Friday, January 30, 2009

Finally, A Vice-President That Cares

For eight long years not only did we have a terrible President in George Bush, we had a sinister Vice-President that went along with him. Cheney's abysmal poll numbers only told part of the story. The man was pre-occupied with expanding secrecy in the Executive branch, torture, corporate power and war. When asked about how people felt about him, he could care less. Our new VP however, well, it's like night and day.

From USA Today Op-Ed by Vice-President Biden):

For years, we had a White House that failed to put the middle class front and center in its economic policies.

President Obama has made it clear that is going to change. And it's why he has asked me to lead a task force on the middle class.[...]

One of the things that makes this task force distinctive is it brings together — in one place — those agencies that have the most impact on the well-being of the middle class in our country. We'll be looking at everything from access to college and training with the Department of Education, to business development with the Department of Commerce, to child care reform with Health and Human Services, to labor law with the Department of Labor. With this task force, we'll have a single, high-visibility group with one goal: to raise the living standards of middle-class families.

Over the upcoming months, we will focus on answering those concerns that matter most to families. What can we do to make retirement more secure? How can we make child and elder care more affordable? How do we improve workplace safety? How are we going to get the cost of college within reach? What can we do to help weary parents juggle work and family? And, above all else, what are the jobs of the future? Here, we'll be looking at green jobs, better-paying jobs, better-quality jobs.

The only jobs Dick Cheney cared about were those of private contractors, especially those that worked for Halliburton. Everything was done in secret and strictly for the sake of a profit...at the expense of the country. Now our Vice-President is willing and wanting to listen to us, to hear our ideas and implement the best plan to move the middle class forward and expand it once again. Too many people have suffered under Bush and Cheney. The time to reverse that is now.