I watched President Obama's back-to-school address on Tuesday night, and much of his health care reform speech on Wednesday night. I felt they were both very good speeches.

Yet, there seemed to be tons of objections to both speeches.

In my town, apparently there was a huge protest about showing the schoolkids his speech, organized by the Tea Party people. I haven't figured out what they stand for; in fact, it appears to me that they stand for nothing, pretty much. (I'm still wondering where these folks were during the previous administration when the debt was being accumulated.)

Much ado about nothing. Seems to me it must have been a bunch of people who A.) didn't bother to read or listen to the speech themselves and just took at face value what their gurus in the right wing media said, or B.) don't much like the idea of their kids seeing a man of color who is successful, articulate, and of such obvious superior intellect. The speech itself was nice. Inspirational, even. Any kid would benefit from hearing it. At worst, it won't change anything. At best, it might open an eye or two to the value of education, and to the idea that they might have something to do with their own learning process. I made sure that both of my kids saw it. They watched with rapt attention, and at the end told us that they understood that they would have to do their part in obtaining a first class education. (Imagine that: a first class education from such a socialist entity like a "public school!)

Then last night, I watched much of the health care speech. I thought that it quite clearly spelled out the problems that exist. The president was adamant about the FACT that if left as is, health care costs will place a very heavy burden, maybe even insurmountable, on future generations and on our government. (I kept thinking of the line from the George Harrison song, "Taxman": "One for you, nineteen for me...")

He went through the problems one by one, in a manner to me that was very understandable, then presented his ideas for a solution. And I was very pleased to see that he put malpractice liability reform on the table. Most doctors I've talked with feel that without this, any health care reform is doomed.

The post speech commentary focused on the idea of the "public option". People are really against this, it seems, and I don't really understand why. I mean, are these folks going to turn down Medicare, or VA benefits? Are these congresscritters going to renounce their claims to government benefits? If not, why not? Because all of these are examples of publically funded health insurance.

Or are they really that enamoured of the job that the private insurance companies are doing in providing affordable, decent insurance for Americans today? Because that seemed to be the most common criticism - that they wouldn't be able to compete with a taxpayer supported plan, even after the president insisted that it would not be supported with any tax dollars.

To that criticism, I say, the heck with them. If they can't compete with a non-profit entity, then maybe they shoudn't. Okay, no "maybe" about it. As long as health care is "for profit" (and I'm not talking about the providers, who have to make a living), costs will escalate. If they can't make enough money providing health care coverage to policyholders without dropping everyone who's got a "pre-existing condition", then get out of the pool. I'm for single-payer anyway, provided they pay enough for the providers to make a decent living, whether that's by lowering the cost of being a physician by tort reform or by raising the reimbursement rates.

I figure the insurance lobbies and the pharm lobbies have spread a lot of cash into a lot of coffers to get the opinion makers on the right to back them instead of backing the needs of the people of the United States. Yes, I'm accusing them, with no hard evidence, of buying off the spin doctors, because I can't imagine what would be in it for these guys otherwise. They're the ones with the interest in maintaining the status quo. How they're getting people who will probably be hurt now and in the future by their manipulations and their policies to support their positions is a mystery to me. I'd like to think that people aren't so stupid, so full of hate, that they could see how this idea will benefit the majority of them.

But maybe that's just too optimistic.