Obama: Health Care Reform Cannot Wait

Barak Obama spoke to the nation last night and in case you missed it, the text is here. He spoke to us like adults, which still takes some getting used to after eight years of lower-case Bush. He called for health care reform and education reform now. The American people watched as the Republicans sat on their hands and refused to applaud health insurance for children. Amazing. Do they really think this is the road back?

Obama called on all Americans to commit to more education and, in possibly the most powerful moment of the night, said dropping out of high school is no longer an option. "It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country." That's a line for the ages.

The Republicans had a rebuttal and naturally they hauled out Bobby Jindal, practically the only ethnic Republican they have. Jindal, predictably, called for more tax cuts, even though Obama's plan calls for the biggest tax cuts in history. He said the way to recovery isn't through raising taxes, even though that's not what this bill does. When has reality ever stopped a Republican? Unbelievably, he actually brought up Katrina and talked about private enterprise responding to disaster. Katrina, really? Does he think it's a good idea for a Republican to bring up Katrina? Basically, the only idea the GOP has is tax cuts. They're officially out of ideas.