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THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
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http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2181381&l=50798 >
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Report Shows How Bush Is Squeezing Middle Class
President Bush is now barnstorming the country claiming his record
shows that he cares about America's middle class. On everything from taxes
to health care to workers wages, the President says he has fought for
average Americans. But a new comprehensive report shows that in almost
every key economic area, he has actually gone to bat for his wealthiest
contributors, at everyone else's expense.
According to a cover story in this month's American Prospect, Bush has
pushed policies that benefit the major special interests funding his
campaign, while rejecting commonsense, bipartisan proposals that would
help the middle class. On taxes, for instance, Bush has claimed, "If
you're struggling to get into middle class and you feel like you're paying
plenty of taxes, take a look at my agenda."[1] Yet, as the Prospect
report points out, Bush's tax policies have actually shifted more of the
tax burden off of the wealthy, and onto the middle class.[2] His
policies have also raised federal fees on the middle class, and forced state
and local governments to raise middle class taxes to deal with the
record federal deficits.
On health care, Bush has said he is working "to help more American
families get health insurance."[3] Yet, as the Prospect report shows, the
only major initiative Bush has offered is an industry-backed proposal
that experts say could further raise health insurance premiums and
deductibles for average Americans. Similarly, Bush has refused to support
real legislation to lower the price of prescription drugs in America.
On wages, Bush has said he wants to help Americans earn better
paychecks - but as the Prospect report shows, he has simultaneously refused to
support a minimum wage increase while pushing to eliminate overtime pay
protections for millions of workers.
Read the full American Prospect report online here,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2181381&l=50799.
100 Mistakes for the President to Choose From
During a prime time press conference on April 13, President Bush was asked to name a mistake that he has made since taking office and what he has learned from it. Bush, who was unable to answer the question, admitted "maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with [a mistake]." But weeks later, Bush still hasn't answered the question. In the interest of assisting the President with this surprisingly difficult task we've compiled this list of 100 mistakes he has made since taking office:
Iraq
1. Failing to build a real international coalition prior to the Iraq invasion, forcing the US to shoulder the full cost and consequences of the war.
2. Approving the demobilization of the Iraqi Army in May, 2003 – bypassing the Joint Chiefs of Staff and reversing an earlier position, the President left hundreds of thousands of armed Iraqis disgruntled and unemployed, contributing significantly to the massive security problems American troops have faced during occupation.
3. Not equipping troops in Iraq with adequate body armor or armored HUMVEES.
4. Ignoring the advice Gen. Eric Shinseki regarding the need for more troops in Iraq – now Bush is belatedly adding troops, having allowed the security situation to deteriorate in exactly the way Shinseki said it would if there were not enough troops.
5. Ignoring plans drawn up by the Army War College and other war-planning agencies, which predicted most of the worst security and infrastructure problems America faced in the early days of the Iraq occupation.
6. Making a case for war which ignored intelligence that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.
7. Deriding "nation-building" during the 2000 debates, then engaging American troops in one of the most explicit instances of nation building in American history.
8. Predicting along with others in his administration that US troops would be greeted as liberators in Iraq.
9. Predicting Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction.
10. Wildly underestimating the cost of the war.
11. Trusting Ahmed Chalabi, who has dismissed faulty intelligence he provided the President as necessary for getting the Americans to topple Saddam.
12. Disbanding the Sunni Baathist managers responsible for Iraq's water, electricity, sewer system and all the other critical parts of that country's infrastructure.
13. Failing to give UN weapons inspectors enough time to certify if weapons existed in Iraq.
14. Including discredited intelligence concerning Nigerian Yellow Cake in his 2003 State of the Union.
15. Announcing that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, below a "Mission Accomplished" banner – more U.S. soldiers have died in combat since Bush's announcement than before it.
16. Awarding a multi-billion dollar contract to Halliburton in Iraq, which then repeatedly overcharged the government and served troops dirty food.
17. Refusing to cede any control of Post-invasion Iraq to the international community, meaning reconstruction has received limited aid from European allies or the U.N.
18. Failing to convince NATO allies why invading Iraq was important.
19. Having no real plan for the occupation of Iraq.
20. Limiting bidding on Iraq construction projects to "coalition partners," unnecessarily alienating important allies France, Germany and Russia.
21. Diverting $700 million into Iraq invasion planning without informing Congress.
22. Shutting down an Iraqi newspaper for "inciting violence" – the move, which led in short order to street fighting in Fallujah, incited more violence than the newspaper ever had.
23. Telling Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan about plans to go to war with Iraq before Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Counterterrorism
24. Allowing several members of the Bin Laden family to leave the country just days after 9/11, some of them without being questioned by the FBI.
25. Focusing on missile defense at the expense of counterterrorism prior to 9/11.
26. Thinking al Qaeda could not attack without state sponsors, and ignoring evidence of a growing threat unassociated with "rogue states" like Iraq or North Korea.
27. Threatening to veto the Homeland Security department – The President now concedes such a department "provides the ability for our agencies to coordinate better and to work together better than it was before."
28. Opposing the creation of the September 11th commission, which the President now expects "to contain important recommendations for preventing future attacks."
29. Denying documents to the 9/11 commission, only relenting after the commissioners threatened a subpoena.
30. Failing to pay more attention to an August 6, 2001 PDB entitled "Bin laden Determined to Attack in U.S."
31. Repeatedly ignoring warnings of terrorists planning to use aircraft before 9/11.
32. Appointing the ultra-secretive Henry Kissinger to head the 9/11 commission – Kissinger stepped down weeks later due to conflicts of interest.
33. Asking for testimony before the 9/11 commission be limited to one hour, a position from which the president later backtracked.
34. Not allowing national Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to testify before the 9/11 commission – Bush changed his mind as pressure mounted.
35. Cutting an FBI request for counterterrorism funds by two-thirds after 9/11.
36. Telling Americans there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
37. Failing to adequately secure the nation's nuclear weapons labs.
38. Not feeling a sense of urgency about terrorism or al Qaeda before 9/11.
Afghanistan
39. Reducing resources and troop levels in Afghanistan and out before it was fully secure.
40. Not providing security in Afghanistan outside of Kabul, leaving nearly 80% of the Afghan population unprotected in areas controlled by Feudal warlords and local militias.
41. Committing inadequate resources for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
42. Counting too heavily on locally trained troops to fill the void in Afghanistan once U.S. forces were relocated to Iraq.
43. Not committing US ground troops to the capture of Osama Bin Laden, when he was cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in November, 2001.
44. Allowing opium production to resume on a massive scale after the ouster of the Taliban.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
45. Opposing an independent inquiry into the intelligence failures surrounding WMD – later, upon signing off on just such a commission, Bush claimed he was "determined to make sure that American intelligence is as accurate as possible for every challenge in the future."
46. Saying: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."
47. Trusting intelligence gathered by Vice President Cheney's and Secretary Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans."
48. Spending $6.5 billion on nuclear weapons this year to develop new nuclear weapons this year – 50% more in real dollars than the average during the cold war – while shortchanging the troops on body armor.
Foreign Policy
49. Ignoring the importance of the Middle East peace process, which has deteriorated with little oversight or strategy evident in the region.
50. Siding with China in February, 2004 against a democratic referenda proposed by Taiwan, a notable shift from an earlier pledge to stand with "oppressed peoples until the day of their freedom finally arrives."
51. Undermining the War on Terrorism by preemptively invading Iraq.
52. Failing to develop a specific plan for dealing with North Korea.
53. Abandoning the United States' traditional role as an evenhanded negotiator in the Middle East peace process.
Economic
54. Signing a report endorsing outsourcing with thousands of American workers having their jobs shipped overseas.
55. Instituting steel tariffs deemed illegal by the World Trade Organization – Bush repealed them 20-months later when the European Union pledged to impose retaliatory sanctions on up to $2.2 billion in exports from the United States.
56. Promoting economic policies that failed to create new jobs.
57. Promoting economic policies that failed to help small businesses
58. Pledging a "jobs and growth" package would create 1,836,000 new jobs by the end of 2003 and 5.5 million new jobs by 2004—so far the president has fallen 1,615,000 jobs short of the mark.
59. Running up a foreign deficit of "such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy."
60. Issuing inaccurate budget forecasts accompanying proposals to reduce the deficit, omitting the continued costs of Iraq, Afghanistan and elements of Homeland Security.
61. Claiming his 2003 tax cut would give 23 million small business owners an average tax cut of $2,042 when "nearly four out of every five tax filers (79%) with small business income would receive less" than that amount.
62. Passing tax cuts for the wealthy while falsely claiming "people in the 10 percent bracket" were benefiting most."
63. Passing successive tax cuts largely responsible for turning a projected surplus of $5 trillion into a projected deficit of $4.3 trillion.
64. Moving to strip millions of overtime pay.
65. Not enforcing corporate tax laws.
66. Backing down from a plan to make CEOs more accountable when "the corporate crowd" protested.
67. Not lobbying oil cartels to change their mind about cutting oil production.
68. Passing tax cuts weighted heavily to help the wealthy.
69. Moving to allow greater media consolidation.
70. Nominating a notorious proponent of outsourcing, Anthony F. Raimondo, to be the new manufacturing Czar—Raimondo withdrew his name days later amidst a flurry of harsh criticism.
71. Ignoring calls to extend unemployment benefits with long-term unemployment reaching a twenty-year high
72. Threatening to veto pension legislation that would give companies much needed temporary relief.
Education
73. Under-funding No Child Left Behind
74. Breaking his campaign pledge to increase the size of Pell grants.
75. Signing off on an FY 2005 budget proposing the smallest increase in education funding in nine years.
76. Under-funding the Title I Program, specifically targeted for disadvantaged kids, by $7.2 billion.
77. Freezing Teacher Quality State Grants, cutting off training opportunities for about 30,000 teachers, and leaving 92,000 less
teachers trained than the president called for in his own No Child Left Behind bill.
78. Freezing funding for English language training programs.
79. Freezing funding for after school programs, potentially eliminating 50,000 children from after-school programs.
Health
80. Not leveling with Americans about the cost of Medicare – the president told Congress his new Medicare bill would cost $400 billion over ten years despite conclusions by his own analysts the bill would cost upwards of $500 billion over that period.
81. Silencing Medicare actuary Richard Foster when his estimates for the Administration's Medicare bill were too high.
82. Letting business associate David Halbert, who owns a company which stands to make millions from new discount drug cards, craft key elements of the new Medicare bill.
83. Underfunding health care for troops and veterans.
84. Allowing loopholes to persist in Mad-Cow regulations.
85. Relaxing food labeling restrictions on health claims.
86. Falsely claiming the restrictions on stem cell research would not hamper medical progress.
87. Reducing action against improper drug advertising by 80 percent.
Environment
88. Abandoning the Kyoto Treaty without offering an alternative for reducing greenhouse effect.
89. Counting on a voluntary program to reduce emissions of harmful gasses—so far only a tiny fraction of American companies have signed up.
90. Gutting clean air standards for aging power plants.
91. Weakening energy efficiency standards.
92. Relaxing dumping standards for mountaintop mining, and opening the Florida Everglades and Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest to mining.
93. Lifting protection for more than 200 million acres of public land.
94. Limiting public challenges to logging projects and increased logging in protected areas, including Alaska's Tongass National Forest.
95. Weakening environmental standards for snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles while pushing for exemptions for air pollution proposals for five categories of industrial facilities.
96. Opposing legislation that would require greater fuel efficiency for passenger cars.
97. Reducing inspections, penalties for violations, and prosecution of environmental crimes.
98. Misleading the public about the Washington mad cow case and the likely effectiveness of USDA's weak testing program.
99. Withdrawing public information on chemical plant dangers, previously used to hold facilities accountable for safety improvements.
Other
100. Cutting grants to state and local governments in FY 2005, forcing states to make massive cuts in job training, education, housing and environment.
ECONOMY
Not Necessarily the News
This is what happens when you don't read the news. Data released over the last week revealed that economic growth has slowed dramatically, consumer spending has plummeted and the federal deficit is projected to reach an all-time high. President Bush's take on the economy: "we've turned the corner and we're not going back."
PRESIDENT IGNORES SLOWING GDP GROWTH: In his radio address yesterday the president said, "our economy is gaining strength." But the president ignored new data indicating "the nation's economy grew at a slow-paced 3 percent annual rate in the second quarter [down from 4.5 percent in the first quarter], renewing concerns about weak overall recovery and the potential for mediocre future job growth." As American Progress Analyst Brian Deese writes, we are now forced to wonder "what happens when consumer spending is no longer driving our economic train?"
PLAYING GAMES WITH THE FEDERAL DEFICIT: In Ohio on Saturday, the president pledged that his administration "will not overspend your money." The day before, the Office of Management and Budget estimated "the budget deficit will grow to $445 billion in fiscal year 2004." The projection is $70 billion more than the 2003 deficit. In 2003, the administration projected the 2004 deficit to be $307 billion. The administration claims the $445 billion deficit is positive news because, due to stronger than expected economic growth, the figure is below its deficit projections released in February. In fact, economic growth is "in line with what the administration projected when it released its earlier deficit projection." What accounts for the lower estimate? According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, "the administration's February forecast artificially inflated the projected deficit for 2004, apparently so that subsequent downward adjustments in the deficit estimate could be presented as progress."
BUSH'S ESTIMATES EXCLUDE COSTS OF HIS OWN POLICIES: Bush insisted yesterday that "we remain on pace to reduce the deficit by half in the next five years." But the administration's 2009 budget projections are not credible because they omit "the cost of a number of the administration's own policies." For example, revising the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) – a proposal favored by the administration and bipartisan majorities in Congress to prevent a massive tax hike on the middle class – is projected to cost $57 billion in 2009. The president also fails to include the cost of the multi-year defense blueprint and the cost of the continued fight against terrorism. Even assuming that expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan decrease in future years – which is far from certain – the administration excludes at least $70 billion in defense costs for 2009.
BUSH DISTORTS JOB CREATING RECORD: Bush also bragged that many of the jobs created over the past year have been "in high-growth, high-paying industries." But according to USA Today, "Jobs in lower-wage industries and regions are growing at a faster pace than higher-wage jobs." As a result, the job growth that has occurred "is less potent for the economy because the majority of new work isn't accompanied by fat paychecks."
RECORD NUMBERS LAID OFF, REHIRED AT LOWER WAGES: According to a newly released government report, "layoffs occurred at the second-fastest rate on record during the first three years of the Bush administration." During Bush's presidency, "the layoff rate reached 8.7 percent of all adult jobholders, or 11.4 million men and women age 20 or older." More disturbingly, "56.9 percent of those who said they were re-employed also said they were earning less in their new jobs than in the jobs they had lost."
9/11
Book Report
The final report of the 9/11 commission – which criticizes both the Bush and Clinton administrations – has already become the subject of a much-needed national debate. The Commission held nineteen days of public hearings, reviewed 2.5 million pages of documents, interviewed 1,200 individuals in ten countries and took public testimony from 160 witnesses. Nearly three years after the attack, the White House is expected to act on some of the commission's recommendations soon. But the report makes clear the Bush administration did not pay adequate attention to terrorism in the months before the attacks, and after and the White House deliberately and disingenuously used the attack to manipulate public support for invading Iraq. (To facilitate ease of reading, the Center for American Progress has bookmarked key segments within the original on-line PDF version of the report.)
RICE NOT FOCUSED ON TERRORISM: Although counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke sounded multiple alarms, sending Condoleezza Rice a memo saying "we urgently need…a Principals level review on the al Qaeda network," no meeting on al Qaeda was held until September 4, 2001. (The Bush administration held 32 Principals Committee meetings on subjects other than al Qaeda before 9/11, including at least one on Iraq.) Instead, Rice downgraded the Counterterrorism Security Group so that it no longer reported to the principal members of the National Security Council. And the White House postponed aid to the Northern Alliance and Uzbeks, disregarding a December 2000 "Blue Sky" memo on terrorism urging that aid was crucial in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
ASHCROFT IGNORED WARNINGS: John Dean, former White House Counsel to Richard Nixon, makes the case that while the commissioners strove to avoid pointing fingers, "reading between the lines, it's hard to come away thinking well of the Bush Administration. In fact, a close reading of the report shows that it is laced with countless - and often, harsh and unforgiving -- criticisms of Bush, Cheney and others (particularly Attorney General John Ashcroft)." The report cites former FBI assistant director for counterterrorism, Dale Watson, as saying that Attorney General John Ashcroft was "not supportive" of building up capacities to combat terrorism. At the same time, former Acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard says that Ashcroft told him "he did not want to hear about the threats anymore." And when the FBI came to the attorney general, asking for more money for counterterrorism efforts, on September 10, 2001, John Ashcroft denied the request.
NO LINK BETWEEN 9/11 ATTACK AND IRAQ: According to the report, it seems al Qaeda had ties to nearly every country but Iraq. Although the White House repeatedly used the 9/11 attack as a premise for invading Iraq, the report found no "collaborative operational relationship." They did find collaborative ties to "Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Somalia." Also, Saudi Arabia provided a "fertile fundraising ground" for Osama bin Laden and his network. Iran was integral in facilitating travel for al Qaeda members. And after his ejection from Sudan, Osama was able to make his way to Afghanistan courtesy of Pakistan.
