President Obama really has me confused. He talks of our current financial tragedy (brought on by Democrats demanding that lending institutions give mortgages to people who could not afford the eventual payments) as the "worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

The current numbers just don't put our situation in the same category as the Great Depression.

Somewhere along the line, the president must have forgotten (conveniently) about the recession of 1981-1982. Unemployment hit 10.8 percent in 1982 as opposed to 7.6 currently.

When Republican President Ronald Reagan took the oath, he faced an annual inflation rate of 13.5 percent, while Obama came into office with an inflation rate of just 0.1 percent! Prime interest rates hit 21.5 percent at the end of 1980. At the end of 2008, the prime rate was just 3.5 percent!

Fearmongering by a president is the worst kind of leadership. And that was the tactic used by Obama to get his "let's spend the country broke" bill passed. Reagan didn't cry "Great Depression" and ask for a bailout or "stimulus" package. He used his head! He used good economic advice, along with tax cuts, to let the nation's economy return to a robust state.

One commentator called the so-called stimulus package the "European Socialism Bill." I think he is entirely correct. I believe that is why the Democrats are in such a push to grab complete control of the country, just so they can lead us down such a dangerous path.

This trend should be completely foreign to a country that has shed so much blood to stay free and democratic.

Angus McLeod

West End