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

To: SecularBull who wrote (454964)	9/8/2003 11:13:22 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The "liberal" press was very tough on Clinton yet was hands off Bush until this summer. I find it a big relief they're finally daring to challenge the Emperor With No Clothes. But they've been real chickens up until recently. Wouldn't even public the stories about how Bushies really stole the 2000 election though they ALl know about it and there is plenty of evidence to support it.

To: SecularBull who wrote (454964)	9/9/2003 4:23:24 AM
From: GST	Respond to of 769670

For Bush, Rosy Scenarios Meet Reality in Iraq Mon Sep 8, 7:42 PM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo! By Adam Entous WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites)'s budget director predicted Iraq (news - web sites) would be "an affordable endeavor" and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once declared: "I don't know that there is much reconstruction to do." Reuters Photo Latest headlines: · Poll: Iraq War Boosted Terror Threat AP - 45 minutes ago · Iraq Costs May Cause Drag on Economy AP - 53 minutes ago · Arab League OKs Seat for Iraqi Council AP - 1 hour, 38 minutes ago Special Coverage Five months and tens of billions of dollars later, Bush and his top aides are now acknowledging for the first time the massive cost of occupying and rebuilding the battered country, asking Congress for an extra $87 billion for next year, on top of the $79 billion already approved for this year. In the last week alone, White House officials upped their cost estimates in talks with lawmakers from $65 billion to $87 billion -- an amount the administration hopes will get them through the 2004 presidential election season without having to ask for more. Bush is seeking a second term but faces declining poll numbers and concern about a sluggish economy. The new spending plan will push an already record budget deficit above $525 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, or about 4.7 percent of gross domestic product, a level that worries some White House economists. At least one Democratic congressional leader says Bush should fire Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, leading architects of the war against Iraq. The president overhauled his economic team last year after an uproar by lawmakers. "The Bush team is looking at the end game, putting out as much information now so there are no surprises when the country really focuses on partisan politics," said Republican consultant Scott Reed, referring to the 2004 election. Critics say the White House underestimated the financial burden to help build support among Americans for the war, and even dismissed one official -- chief economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey -- who spoke out about the potential costs before Bush settled on a course of action. "Either they gave us the most rosy scenario or they blurred the cost by withholding information," said David Sirota of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. Others saw the low-ball budget estimates in the same light as prewar statements by Bush and his aides about an imminent threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be found. "It's clear that the administration had a pattern and practice of not being straight with the American people," said Dan Feldman, a director of the National Security Council under Bush's predecessor, President Bill Clinton (news - web sites). CAUGHT OFF GUARD Administration officials deny intentionally misrepresenting the situation but say they did not realize just how bad things were in Iraq under ousted President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). They now say they had mistakenly assumed that much of the infrastructure was in good shape. Some lawmakers complain they were spun. Rumsfeld in April told reporters about the "funny war" in Iraq in which few bridges and oil wells were destroyed, and said, "the electricity, where it was lost, is for the most part back on." Budget director Mitch Daniels asserted that oil and gas revenues and confiscated Iraqi assets would provide "abundant" resources for reconstruction, and once pronounced: "There's just no reason that this can't be an affordable endeavor." Wolfowitz also assured Congress that "we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon." But U.S. occupation forces are still struggling to repair the country's dilapidated water system, and restore power -- projects estimated to cost up to $18 billion. "The level of decay and under-investment in Iraqi infrastructure was worse ... than almost anyone on the outside anticipated," a senior administration official acknowledged on Monday. U.S. officials blame saboteurs and looters for setbacks in restoring the oil industry and power supplies and with persistent attacks on U.S. forces have been forced to turn back to the United Nations (news - web sites) to get help with troops and money. Like the bill for reconstruction, the military occupation turned out to be more costly than expected. In April, the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s chief financial officer estimated the monthly cost of the war at about $2 billion. By early June, the forecast was raised to $3 billion. A month later it was $3.9 billion. Bush conceded last week what U.S. government and outside experts had been saying for months, that the United States could not count on Iraqi oil revenues in the short term. The administration is still trying to reach prewar production levels, let alone surpass them by as much as 50 percent as Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) had predicted. Administration officials also promised before the war to seek help from allies to defray costs, and held up as a model "Operation Tin Cup," launched after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Bush's father to pay for that war. But Bush, who invaded Iraq without the broad international support his father enjoyed, has yet to secure any major contributions and critics doubt he will. "It is going to be very difficult to go back to the well now," said Feldman. story.news.yahoo.com