The Non-Arguable Case Against
the Bush Administration
The Nation.com
100 Facts and 1 Opinion
by Judd Legum
Posted October 20, 2004
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IRAQ
1. The Bush Administration has spent more
than $140 billion on a war of choice in Iraq.
Source: American Progress
2. The Bush Administration sent troops into
battle without adequate body armor or armored Humvees.
Sources: Fox News,
The Boston Globe
3. The Bush Administration ignored estimates
from Gen. Eric Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops
would be required to secure Iraq.
Source:
PBS
4. Vice President Cheney said Americans
"will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" in Iraq.
Source:
The Washington Post
5. During the Bush Administration's war in
Iraq, more than 1,000 US troops have lost their lives and more
than 7,000 have been injured.
Source: globalsecurity.org
6. In May 2003, President Bush landed on an
aircraft carrier in a flight suit, stood under a banner
proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and triumphantly announced
that major combat operations were over in Iraq. Asked if he had
any regrets about the stunt, Bush said he would do it all over
again.
Source:
Yahoo News
7. Vice President Cheney said that Iraq was
"the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under
assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11." The
bipartisan 9/11 Commission found that Iraq had no involvement in
the 9/11 attacks and no collaborative operational relationship
with Al Qaeda.
Source: MSNBC , 9-11
Commission
8. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were
"only really suited for nuclear weapons programs," warning "we
don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." The
government's top nuclear scientists had told the Administration
the tubes were "too narrow, too heavy, too long" to be of use in
developing nuclear weapons and could be used for other
purposes.
Source:
New York Times
9. The Bush Administration has spent just
$1.1 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress approved for Iraqi
reconstruction.
Source:
USA Today
10. According to the Administration's
handpicked weapon's inspector, Charles Duelfer, there is "no
evidence that Hussein had passed illicit weapons material to al
Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, or had any intent to do
so." After the release of the report, Bush continued to insist,
"There was a risk--a real risk--that Saddam Hussein would pass
weapons, or materials, or information to terrorist networks."
Sources: New
York Times,
White House news release
11. According to Duelfer, the UN inspections
regime put an "economic strangle hold" on Hussein that prevented
him from developing a WMD program for more than twelve years.
Source:
Los Angeles Times
TERRORISM
12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in
August 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack America,"
President Bush continued his monthlong vacation.
Source: CNN.com
13. The Bush Administration failed to commit
enough troops to capture Osama bin Laden when US forces had him
cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in November 2001.
Instead, they relied on local warlords.
Source: csmonitor.com
14. The Bush Administration secured less
nuclear material from sites around the world vulnerable to
terrorists in the two years after 9/11 than were secured in the
two years before 9/11.
Source: nti.org
15. The Bush Administration underfunded
Nunn-Lugar--the program intended to keep the former Soviet
Union's nuclear legacy out of the hands of terrorists and rogue
states--by $45.5 million.
Source: armscontrol.org
16. The Bush Administration has assigned five
times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as
it has to track Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's money.
Source:
sfgate.com
17. According to Congressional Research
Service data, the Bush Administration has underfunded security at
the nation's ports by more than $1 billion for fiscal year
2005.
Source:
American Progress
18. The Bush Administration did not devote
the resources necessary to prevent a resurgence in the production
of poppies, the raw material used to create heroin, in
Afghanistan--creating a potent new source of financing for
terrorists.
Source: Pakistan
Tribune
19. Vice President Cheney told voters that
unless they elect George Bush in November, "we'll get hit again"
by terrorists.
Source:
Washington Post
20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual
suggests terrorists come to the United States and buy assault
weapons, the Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the
expiration of the ban.
Source:
sfgate.com
21. Despite repeated calls for
reinforcements, there are fewer experienced CIA agents assigned
to the unit dealing with Osama bin Laden now than there were
before 9/11.
Source:
New York Times
22. Before 9/11, John Ashcroft proposed
slashing counterterrorism funding by 23 percent.
Source:
americanprogress.org
23. Between January 20, 2001, and September
10, 2001, the Bush Administration publicly mentioned Al Qaeda one
time.
Source: commondreams.org
24. The Bush Administration granted the 9/11
Commission $3 million to investigate the September 11 attacks and
$50 million to the commission that investigated the Columbia
space shuttle crash.
Source: commondreams.org
25. More than three years after 9/11, just 5
percent of all cargo--including cargo transported on passenger
planes--is screened.
Source: commondreams.org
NATIONAL
SECURITY
26. During the Bush Administration, North
Korea quadrupled its suspected nuclear arsenal from two to eight
weapons.
Source:
New York Times
27. The Bush Administration has openly
opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, undermining nuclear
nonproliferation efforts.
Source: commondreams.org
28. The Bush Administration has spent $7
billion this year--and plans to spend $10 billion next year--for
a missile defense system that has never worked in a test that
wasn't rigged.
Sources: www.gao.gov/new.items/d04409.pdf,
Los Angeles Times
29. The Bush Administration underfunded the
needs of the nation's first responders by $98 billion, according
to a Council on Foreign Relations study.
Source: nationaldefensemagazine.org
CRONYISM AND
CORRUPTION
30. The Bush Administration awarded a
multibillion-dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton--a company
that still pays Vice President Cheney hundreds of thousands of
dollars in deferred compensation each year (Cheney also has
Halliburton stock options). The company then repeatedly
overcharged the military for services, accepted kickbacks from
subcontractors and served troops dirty food.
Sources:
The Washington Post,
The Tapei Times, BBC
News
31. The Bush Administration told Saudi Prince
Bandar bin Sultan about plans to go to war with Iraq before
telling Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Source: detnews.com
32. The Bush Administration relentlessly
pushed an energy bill containing $23.5 billion in corporate tax
breaks, much of which would have benefited major campaign
contributors.
taxpayer.net,
Washington Post
33. The Bush Administration paid Iraqi-exile
and neocon darling Ahmad Chalabi $400,000 a month for
intelligence, including fabricated claims about Iraqi WMD. It
continued to pay him for months after discovering that he was
providing inaccurate information.
Source: MSNBC
34. The Bush Administration installed as top
officials more than 100 former lobbyists, attorneys or
spokespeople for the industries they oversee.
Source: Source: commondreams.org
35. The Bush Administration let disgraced
Enron CEO Ken Lay--a close friend of President Bush--help write
its energy policy.
Source: MSNBC
36. Top Bush Administration officials
accepted $127,600 in jewelry and other presents from the Saudi
royal family in 2003, including diamond-and-sapphire jewelry
valued at $95,500 for First Lady Laura Bush.
Source:
Seattle Times
37. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
awarded lucrative contracts to several companies in which he is
an investor, including Microsoft, GE, Sprint, Pfizer and
Oracle.
Source: cq.com
38. President Bush used images of
firefighters carrying flag-draped coffins through the rubble of
the World Trade Center to score political points in a campaign
advertisement.
Source:
The Washington Post
THE
ECONOMY
39. President Bush's top economic adviser,
Greg Mankiw, said the outsourcing of American jobs abroad was "a
plus for the economy in the long run."
Source:
CBS News
40. The Bush Administration turned a $236
billion surplus into a $422 billion deficit.
Sources:
Fortune, dfw.com
41. The Bush Administration implemented
regulations that made millions of workers ineligible for overtime
pay.
Source: epinet.org
42. The Bush Administration has crippled
state budgets by underfunding federal mandates by $175
billion.
Source: cbpp.org
43. President Bush is the first President
since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs--around
800,000--over a four-year term.
Source: The Guardian
44. The Bush Administration gave Accenture a
multibillion-dollar border control contract even though the
company moved its operations to Bermuda to avoid paying
taxes.
Sources: The
New York Times,
cantonrep.com
45. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said
"the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the
spectrum." He passed the tax cuts, but the top 20 percent of
earners received 68 percent of the benefits.
Sources: cbpp.org, vote-smart.org
46. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush
promised to pay down the national debt to a historically low
level. As of September 30, the national debt stood at
$7,379,052,696,330.32, a record high.
Sources:
www.georgewbush.com , Bureau of the
Public Debt
47. As major corporate scandals rocked the
nation's economy, the Bush Administration reduced the enforcement
of corporate tax law--conducting fewer audits, imposing fewer
penalties, pursuing fewer prosecutions and making virtually no
effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes.
Source: iht.com
48. The Bush Administration increased tax
audits for the working poor.
Source:
theolympian.com
49. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush
promised to protect the Social Security surplus. As President, he
spent all of it.
Sources:
georgewbush.com,
Congressional Budget Office
50. The Bush Administration proposed slashing
funding for the largest federal public housing program, putting 2
million families in danger of losing their housing.
Source:
San Francisco Examiner
51. The Bush Administration did nothing to
prevent the minimum wage from falling to an inflation-adjusted
fifty-year low.
Source:
Los Angeles Times
EDUCATION
52. The Bush Administration underfunded the
No Child Left Behind Act by $9.4 billion.
Source:
nwitimes.com
53. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush
promised to increase the maximum federal scholarship, or Pell
Grant, by 50 percent. Instead, each year he has been in office he
has frozen or cut the maximum scholarship amount.
Source: Source: edworkforce.house.gov
x
54. The Bush Administration's Secretary of
Education, Rod Paige, called the National Education
Association--a union of teachers--a "terrorist organization."
Sources: CNN.com
HEALTHCARE
55. The Bush Administration, in violation of
the law, refused to allow Medicare actuary Richard Foster to tell
members of Congress the actual cost of their Medicare bill.
Instead, they repeated a figure they knew was $100 billion too
low.
Source:
Washington Post,
realcities.com
56. The nonpartisan GAO concluded the Bush
Administration created illegal, covert propaganda--in the form of
fake news reports--to promote its industry-backed Medicare
bill.
Source: General
Accounting Office
57. The Bush Administration stunted research
that could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's,
diabetes, spinal injuries, heart disease and muscular dystrophy
by placing severe restrictions on the use of federal dollars for
embryonic stem-cell research.
Source:
CBS News
58. The Bush Administration reinstated the
"global gag rule," which requires foreign NGOs to withhold
information about legal abortion services or lose US funds for
family planning.
Source:
healthsciences.columbia.edu
59. The Bush Administration authorized twenty
companies that have been charged with fraud at the federal or
state level to offer Medicare prescription drug cards to
seniors.
Source:
American Progress
60. The Bush Administration created a
prescription drug card for Medicare that locks seniors into one
card for up to a year but allows the corporations offering the
cards to change their prices once a week.
Source:
Washington Post
61. The Bush Administration blocked efforts
to allow Medicare to negotiate cheaper prescription drug prices
for seniors.
Source:
American Progress
62. At the behest of the french fry industry,
the Bush Administration USDA changed their definition of fresh
vegetables to include frozen french fries.
Source: commondreams.org
63. In a case before the Supreme Court, the
Bush Administrations sided with HMOs--arguing that patients
shouldn't be allowed to sue HMOs when they are improperly denied
treatment. With the Administration's help, the HMOs won.
Source: ABC
News
64. The Bush Administration went to court to
block lawsuits by patients who were injured by defective
prescription drugs and medical devices.
Source:
Washington Post
65. President Bush signed a Medicare law that
allows companies that reduce healthcare benefits for retirees to
receive substantial subsidies from the government.
Source:
Bloomberg News
66. Since President Bush took office, more
than 5 million people have lost their health insurance.
Source: CNN.com
67. The Bush Administration blocked a
proposal to ban the use of arsenic-treated lumber in playground
equipment, even though it conceded it posed a danger to
children.
Source: Miami
Herald
68. One day after President Bush bragged
about his efforts to help seniors afford healthcare, the
Administration announced the largest dollar increase of Medicare
premiums in history.
Source: iht.com
69. The Bush Administration--at the behest of
the tobacco industry--tried to water down a global treaty that
aimed to help curb smoking.
Source:
tobaccofreekids.org
70. The Bush Administration has spent $270
million on abstinence-only education programs even though there
is no scientific evidence demonstrating that they are effective
in dissuading teenagers from having sex or reducing the
transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
Source:
salon.com
71. The Bush Administration slashed funding
for programs that suggested ways, other than abstinence, to avoid
sexually transmitted diseases.
Source: LA
Weekly
ENVIRONMENT
72. The Bush Administration gutted clean-air
standards for aging power plants, resulting in at least 20,000
premature deaths each year.
Source:
cta.policy.net
73. The Bush Administration eliminated
protections on more than 200 million acres of public lands.
Source: calwild.org
74. President Bush broke his promise to place
limits on carbon dioxide emissions, an essential step in
combating global warming.
Source:
Washington Post
75. Days after 9/11, the Bush Administration
told people living near Ground Zero that the air was safe--even
though they knew it wasn't--subjecting hundreds of people to
unnecessary, debilitating ailments.
Sierra
Club , EPA
76. The Bush Administration created a massive
tax loophole for SUVs--allowing, for example, the write-off of
the entire cost of a new Hummer.
Source:
Washington Post
77. The Bush Administration put former
coal-industry big shots in the government and let them roll back
safety regulations, putting miners at greater risk of black lung
disease.
Source: New
York Times
78. The Bush Administration said that even
though the weed killer atrazine was seeping into water
supplies--creating, among other bizarre creatures, hermaphroditic
frogs--there was no reason to regulate it.
Source:
Washington Post
79. The Bush Administration has proposed
cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by $600
million next year.
Source: ems.org
80. President Bush broke his campaign promise
to end the maintenance backlog at national parks. He has provided
just 7 percent of the funds needed, according to National Park
Service estimates.
Source: bushgreenwatch.org
RIGHTS AND
LIBERTIES
81. Since 9/11, Attorney General John
Ashcroft has detained 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism
sweeps; none have been convicted of a terrorist crime.
Source: hrwatch.org
82. The Bush Administration ignored pleas
from the International Committee of the Red Cross to stop the
abuse of prisoners in US custody.
Source:
Wall Street Journal
83. In violation of international law, the
Bush Administration hid prisoners from the Red Cross so the
organization couldn't monitor their treatment.
Source: hrwatch.org
84. The Bush Administration, without ever
charging him with a crime, arrested US citizen José
Padilla at an airport in Chicago, held him on a naval brig in
South Carolina for two years, denied him access to a lawyer and
prohibited any contact with his friends and family.
Source: news.findlaw.com
85. President Bush's top legal adviser wrote
a memo to the President advising him that he can legally
authorize torture.
Source: news.findlaw.com
86. At the direction of Bush Administration
officials, the FBI went door to door questioning people planning
on protesting at the 2004 political conventions.
Source:
New York Times
87. The Bush Administration refuses to
support the creation of an independent commission to investigate
the abuse of foreign prisoners in American custody. Instead,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld selected the members of a
commission to review the conduct of his own department.
Source:
humanrightsfirst.org
FLIP
FLOPS
88. President Bush opposed the creation of
the 9/11 Commission before he supported it, delaying an essential
inquiry into one of the greatest intelligence failure in American
history.
Source:
americanprogressaction.org
89. President Bush said gay marriage was a
state issue before he supported a constitutional amendment
banning it.
Sources: CNN.com,
White House
90. President Bush said he was committed to
capturing Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" before he said, "I
truly am not that concerned about him."
Source:
americanprogressaction.org
91. President Bush said we had found weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq, before he admitted we hadn't found
them.
Sources: White House,
americanprogress.org
92. President Bush said, "You can't
distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the
war on terror," before he admitted Saddam had no role in
9/11.
Sources:
White House,
Washington Post
BIOGRAPHY
93. George Bush didn't come close to meeting
his commitments to the National Guard. Records show he performed
no service in a six-month period in 1972 and a three-month period
in 1973.
Source:
boston.com
94. In June 1990 George Bush violated federal
securities law when he failed to inform the SEC that he had sold
200,000 shares of his company, Harken Energy. Two months later
the company reported significant losses and by the end of that
year the stock had dropped from $3 to $1.
Source: The
Guardian
95. When asked at an April 2004 press
conference to name a mistake he made during his presidency, Bush
couldn't think of one.
Source:
White House
SECRECY
96. The Bush Administration refuses to
release twenty-seven pages of a Congressional report that
reportedly detail the Saudi Arabian government's connections to
the 9/11 hijackers.
Source: philly.com
97. Last year the Bush Administration spent
$6.5 billion creating 14 million new classified documents and
securing old secrets--the highest level of spending in ten
years.
Source: openthegovernment.org
98. The Bush Administration spent $120
classifying documents for every $1 it spent declassifying
documents.
Source: openthegovernment.org
99. The Bush Administration has spent
millions of dollars and defied numerous court orders to conceal
from the public who participated in Vice President Cheney's 2001
energy task force.
Source: Washington
Post
100. The Bush Administration--reversing years
of bipartisan tradition--refuses to answer requests from
Democratic members of Congress about how the White House is
spending taxpayer money.
Source:
Washington Post
OPINION
If the past informs the future, four more years of the Bush
Administration will be a tragic period in the history of the
United States and the world.
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