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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (327101)	12/9/2002 3:27:50 PM
From: Baldur Fjvlnisson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush Claims vs Actual Action Taken by: funny_smokes 12/07/02 04:30 pm Msg: 4142 of 4194 Deficit Promise/Claim: Bush said his tax cut would not cause deficits, even in a bad economy. Actual Action Taken: Bush's FY 2003 budget posts $106 billion deficit, the first deficit since 1997. The budget will return to balance in 2005, at the earliest. Social Security Promise/Claim: Bush said Social Security Trust Fund would remain in a lockbox. Actual Action Taken: Bush breached the Social Security Trust Fund and is on schedule to spend $1.65 trillion of it over the next ten years. National Debt Promise/Claim: Bush promised to pay down a record amount of the national debt. Actual Action Taken: Bush not only failed to pay down the national debt, he has been forced to request a $750 billion increase in the debt limit villagenet.com Education Reform Promise/Claim: As part of the bipartisan education reform, Bush promised to spend more money on education. Actual Action Taken: Bush budget cut funding from his own "No Child Left Behind" law and provided the smallest education funding increase in seven years. Pell Grants Promise/Claim: Bush promised to increase the maximum Pell Grant award, thereby increasing access to higher education. Actual Action Taken: Bush froze Pell Grant limit below his promised level. LIHEAP Promise/Claim: Bush promised to "fully fund" LIHEAP (the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program). Actual Action Taken: Bush's budget cut LIHEAP by $300 million. Medicare Promise/Claim: Bush pledged to provide Medicare prescription drug coverage for all seniors. Actual Action Taken: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Bush's plan would cover only 6 percent of Medicare beneficiaries. Yucca Mountain Promise/Claim: Bush promised to listen to sound science and local officials before deciding to bury the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Actual Action Taken: Bush designated Yucca Mountain the site before all the science is in, flouting local officials. Student Loans Promise/Claim: Bush promised to make higher education more accessible by helping students with high costs. Actual Action Taken: Bush proposed pulling $1.3 billion from a program that allows students to consolidate education loans at federally subsidized interest rates. democrats.org Newt Gingrich brought us "securities reform," a proposal that passed over Clintons veto. Under the battle cry of deregulation, Newt, in effect, deregulated crime. Now, of course, we're not talking about the kind of crime that those people who lack character commit. This kind of crime is committed with a laptop and a lawyer. Newt's reform shielded law and accounting firms like the now infamous Arthur Anderson from liability for false corporate reporting, and made it a good deal more difficult for investors to bring suit when they have been deceived. In other words, this isn't the kind of deregulation that helps you do business. This deregulation helps you avoid the consequences of running a crooked business. Previously this kind of "Get out of Jail Free" card was available only to those whose father might happen to be President at the time. So it should surprise no one that there was a mad rush through the huge loophole that Newt had pried open. Nearly a thousand US companies have had to "restate" their earnings in the past five years, and they're just the ones who got caught. ("Restate" by the way appears to be a business euphemism for admitting to and correcting a lie). But the people who bought the lie and bought the stock were left with little or no recour