In the 2000 election, George Bush promised to restore "honor and integrity" to the White House. In the meantime, his presidency has been repeatedly defined by a host of lies. These are not accidental but part of a regular pattern of misinformation aimed at convincing the American people he is a compassionate conservative while pulling the rug from under their lives.
This list could go on and on. However, I selected only a few for the time being, which I will be updating as time goes by. What is amazing is you will find very little about the Iraq War. The lies made to get us into a war are the subject of a whole posting in itself.
On Children's Hospitals
The Rhetoric - "My job as the President is to submit a budget to the Congress and to set priorities, and one of the priorities that we've talked about is making sure the health care systems are funded.” – Egleston Children's Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia 3/1/01
The Reality - Bush's first budget proposal consisted of cutting grants to children's hospitals like the one he was visiting by 24%. He seeks to cut an additional 30% from children's hospitals in his 2004 budget.
On Supporting First Responders
The Rhetoric - “We're dealing with first-time responders to make sure they've got what's needed to be able to respond. “ – Bush, 3/27/2002
The Reality - Instead of increasing funds to front-line police officers and firefighters, Bush has elimated $150 million in grants for local police and firefighters. He also tried to cut $1 billion in existing block grants for first responders. Pretty pathetic for a man "chosen by God" to lead our war on terror.
On Retirement
The Rhetoric - “We've got to do more to protect worker pensions.” – Bush, 8/7/02
The Reality - Four months after publicly stating that he supports strengthening private defined benefit plans, Bush instructed his treasury secretary to propose new regulations that would allow employers to convert pension plans to new ‘cash balance’ plans - lowering benefits to long-serving workers and putting the financial health of the pension plans in jeaporady.
On Government Spending
The Rhetoric - “One of the ways we've got to make sure that we keep our economy strong is to be wise about how we spend our money. If you overspend, it creates a fundamental weakness in the foundation of economic growth. And so I'm working with Congress to make sure they hear the message -- the message of fiscal responsibility.” Bush, 9/16/02
The Reality - Bush has taken a budget surplus and created an enormous deficit the like of which had never been seen before. America is currently running a $300 billion deficit thanks to his economic policies.
On Veterans
The Rhetoric - "Our veterans from every era are the finest of citizens. We owe them the life we know today. They command the respect of the American people, and they have our everlasting gratitude.” – Bush, 11/11/02
The Reality - According to a letter sent to the President from leading veterans' groups, Bush's budget falls $15 billion short of what is needed to provide adequate care for this nation's veterans.
On Military Intervention and Nation Building
Rhetoric - "I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not." (Made in 2000 while he was governor)
Reality - After finding there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Bush Administration has begun to sing a different tune. He now points to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as his justification for war - a very different claim than was made when he argued for war on the grounds of WMDs.
On John Edwards
Rhetoric - "He chose the fourth most liberal member of the Senate." On John Kerry's pick of John Edwards for Vice President.
Reality - John Edwards never was close to being the fourth most liberal member of the Senate. In 1999, Edwards was the 31st most liberal senator, the 19th most liberal senator in 2000, the 35th most liberal senator in 2001 and the 40th most liberal senator in 2002. Anything that is the exact opposite of the neo-conservative position in America so I guess the Bush remark was actually a compliment.
On Medicare
Rhetoric - "Another priority of the federal government will be to have a Medicare system of which we can be proud, a Medicare system that will include prescription drugs for all seniors, a Medicare system that understands that some seniors have to choose between food and medicine. (Pittsburgh, PA. 11/4/2000)
Reality - Bush's prescription drug plan fails to cover 7 million Medicare recipients. Even the White House estimates that approximately 10 million seniors and persons with disabilities have no prescription drug coverage. Only those below 150 percent of poverty are eligible for Bush's plan - meaning only 6 percent of the current medicare recipients.
On Student Loans
Rhetoric - "Every year, U.S. colleges attract the best and the brightest students from all over the world. I want to make sure that higher education is affordable and accessible to every American. And therein lie our greatest weaknesses: college tuition and the burden of student indebtedness. I am committed to helping families prepare for the cost of higher education." (Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Higher Education, 10/1/00)
Reality - President Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress fought for the elimination of $1.3 billion from the federal student loan program in his 2002 budget proposal. Then, a year later, he proposed to withold funds from the LEAP program which the federal government uses to subsidize state scholarship programs. He also advocated a freeze on funding for the Federal Perkins Loan scholarship which provides low interest loans to students and families in grave financial need.
Clean Air
This is an example of his lying as governor of Texas. This lie is just as relevant because it should have woken people up from the ridiculous lie of compassionate conservatism. We should have known better than to trust him in 2000 when we had the first chance of ridding him.
Rhetoric - You’ve got to ask the question, is the air cleaner since I became Governor? And the answer is yes. (George W. Bush, May 1999)
Reality - According to the North America Commission on Environmental Cooperation, composed of representatives of the US, Mexican and Canadian governments, Texas is the leading polluter out of every state and province in the three nations. Not only is it the biggest polluter, but it also leads in a number of categories. Texas is number one in overall toxic releases, air carcinogins, developmental toxins, and number one in ten other categories including the cancer risk to residents.
