The Broken Promises of George W. Bush:

[Guest guest]

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H & b=137673

 

 

The Broken Promises of George W. Bush:

 

Rhetoric vs. Reality

 

President Bush made a lot of promises during his 2000

presidential campaign. The record shows it was all

talk.

 

HEALTH CARE RHETORIC

 

" There are 43 million uninsured Americans – 4 million

more than when the current administration took office.

George W. Bush will reverse this trend by making

health insurance affordable for hard-working,

low-income families. " [source: Bush-Cheney 2000

website]

 

HEALTH CARE REALITY

 

In the first two years Bush was in office, the number

of uninsured American increased by nearly four

million. Since Bush took office, health insurance

premiums have risen by an average rate of 12.5 percent

per year. According to a major study, " widespread

adoption [of Bush's major health care plan] could

drive up the annual deductible paid by workers. "

[source: U.S. Census Bureau, 7/8/04; Kaiser Family

Foundation, 4/04; USA Today, 4/25/04]

 

 

 

RHETORIC

 

" George W. Bush will establish the 'Healthy

Communities Innovation Fund' to provide $500 million

in grants over five years to fund innovative projects

addressing targeted health risks, such as childhood

diabetes. "

 

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 website]

 

REALITY

 

Bush never established this fund. [source: The

Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/20/04]

 

 

 

 

ENVIRONMENTAL RHETORIC

 

George W. Bush " will also ensure that the federal

government, which is the country's largest polluter,

complies with all environmental laws. "

 

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 website]

 

ENVIRONMENTAL REALITY

 

For the past three years, the Department of Defense

has requested that Congress exempt it from

environmental laws and regulations like the Clean Air

Act of 1970. The exemptions were requested despite

the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency has

thus far declined to apply the policies to the

military training facilities in question.

 

[source: Government Executive Magazine, 4/6/04]

 

 

 

HIGHER ED RHETORIC

 

George W. Bush will " fully fund the Pell grant program

for first-year students by increasing the maximum

grant amount by more than 50 percent, to $5,100. "

 

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 – Education website]

 

HIGHER ED REALITY

 

President Bush has frozen the maximum Pell Grant at

$4,050 in his FY 2005 education budget. This is the

third year in a row that Bush has frozen or cut the

maximum Pell Grant. [source: House Committee on

Education and the Work Force 2/2/04]

 

 

 

WELFARE RHETORIC

 

" To encourage states to help families in crisis,

Governor Bush will provide states an additional $1

billion over five years for preventative services to

keep children in, or return them to, their homes

whenever safely possible. " [source: Bush-Cheney 2000 –

Child Welfare website]

 

WELFARE REALITY

 

Bush has proposed allowing states to use the federal

funds currently earmarked for foster care

room-and-board payments to be used for preventative

services. In exchange, states must accept a spending

cap on the amount of foster care funding they receive.

[source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/24/04]

 

 

 

Energy, Nominations, National Security

 

On everything from energy, to judicial nominations, to

nuclear nonproliferation policy, President Bush has

broken his promises to the American people.

 

 

ENERGY RHETORIC

 

" To provide energy assistance to low-income Households

and Address Short-Term Supply Threats, Governor Bush

will expand the Low Income Home Energy Assistance

Program (LIHEAP) by seeking the release of $155

million, and directing a portion of oil and gas

royalty payments to the program, costing $1 billion

over ten years. " [source: Bush-Cheney 2000 – Energy

website]

 

ENERGY REALITY

 

Bush's first budget, for the 2002 fiscal year, cut

LIHEAP funding by $300 million as compared with the

previous year, despite higher unemployment and a

colder winter. [source: CBS, 12/11/02]

 

 

 

JUDICIAL RHETORIC

 

" To restore confidence in government, George W. Bush

will...return civility to the nomination process. "

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 website]

 

JUDICIAL REALITY

 

When Democrats objected to the nomination of William

Pryor to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the

White House stood by its allies who leveled charges of

anti-Catholic bias at the Democrats. When Sen.

Patrick Leahy confronted Vice President Cheney about

the impropriety of this charge on the Senate floor,

Cheney civilly told him to " F*** off. " [source: CBS,

6/25/04]

 

 

 

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION RHETORIC

 

" In an act of foresight and statesmanship, [senator

Lugar and Senator Sam Nunn in 1991] realized that

existing Russian nuclear facilities were in danger of

being compromised. The next president must press for

an accurate inventory of all this material. [George W.

Bush will] ask the Congress to increase substantially

our assistance to Russia in dismantling as many of

their weapons as possible, as quickly as possible. "

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 – Foreign Policy website]

 

 

NUCLEAR PROLIFERTION REALITY

 

Despite repeated claims this spring that he favors

further expansion of the successful Nunn-Lugar

program, Bush's proposed budget for FY 2005 cuts

funding for Nunn-Lugar by 10 percent and cuts the

Department of Energy's Russian nuclear security

funding by 8 percent. [source: Carnegie Endowment for

Peace, 3/3/0/04]

 

 

 

Spending, Deficits and Taxes

 

Presidential candidate George W. Bush promised to be a

fiscal conservative, and not destroy the surplus that

had been created during the 1990s. But as the record

shows, he has overseen the worst budget deterioration

in modern American history – and misled the country

about who will receive his tax cuts.

 

 

SPENDING RHETORIC

 

" To restore confidence in government, [George W. Bush]

will...attack pork-barrel spending. "

 

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 website]

 

SPENDING REALITY

 

Since assuming office, President Bush has failed to

veto a single bill, despite the enormous amount of

pork that has crossed his desk. Even conservatives

are getting frustrated. The Heritage Foundation

recently wrote, " Budget discipline clearly isn't a

priority of this administration, so why pretend it

will get tough on frivolous measures like these? "

 

[source: Heritage Foundation, 6/28/04]

 

 

 

TAX RHETORIC

 

" y far the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the

bottom end of the spectrum. " [source: George W. Bush,

2/15/00]

" Governor Bush's income tax cuts will benefit all

Americans, but they are especially focused on low and

moderate income families. "

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 – Taxes website]

TAX REALITY

The top 20 percent of earners received 69.8 percent of

President Bush's tax cuts. [source: CBPP, 4/23/04, p.

17]

Millionaires received an average tax cut of $123,000.

Those in the bottom quintile of earners received an

average tax cuts of $27. Those in the second to bottom

quintile received an average cut of $317. [source:

CBPP, 4/23/04, p. 17]

DEFICIT RHETORIC

" As President, Governor Bush will…pay the debt down to

a historically low level. "

[source: Bush-Cheney 2000 website]

DEFICIT REALITY

As of July 30, the national debt stood at

$7,316,567,571,232.89, a record high. This year's

budget will also create a record deficit: $445

billion, according to the White House. [source:

Treasury Department, 8/3/04, Reuters, 7/31/04]

SOCIAL SECURITY RHETORIC

" The Social Security surplus must be locked away only

for Social Security. " [source: Bush-Cheney 2000 –

Social Security website]

SOCIAL SECURITY REALITY

During 2002, the first fiscal year for which Bush was

responsible, he spent $159 billion of the Social

Security Trust Fund surplus.

[source: CBO Historical Budget Data, ]