Americans are Hurting

In the last five months alone, employment fell by 2.5 million. Millions more have lost their health care, their homes, and the savings that families worked so hard to build.

A majority of leading economists favor a large stimulus plan because through it the government will step up spending at a time when private-sector spending has fallen off sharply. At the same time, they agree that tax cuts are not as effective a stimulus as is spending.

President Obama has said that if nothing (or too little) is done, the recession may linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs and unemployment will approach double digits.

Americans are hurting. Yet 100% of the House Republicans and 88% of the Senate Republicans voted against the stimulus.

They act as if we have all the time in the world. The party’s sole ambition is to play petty politics to gum up the works. As their leading spokesman has said, "I hope he (Obama) fails."

The crisis is at least as grave as any one that has recently confronted us. Which is why the antics among Republicans on Capitol Hill seem so surreal. These are the same politicians who only yesterday smeared the patriotism of any dissenters from Bush’s “war on terror.”

Americans are hurting. So where is the Republicans' patriotism now that economic terror is inflicting far more harm on their constituents than Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent W.M.D.?

What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.