Bush's lies and fake funding are going to bring him down....
September 20, 2003
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EDITORIAL
Promises, Promises
George W. Bush is hardly the first president to say one
thing and do something else. Like his predecessors,
Bush strode into the Oval Office clutching a sheaf of
spending proposals to tackle the nation's ills. But even
before the budget surplus morphed into a gargantuan
deficit, a distressingly large gap opened between Bush's
photo-op pledges and his dollars-and-cents proposals.
Now that gap looks more like an abyss.
Middle-class voters who gnash their teeth over
indifferent teachers and decrepit schoolhouses loudly
cheered Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Signed in
January 2002, the measure requires states to test
students' reading and math skills yearly and fix
dysfunctional schools. Yet although federal education
spending is up, it is falling way short of what states need
to comply with the law. Meanwhile, Bush wants to
siphon off $75 million for vouchers that parents could
use for private schools.
As a candidate, Bush promised to spruce up decaying national park facilities, and
he has said he earmarked $2.9 billion from 2002 through 2004, a 132% increase
for the huge repair backlog. But a National Park Service official testified in July
that only $200 million to $300 million of this was new money.
Standing by the rubble of the World Trade Center two years ago, Bush promised
to make domestic security his first priority. Last year Congress appropriated
millions for airport screening, FBI counter-terrorism technology and measures to
safeguard food and water supplies. But Bush froze the bulk of these funds, urging
"fiscal restraint." He sought no increase in funding for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention despite anthrax attacks and bioterrorism threats. The
CDC finished its urgently needed emergency operations center only after Home
Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus kicked in the final $4 million. The building
now bears his name. Some penny-pinching is in order as the deficit grows, but
first Bush should stretch out his tax cuts and drop his efforts to make them
permanent.
The latest promise to tumble into the credibility canyon involves AIDS prevention
and treatment. At home and on his Africa tour in July, Bush justly trumpeted his
January pledge of $15 billion over the next five years. Now the administration is
holding back and privately urging congressional allies to cut the president's
program.
This shell game began before the towers fell in New York, before the economy
slid into red ink. As it continues, Bush risks not just his personal credibility but the
nation's security, economic future and natural resources.
LATIMES TODAY
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