Doomed economy = war on terror?

I consider myself pretty widely read but I'm not even sure what it is we are doing to our country with the massive spending and grandiose government plans.  In the past, our elected leaders on both sides have shown us they will take any opportunity to further their agendas. 

I couldn't help but think that all the doom and gloom talk (crisis, catastrophe, etc.) and the hysteria it created to rush through spending legislation felt an awful lot like the fear and discomfort in the days, weeks, and months following the 9/11 attacks and the significant legislation that was passed.  In both cases, the population agreed we needed to do whatever necessary to fix the situation and trusted our elected officials to do so.

I would like to think that both Presidents were/are acting in the best interest of the country and the citizens but I can't help but feeling a bit suspicious of the elements to the far right or far left who saw these as opportunities to push an ideology or pet project.  Politics, after all, is about compromise and sound bites can be used masterfully to drive an agenda in today's 24 hour, real-time 'news' cycle that has to fill the void between actual news with noise.