Progress Report: Attack, Deceive, Repeat

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Wed, 06 Oct 2004 08:31:29 -0700

Progress Report: Attack, Deceive, Repeat

 

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

OCTOBER 6, 2004

HEALTH CARE Like Taking Coverage From a Baby

DEBATE Attack, Deceive, Repeat

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

HEALTH CARE

Like Taking Coverage From a Baby

 

On Sept. 30, 2004, the deadline for Congress to act on preserving $1.1

billion in federal funds for the State Children's Health Insurance

Program (SCHIP) – the program which focuses on insuring the kids of

the working poor – was allowed to expire. The money was taken away

from the states and returned to the U.S. Treasury. The White House

could have stopped these funds from being taken from the states by

requesting that Congress extend the time states had to use the funds

in the 2005 budget. Over the objections of the National Governors

Association and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, the

administration decided not to ask for the extension. And according to

the watchdog group Families USA, the White House actually " opposes

bipartisan legislation that would give the states additional time to

use the funds, " and conservatives in Congress refused to schedule it

for a vote.

 

$1.1 BILLION GOES A LONG, LONG WAY: According to Families USA, if

President Bush hadn't allowed the deadline for states to use SCHIP

funds to expire, 750,000 children could have been insured. For

example, the state of Ohio would have enough to cover 11,400 kids;

Florida could have insured 27,000 kids; and in the state of Texas,

more than 44,000 children could have been insured.

 

KIDS STILL IN NEED: According to the most recent Census data, the

number of children living in poverty increased dramatically last year.

There were 12.9 million children living in poverty in 2003, 800,000

more than the year before. And that means more kids at risk of losing

health insurance; the most recent data show 8.4 million American

children remain uninsured.

 

SLASHING SCHIP: AP reports, " State budget pressures threaten to undo

gains in health insurance coverage for children and the poor. " State

budgets face a projected shortfall of nearly $40 billion going into

2005; the administration's 2005 budget, however, proposed slashing

state grants by 3.3 percent. To deal with the crippling budget strain,

many states now are folding to pressure to slice health care for the

poor. A new study by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation shows

between April 2003 and July 2004, nearly half of the states in the

U.S. took some measure to make it harder to sign up for or stay in

SCHIP. And SCHIP enrollment fell for the first time in 2003, as states

instituted " eligibility cuts, capped enrollment and raised premiums. "

Right now, 4 million children rely on SCHIP for health insurance.

 

MEDICAID IN TROUBLE: Children make up nearly half of the 52 million

people who receive Medicaid. A separate Kaiser Family Foundation study

shows every state in the nation is currently planning some measure to

cut Medicaid in 2005, " including restricting eligibility and reducing

benefits. " The president has done little to help and, actually, has

proposed making it worse. The state budget crunch has been exacerbated

by the expiration of $20 billion in temporary fiscal relief, which was

enacted in part to make up for federal tax cuts and the withering

economy. (Ten billion dollars of that was directly for Medicaid.) In

2003, the president proposed " block granting " Medicaid, which would

end the flexible funding. Without flexible funding, the recent surge

in the uninsured would have been much larger; while 5 million more

Americans were uninsured in 2003 than in 2000, almost 6 million more

Americans were assisted by Medicaid during this period.

 

MEDICARE LEGISLATION MAKING THINGS WORSE: The Kaiser Family Foundation

found state health programs face further strain by the financial

burden generated by implementation of the White House Medicare

prescription drug benefit. States are facing expensive new

administration costs surrounding the new benefit. And three-fourths of

all states are worried about a pricey provision that requires states

to make payments to the federal government to finance the drug

benefit, saying it will " more than offset any potential savings. "

Today, only three states have reported they have the money allocated

to meet these challenges.

 

DOCTORS AGREE – ADMINISTRATION POLICIES HARM KIDS: Thirty-six leading

American pediatricians – including well-known author T. Berry

Brazelton and six past presidents of the American Academy of

Pediatrics – released a joint statement this week " condemning

President George W. Bush's neglect of child health concerns, as well

as objecting to other administration policies that are harmful to the

wellbeing of children. " The statement charges, " The Bush

administration's policies are moving us away from effective and

longstanding federal commitments that improved the health of children,

commitments proudly initiated and supported by previous Republican and

Democratic presidents…If not reversed, these ill-advised tax and

budget policies will erode decades of hard-won health gains for

children, while still leaving unaddressed such critical problems. "

 

DEBATE

Attack, Deceive, Repeat

 

At last night's debate, Vice President Cheney had a clear strategy:

refuse to respond to tough questions, attack Edwards personally and,

when necessary, deceive. Instead of taking responsibility for numerous

errors in judgment over the last four years, Cheney reiterated his

faith in failed policies. Instead of taking responsibility for his own

voting record, Cheney engaged in petty attacks. Instead of coming

clean with the American people, Cheney continued to play fast and

loose with the facts.

 

CHENEY DECEPTION #1: I'VE NEVER SUGGESTED A LINK BETWEEN AL QAEDA AND

9/11: Near the beginning of the debate, Cheney said, " I have not

suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11. " That isn't

true. On multiple occasions Cheney has suggested a connection,

specifically emphasizing contacts between Iraqi officials and Mohammed

Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers. Appearing on Meet the Press on

12/9/01, Cheney said, it's " been pretty well confirmed, that he [Atta]

did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi

intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months

before the attack. " (The 9/11 Commission looked into this rumored

meeting and found there was no evidence to suggest the meeting

occurred. On the date of the supposed meeting, Atta's phone was used

numerous times from Florida and there is no evidence Atta ever left

the country.) Appearing again on Meet the Press on 9/14/03, Tim

Russert mentioned that 69 percent of the public believed there was a

connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks. Cheney

replied, " I think it's not surprising that people make that

connection. " (The 9/11 Commission, after months of exhaustive study,

found no evidence " indicating Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in

developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States. " )

 

CHENEY DECEPTION #2: I'VE NEVER MET EDWARDS BEFORE TONIGHT: Cheney

later said he was going back to the Halliburton issue but instead of

addressing it, delivered a pre-packaged zinger: " I'm up in the Senate

most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you

was when you walked on the stage tonight. " One problem: it's not true.

Check out the photo, video and documentary evidence.

 

CHENEY SAYS WE HAVE DONE " EXACTLY THE RIGHT THING " IN IRAQ: Cheney

continued the administration's refusal that there have been any

mistakes made in Iraq. He said, " What we did in Iraq was exactly the

right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would

recommend exactly the right same course of action. " Cheney's comments

came the same day former Coalition Provisional Authority administrator

Paul Bremer said the U.S. " never had enough troops on the ground. "

 

CHENEY HAS NO RESPONSE TO ERROR IN JUDGMENT AT TORA BORA: Edwards

stated that during the invasion of Afghanistan, " we had Osama bin

Laden cornered at Tora Bora...This is the man who masterminded the

greatest mass murder and terrorist attack in American history. And

what did the administration decide to do? They gave the responsibility

of capturing or killing...Osama bin Laden, to Afghan warlords, who

just a few weeks before had been working with Osama bin Laden. " Cheney

responded by discussing John Kerry's congressional voting record in

the 1970s.

 

CHENEY HAS NO RESPONSE TO HALLIBURTON CHARGES: Edwards explained that

he opposed no-bid contracts for Halliburton because, while Cheney was

CEO, Halliburton provided false information to the government (conduct

for which the company was later fined millions), did business with

Iran and is under investigation for having bribed foreign officials in

Nigeria. Cheney said he didn't have time to rebut the charge.

So-called fact checkers from the New York Times said that Edwards

stretched the truth because there is " no evidence Mr. Cheney has

pulled strings on Halliburton's behalf since becoming vice president. "

But Edwards never made that charge. (Incidentally, there is evidence

that Cheney has pulled strings for Halliburton while in office.)

 

CHENEY REFUSES TO DEFEND HIS VOTING RECORD: Cheney, who spends much of

his time on the campaign trail parsing the details of John Kerry's

votes stretching back 30 years, refuses to defend his own record.

Edwards noted, " he was one of 10 to vote against Head Start, one of

four to vote against banning plastic weapons that can pass through

metal detectors. He voted against the Department of Education. He

voted against funding for Meals on Wheels for seniors. He voted

against a holiday for Martin Luther King. He voted against a

resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. "

Cheney's entire response: " Oh, I think his record speaks for itself

and, frankly, it's not very distinguished. "

 

 

Under the Radar

 

IRAQ – DUELFER AGREES WITH KAY: An extensive U.S. investigation has

found that " Iraq destroyed virtually all its chemical and biological

munitions in 1991, a dozen years before President Bush ordered U.S.

troops to invade based largely on the alleged threat posed by those

weapons. " The report, which " raises new questions about how U.S.

intelligence agencies and the Bush administration were so far off the

mark in their assessment of the Iraqi threat, " will be presented

Wednesday to a Senate committee by chief U.S. arms inspector Charles

Duelfer. The basic conclusion of the report, compiled by a weapons

inspection team that included 1,500 people, " that Iraq had no

stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons and a moribund nuclear

weapons development effort — strengthens the preliminary findings of

Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, and undercuts the main Bush

administration argument for war. "

 

IRAQ – ALLAWI SINGS DIFFERENT TUNE: Just weeks after spreading " verbal

sunshine " across the White House Rose Garden, Prime Minister Ayad

Allawi gave a " sobering account " of Iraq's instability in his first

speech before the country's interim national assembly. He said the

insurgency was a " source of worry for many people " and that the

guerrillas represent " a challenge to our will. " His tone was a " sharp

departure from the more optimistic assessment he gave to the American

public on his visit to the United States last month. At his stop in

Washington, Dr. Allawi made several sweeping assertions to reporters

about the security situation in Iraq, including saying that the only

truly unsafe place in the country was the downtown area of Falluja,

the largest insurgent stronghold, and that only 3 of 18 provinces had

'pockets of terrorists.' " Administration officials admit Allawi was

" coached and aided " in his speech before Congress. Speaking to his

countrymen, Allawi's " words reflected a darker take on the state of

the war. "

 

ECONOMY – PROFESSORS SEND OPEN LETTER: One hundred sixty-nine tenured

and emeriti business school professors from several of the nation's

top universities have written an open letter documenting the drastic

failure of President Bush's economic policies and asking for a

" dramatic reorientation of fiscal policy, including substantial

reversals " of tax policy. The letter, addressed to the president,

begins, " Nearly every major economic indicator has deteriorated since

you took office in January 2001… The data make clear that your policy

of slashing taxes – primarily for those at the upper reaches of the

income distribution – has not worked. The fiscal reversal that has

taken place under your leadership is so extreme that it would have

been unimaginable just a few years ago. " Bush's second term economic

proposals, the professors say, " only promise to exacerbate the crisis

by further narrowing the federal revenue base. " Click here for

American Progress's analysis of the worst fiscal deterioration in the

last half century.

 

SUDAN – BLAIR PUTS PRESSURE ON KHARTOUM: The Guardian reports,

" British Prime Minister Tony Blair will today fly to the Sudan to warn

the Khartoum government that it must act swiftly to end the atrocities

and refugee crisis in its western region of Darfur. " Sudanese

government-supported militias, mainly the Janjaweed, have killed

between 50,000 and 80,000 non-Arabs and displaced over a million

Darfurians in a campaign of ethnic cleansing the U.S. has called

genocide. The visit is a sign of Mr. Blair's personal commitment to

end " the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa since Rwanda. " The U.S.

government has been vocal in denouncing the violence in Sudan, but, by

way of contrast to Prime Minister Blair, President Bush has offered

not one public speech on Sudan and made no contingency plans, even as

the situation " threatens to become one of the most devastating

humanitarian disasters of our times. " Click here for more from

American Progress's Sudan page.

 

ENVIRO – BUSH ADMINISTRATION ROLLS BACK RULES PROTECTING WILDLIFE: The

Washington Post reports the Bush administration has " set aside

Reagan-era rules aimed at protecting wildlife in national forests,

rules that environmentalists had used to block logging projects in the

Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. Under a temporary regulation

published last week, U.S. Forest Service managers reviewing

road-building, logging or other proposals are allowed to waive the

22-year-old requirement that the forests maintain 'viable populations'

of fish and wildlife. Instead of having to conduct population counts

of representative species, for example, officials now can rely on

'best available science,' a less specific standard, to guide their

decisions. " In the past, the Bush administration has used the " best

available science " to discount global warming, push ineffective

abstinence-only education and justify harmful mountaintop removal

mining in Appalachia, among other things.