President Bush's State of the Union Speech 1-28-03
1) This country has many challenges. We will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, to other presidents, and other generations. We will confront them with focus and clarity and courage."
So far we haven't been able to do this and the mess we have authorized up til now won't begin to be paid for until the generation after the next.
2)
"The tax relief is for everyone who pays income taxes -- and it will help our economy immediately: 92 million Americans will keep, this year, an average of almost $1,000 more of their own money. A family of four with an income of $40,000 would see their federal income taxes fall from $1,178 to $45 per year. Our plan will improve the bottom line for more than 23 million small businesses."
Check this out: http://www.factcheck.org/article298.html
And as of today, November 1, Bush is calling on Congress to tax the insurance plans of employees that have benefits from the companies they work for. That is some incentive to work hoping for benefits. Everything he touches hurts the little guy and makes them beholden to the crumbs the wealthy leave for us.
3) "We must work together to fund only our most important priorities. I will send you a budget that increases discretionary spending by 4 percent next year -- about as much as the average family's income is expected to grow. And that is a good benchmark for us. Federal spending should not rise any faster than the paychecks of American families."
But what actually happened is displayed in an interview with Mr. Russert and can be found @ www.factcheck.org/article139.html
Russert: But your base conservatives -- and listen to Rush Limbaugh, the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, they're all saying you are the biggest spender in American history.
President Bush: Well, they're wrong.
Russert: Mr. President
President Bush: If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined.
Fact Check explains:
Discretionary spending -- meaning spending that is subject to annual legislative appropriations, as opposed to spending for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare -- actually grew only 5.6% in Clinton 's last budget year (fiscal year 2001, which began October 1, 2000Since then discretionary spending has not "steadily declined" as the President said, but has gone up. In fact, the growth has been much faster than under Clinton . Inthe firstyear for which President Bush signed the spending bills discretionary spending growth soared to 13.1%, and annual growth remained in double digits through the current fiscal year....
Using Bolton's own figures, FactCheck.org calculates that the discretionary sums contained in appropriations bills signed by Bush for the current fiscal year -- including the $87 billion supplemental appropriation for Iraq -- amount to nearly a 36% increase over Clinton's last year.
4)
"To improve our health care system, we must address one of the prime causes of higher cost, the constant threat that physicians and hospitals will be unfairly sued. (Because of excessive litigation, everybody pays more for health care, and many parts of America are losing fine doctors. No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit. I urge the Congress to pass medical liability reform."
Bush did not have to do this. It is unfortunate, but this was a plan proposed to the Clinton administration on behalf of E. Lily Pharmeceuticals by some lobbiests. President Bush awarded Lily the no bid contract for the Small Pox Vaccine and then passed through Congress a law keeping anyone from suing Lily or the administrators of the vaccine--no class actions allowed either which means absolutely no accountability. Sad.
5)
"In this century, the greatest environmental progress will come about not through endless lawsuits or command-and-control regulations, but through technology and innovation. Tonight I'm proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles. "
Yet he cut has cut $93 million dollars from the EPA's Science and Technology accounts. These cuts include reductions in air, water, and toxics research and then cut nearly 5 mil more from the area that regulates and improves the eco systems that curtail endocrine disrupters, pesticides and toxics also down 7.7 mil. He then raised the super fund 124 million which is to make the polluter responsible but failed to call for reinstatement of the fees by polluting companies and to make up that difference, it has come out of the taxpayers pockets. The evidence of his taking back his environmental promises which sounded sweet at first have turned to bitterness. He predicted that people would be using Hydrogen powered cars all over America by 2008 which would free us from being oil dependent. Maybe he plans for us to withdraw from Iraq in 2008.
6)"I urge you to pass both my faith-based initiative and the Citizen Service Act, to encourage acts of compassion that can transform America, one heart and one soul at a time."
The concern I have is that with religious groups being subsidized federally to help others who are already guaranteed help from government sources, those churches are opening themselves up to being governed federally. So much for that ol separation of church and state.
7) " There are days when our fellow citizens do not hear news about the war on terror. There's never a day when I do not learn of another threat, or receive reports of operations in progress, or give an order in this global war against a scattered network of killers. The war goes on, and we are winning. (Applause.) To date, we've arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of al Qaeda. They include a man who directed logistics and funding for the September the 11th attacks; the chief of al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf, who planned the bombings of our embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole; an al Qaeda operations chief from Southeast Asia; a former director of al Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan; a key al Qaeda operative in Europe; a major al Qaeda leader in Yemen. All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way -- they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies. (Applause.) We are working closely with other nations to prevent further attacks. America and coalition countries have uncovered and stopped terrorist conspiracies targeting the American embassy in Yemen, the American embassy in Singapore, a Saudi military base, ships in the Straits of Hormuz and the Straits the Gibraltar. We've broken al Qaeda cells in Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, London, Paris, as well as, Buffalo, New York. We have the terrorists on the run. We're keeping them on the run. One by one, the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice."
Nice words, but untrue. Notice that since this speech was given, we had bombings in Madrid and London with growing threat in Paris. As for Buffalo, New York, I noticed that the SBA office was located to Texas. Could it be that whenever our President opens his mouth, people are attacked? Just a thought. Do people in America really believe that terrorists give any thought at all to American Justice???
8) "The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uraniumfrom Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide. The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary; he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses."
What intelligence is he referring to? The same intelligence we now know did not exist? I mean, Libby didn't lie so many times for no reason at all did he? Could that intelligence have come from Cheney's office? We now know the only communique from our intelligence offices stated that there was no evidence that supported going to war on the grounds of WMD. This is an impeachable lie. He didn't lie to a simple group like the grand jury. He lied to our country and to the entire world. Guess we have forgiven him, though he never asked for us to.
9) "We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace at all. If war is forced upon us, we will fight in a just cause and by just means -- sparing, in every way we can, the innocent. And if war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force and might of the United States military -- and we will prevail."
Well, 1979 American soldiers have died so far with 30 to 1 civilian Iraqis dying because of this war. Peace. Yeah. Each day peace prevails with each new death. Umhum. Yeah. Rest in Peace or is it rest in pieces? Sometimes, it is unclear what he really means to say.
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