The End of an Era

Now that George W. Bush and the Republicans are out of power and Obama and the Dems are in power, we have witnessed an end to the era of scare-tactic politics.  Remember the Dems accusing President Bush and the Republicans of trying to scare Americans about everything?  Remember?

George W. Bush tried to scare us into a war on Terror.  He said that if we didn't go to war against al-Qaeda that they might attack us again.  They could actually kill people.  How dare Bush scare us like that.

Bush tried to scare us with the Patriot Act, as well.  As if there might be people right here in America that could try to harm people.  Shame on Bush.

And don't forget Gitmo.  Bush claimed that there might be some dangerous people there.  He refused to close it down in the face of criticism by scaring the American people into believing that it might actually contain some dangerous people.  

Aren't we all glad that that's all over with.  I'm glad the Dems and Obama have no intention of using scare tactics for political purposes.

... I guess that's all I have to say about that.

.... Oh, wait.  I also wanted to mention this:  We all need to get behind this stimulus package, because if it isn't passed, we will have the end of the world as we know it.  That's what Obama seems to be saying.  Obama warned on Thursday that failure to act on an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into a long-lasting recession that might prove irreversible, a fresh call to a recalcitrant Congress to move quickly.

In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, the president argued that each day without his stimulus package, Americans lose more jobs, savings and homes. His message came as congressional leaders struggle to control the huge stimulus bill that's been growing larger by the day in the Senate. The addition of a new tax break for homebuyers Wednesday evening sent the price tag well past $900 billion.

Senate Democratic leaders hope for passage of the legislation by Friday at the latest, although prospects appear to hinge on crafting a series of spending reductions that would make the bill more palatable to centrists in both parties.

Obama painted a bleak picture if lawmakers do nothing.

"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse," Obama wrote in the newspaper piece titled, "The Action Americans Need."

He rejected the argument that more tax cuts are needed in the plan and that piecemeal measures would be sufficient, arguing that Americans made their intentions clear in the election.

"I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," he wrote.

I'm glad he's not trying the old scare tactics of Bush.  Fortunately we are now in an era of "Hope".