "The American people in two successive elections have voted for change, and change cannot be allowed to die on the doorsteps of Washington," Mr. Emanuel said.