"You lie!" Mr. President

It has been a long time since President Barack Obama looked like the inspirational candidate that stole America's hearts and eventually their vote during last year's presidential election, but in the mouth of a storm that could have put an end to health care reform and potentially his presidency, the young president rose up Wednesday to give one of his best and most empowering speeches since taking office.

And no the speech I am talking about is not the cutesy little, "School is cool!" speech that he delivered to children across the country earlier in the week, but a clear, passionate and forceful speech that turned the president into a leader instead of a cheerleader on the issue of health care for the first time since the heated debate began three months ago.

Not only did he move us emotionally with anecdotes of people losing their battles with diseases like cancer and leukemia due to being dropped by their insurance companies in the midst of the fight to save their lives, but he was also able to make it clear, to the average American, what this whole health care reform thingy actually means for all of us. Heck he even promised to make sure all rich people get adequate health care without it costing them a dime! Now if that doesn't arouse Republicans I don't know what will.

Obama's tone and presence even felt presidential, possibly for the first time since he took office. Not that this stopped South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson from forgetting his Southern manners when he blurted out, "You lie!" while the President was attempting to debunk some of the pigeon brain lies that Republicans have been trying to sell week minded Americans on since the debate began. The remark was luckily not made over the supposed death panels, which would have made this disposable congressman look like even more of an idiot, but rather it was over Obama's assertion that illegal immigrants, Mexicans to the Republicans, will not be provided with free health care.

Oh no! I don't want to pay for Pedro, who already took my job, to get health care. How in the heavens will we stop Pedro from getting health care and then taking over our country if we intend to provide all hard working Americans, young or old, rich or poor, regardless of color, health care.

Well it is really quite simple Senor Wilson, you force people, just like in Medicare and Medicaid, to prove they are American citizens. Of course if you are a "Birther" I guess you already believe this will be easy, since your president, who according to Birthers was born in Kenya, was able to falsify documents to fool the federal government into letting him run for president, so how hard could it be for any other illegal immigrant to fool insurance companies into providing them with health care. If you are a sane American, like I believe most of us to be, you realize that since you have been asked to show proof of citizenship your whole life for jobs, school and heck even activities like little league, why would this be any different when it comes to health care.

Of course, Joe "You lie" Wilson was not the only idiot in the crowd. A number of other Republicans, or should we just start referring to them as idiots or pig f#%kers, what ever you prefer, held up stacks of paper that "supposedly" represented ideas they had for the bill. I know, I know, I thought it was funny too that Republicans actually thought they had an original idea, but it is nice to let them fantasize about such things - it makes them feel all grown up.

Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas also made a little protest of his own by holding up a sign that read "What Bill?" Luckily Gohmert and the rest of Texas will not have to worry about affordable health care once Texas secedes from the Union. Yee haw!

But getting away from the childish finger pointing and back to the real issue of health care reform, Obama did not give up on the public option, which is intended to create a government run insurance program for those who cannot afford to buy insurance from a private company. In my mind if we are going to force people to have health care, without the single-payer option, which would provide all of us with government run health care like in Canada, then we need to provide people with an affordable option. Because while President Obama talked about lowering health care costs, I still think he missed the point in terms of how we are going to convince these companies to actually lower their prices. The reason for all of our health care problems is not just the care itself, but the cost of the care. Obama argues it will create competition, but I argue, like most Democrats, that this will not be enough, because, in my opinion, they will just lobby one another, like every other industry, to make sure no one gets priced out of the market and to ensure they all maximize their profits. Then people like me, who can't afford health care on top of school loans and other bills, will be forced to pay out-our-asses for health care.

Since the speech, conservative Democrats, who met with Obama yesterday, said the president seemed as if he would be willing to bend on the public option. Well I hate to say it but without the public option, President Obama, you will be a failure! I know, I know, things like making it illegal to deny someone health care because of a pre-existing condition and not providing operations because your insurance doesn’t cover it will be eliminated from the debate. But affordable health care will be lost. And in the end isn't that what this is all about, money! I mean how can we expect to save the money we intend to save through a government run health care system if there is no government run health care in the bill.

There are to many Americans, and surely we all know at least one, who have been denied health care or denied an operation because their insurance company dropped them or wouldn't cover their surgery. There are to many Americans who go bankrupt and lose their homes everyday just to keep their parents, children, or their significant other alive because of the ruthless insurance companies, who have decided they are just not rich enough.

My friends, lack of affordable health care is not only costing Americans to lose their lives and live in fear of waking up one morning to find they have a disease like cancer with no way to treat it, but it is also costing them to lose their homes, jobs and everything else they worked so hard for in their lives. These Americans are not illegal immigrants, they are people who work as hard or harder than most average Americans do. So to morally deny health care to millions of Americans because you fear illegal immigrants from obtaining it or insurance companies going under due to their own sadistic business practices that have cost million of lives, is not only inhumane, it is in my mind un-American.

For we are the nation who has always been there for one another when we needed it most. Now if only are government could return the favor, not for political gain, but because it is morally the right thing to do.