Secret Squirrel
10-13-2004, 08:59 PM
THE TOP TWENTY MYTHS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
-- Myth 1/4Myth 1/4, n. A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable. (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, (c) 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)
-- Myth 1/4Myth 1/4, n. Something you know is true but do not want to be true. (George W. Bush)
BUSH MYTH No. 1: Snow Claimed Bush's Jobs Failure is a "Myth." "Claims like the one that Bush will be the first president to end a term with fewer jobs than when he started are nothing more than 'myths,' Snow claimed." (The Courier (Ohio), 10/12/04)
-- REALITY: What Bush Has To Show For His First Term In Office: Net Job Loss, Stagnating Wages And Long Term Unemployment Up. George Bush will be the first President since the 1930s to create no new jobs as President, facing the loss of 1.6 million private sector jobs and 2.7 million manufacturing jobs. Long-term unemployment is at its highest level in two decades, and two million more Americans are unemployed now than when Bush took office. This is the worst jobs recovery in 50 years. Meanwhile, wage growth (2.3 percent from August '03 to August '04) has been outpaced by inflation (3.0 percent from July '03 to July '04) and jobs in growing industries pay an average of $8,484 less than jobs in shrinking industries. (Bureau of Labor Statistics; Economic Report of the President, 2002; Council of Economic Advisers, 2/4/04, "Strengthening America's Economy")
BUSH MYTH No. 2: The Recession, September 11th, the Stock Market, Corporate Scandals, The War Are all to Blame for the Poor Economic Results.
-- REALITY: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George Bush Sr. All faced Wars And Managed To Create Jobs. Franklin Roosevelt led America toward victory in World War II, after recovering from a devastating attack upon Pearl Harbor. Yet Roosevelt still managed to create jobs: from 1941 until his death in 1945, FDR created 5,567,000 private sector jobs. Truman led the United States to victory over Japan in World War II, and acted to prevent Communist North Korea from taking over South Korea, yet he managed to create 6,452,000 private sector jobs during his term. LBJ committed the United States to the divisive war in Vietnam, yet managed to create 9,458,000 private sector jobs during his term. Nixon faced the Vietnam War, yet created 7,117,000 private sector jobs during his term.The first Bushs recession lasted July 1990-March 1991. George H.W. Bush led a victorious world coalition against Iraq after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Yet George H.W. Bush created 1,465,000 private sector jobs during his term. (Bureau of Labor Statistics; National Bureau of Economic Research)
BUSH MYTH No. 3: I Provided Tax Relief that Was the Fuel that Got Our Economy Growing Again.
-- REALITY: Independent Analysts Agree that Bush's Tax Cuts Were Ineffective Stimulus. The Congressional Budget Office described some of Bush's tax plans as the "least likely to generate significant stimulus" and Goldman Sachs described them "especially ineffective as a stimulative measure." (Congressional Budget Office, "Economic Stimulus: Evaluating Proposed Changes in Tax Policy," January 2002; and Goldman Sachs U.S. Economics Analyst)
BUSH MYTH No. 4: We Have A Deficit Because This Country Went Into A Recession. You Might Remember The Stock Market Started To Climb Dramatically Six Months Before I Came To Office, And Then The Bubble Of The 1990s Popped, and We're At War
-- REALITY: The War Is Responsible For Less Than 10 Percent Of The Deterioration In The Fiscal Outlook. The 10-year budget outlook has deteriorated by more than $8 trillion. Of this deterioration, less than 10 percent is due to spending on Afghanistan, Iraq, the War on Terror and Homeland Security. CBO forecasts that expenditures on conflicts around the world will total $315 billion from 2005-14. The homeland security increases in the wake of 9/11 add an additional roughly $250 billion from 2005-14 (that is a $23 billion increase in 2004 carried forward over the next decade). (CBO Economic and Budget Outlook: an Update, 9/04 and CBO Federal Funding for Homeland Security," 4/30/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 5: We'll Look At The Budget. One Is To Make Sure Congress Doesn't Overspend.
-- REALITY: Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth Said of Bushs Spending, "There's Now not any Pretense that Bush is Committed to Smaller Government." Stephen Moore, President of the Club for Growth, said of Bush's economic leadership, "In the last three years we've had the biggest farm bill, the biggest education bill, the biggest foreign aid bill and now the biggest health care bill in 30 years...There's now not any pretense that Bush is committed to smaller government." (Washington Post, 12/6/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 6: I Didn't Block Prescription Drug Importation.
-- REALITY: George Bush Blocked Drug Re-Importation. In a Statement of Administration Policy issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget on July 23, 2003, Bush stated his strong opposition to drug re-importation. The SAP states, "H.R. 2427 (to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs) is dangerous legislation. It would expose Americans to greater potential risk of harm from unsafe or ineffective drugs, would be extremely costly to implement, and would overwhelm FDA's already heavily burdened regulatory system." (Office of Management and Budget, SAP on HR 2472, 7/23/03, www.whitehouse.gov/omb )
BUSH MYTH No. 7: The Prescription Drug Cards Are Working.
-- REALITY: AAPR Says Drug Companies are Rising Prices to Offset Medicare Discounts. The AARP identified increases in the prices of prescription drugs and accused drug companies of trying to offset the Medicare prescription drug discounts by increasing prices. AARP policy director John Rother said, "Manufacturers are offsetting discounts with prices that are higher than they otherwise would have been." (Associated Press, 7/1/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 8: I'm The First President Ever To Allow Federal Funding For Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
-- REALITY: Bush's Ban Prevents 99.999 Percent of Stem Cells From Being Used. George W. Bush has put his ideological agenda ahead of the interests of the American people by placing a ban on embryonic stem cell research. His ban has prevented the use of 99.999 percent of potential stem cells from being used, standing in the way of possible cures and therapies. In addition, only a small amount of the cells open to research are able to be used because they are polluted with mouse cells. (Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research)
BUSH MYTH No. 9: In 1997, Kerry Voted For The Formula That Helped Cause The Increase In Medicare Premiums.
-- REALITY: Premiums Increased Only 14 Percent Throughout Clinton's Second Term. In contrast, through President Clinton's second term, Medicare premiums increased by only 14 percent. During President Bush's first four years, Medicare premiums increased by 56 percent so it is not the formula at fault, it is the fact that Bush has done nothing to control costs. (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies)
BUSH MYTH No. 10: We'll Expand Health Savings Accounts So People Can Pay Health Expenses With Tax-Free Money.
-- REALITY: The Bush Plan Raise Premiums and Drops Coverage. Bushs Health Savings Accounts will increase premiums for a large number of Americans. They will also encourage employers to stop offering health care benefits causing 1.4 million Americans to lose coverage. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/1/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 11: We Need Association Health Plans To Help Our Small Businesses Afford Insurance.
-- REALITY: Associated Health Plans Could Raise Premiums for 4 out of 5 Small Businesses. Studies show that AHPs will increase the cost of insurance for many small businesses and will increase the number of uninsured. The CBO estimated that AHPs could raise premiums for 4 out of 5 small businesses that keep traditional insurance. A study by Mercer found over 1 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage. (CBO, January 2000; Mercer Risk, Finance and Insurance)
BUSH MYTH No. 12: When You Hear Me Talk About Changing Systems To Help People, This Is -- This Will Help People When They Have Their Own Personal Savings Accounts, Which Will Enable Them To Actually Receive Their Social Security Benefits
-- REALITY: Bush's Plan Will Eliminate Benefits. According to CBO, the President's plan "would reduce expected retirement benefits relative to scheduled benefits, even when the benefits paid from IAs under CSSS Plan 2 are included....For example, benefits for the 1980s birth cohort would be 30 percent lower, and benefits for the 2000s cohort would be 45 percent lower." (CBO, "Long-term Analysis of Plan 2 of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security," 7/21/2004, pp. 11 and Figure 2A)
BUSH MYTH No. 13: Thanks To Our Reforms In Education, Math And Reading Scores Are Increasing In Our Public Schools.
-- REALITY: The Nation's Report Card Shows No Progress Since The Law Took Effect. No Child Left Behind didn't take effect until September 2002, and test scores from 2003 (the most recent data released from the Nation's Report Card) show that reading scores have declined or stayed flat for white students, African American students, and Hispanic students in both grade 4 and grade 8. The only group that continued to improve from 2002 to 2003 is Asian American and Pacific Islander students. (National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress)
BUSH MYTH No. 14: Under My Budget, 10 Million Students Will Get Record Levels Of Grants And Loans To Help With College.
-- REALITY: Bush Broke Pell Grant Promise and Tried to Cut 84,000 Kids Off of Pell Grants. During his 2000 campaign, Bush promised to increase the maximum Pell Grant award -- a critical source of educational support for low-income and minority students -- to $5,100. Yet his 2005 budget is the third in a row that has refused to increase the value above the current $4,050. His Pell Grant formula proposal would deny 84,000 low income students eligibility for funding because their families would appear to have more money available to pay for college than they really do. [Bush Speech in Hampton, New Hampshire, 8/30/00; Associated Press, 5/2/02; Chronicle for Higher Education, 4/4/03; House Budget Committee Democratic Caucus, 2/6/04, www.house.gov/budget_democrats; Institute for Higher Education Policy, Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Issues and Options, March 2003, www.ihep.com; PIRG Higher Education Project, http://www.pirg.org/highered/highered.asp?id2=7964; Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/1/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 15: Our Government Has Trained Over Half A Million First Responders And Tripled Spending On Homeland Security.
-- REALITY: Homeland Security Spending Did Not Come Close To Tripling Under Bush. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), “Gross budget authority for those functions in that year, excluding supplemental appropriations enacted immediately after September 11, totaled about $17 billion. Adding the supplemental appropriations raises that figure by almost $4 billion, bringing total funding for 2001 to $21 billion. The Congress and the President increased that amount to… an estimated $41 billion for 2004.” These CBO estimates are for the homeland security function, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The Bush administration’s own estimates show that the Department of Homeland Security itself did not even see its budget double: growing from $19.7 billion in FY 2001 to $36.5 billion in FY 2004. (CBO, "Federal Funding for Homeland Security," 4/30/2004 and OMB, Budget FY 2005, page 178)
BUSH MYTH No. 16: We Proposed And Passed A Healthy Forest Bill, Which Was Essential To Working With -- Particularly In Western States -- To Make Sure That Our Forests Were Protected.
-- REALITY: Bush Administration Rolled Back Protections of Our Forests. The Bush administration gutted the roadless rule that protected our forests from logging and commercial development. The New York Times reported, "For broad impact, though, nothing quite matches the decision to scuttle the roadless rule. Nearly three years in the making, that rule essentially gave blanket protection to some of the last truly wild places in America, critical watersheds for fish and wildlife and important sources of drinking water for metropolitan areas in the West. The Bush administration offers instead a less protective and more uncertain system under which state and local officials would become the moving force in deciding whether to log or conserve forest lands." (New York Times, 7/18/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 17: I'm A Big Proponent Of Clean Coal Technology, To Make Sure We Can Use Coal But In A Clean Way.
-- REALITY: Bush Repeatedly Underfunded the Clean Coal Program. In the Department of Energy Budget requests from FY2002-FY2005 Bush has requested an average of $120 million for the Clean Power Initiative. FY2005: $50 million, FY2004: $130 Million; FY2003: $150 Million; FY2002: $150 Million. (Department of Energy Budget Request, FY2002-FY2005)
BUSH MYTH No. 18: I've Got A Plan To Increase The Wetlands By 3 Million.
-- REALITY: Bush Administration Rolled Back Protections for Wetlands. George Bush lifted protections for 20 million acres of wetlands. The New York Times reported, "The Bush administration opened the way today for a redefinition of federal rules that could remove obstacles to development on millions of acres of isolated wetlands historically protected under the Clean Water Act. In the meantime, until any new rules are made final, the corps and the E.P.A. issued new guidance to their field offices discouraging them from asserting jurisdiction over wetlands unless they lie adjacent to traditional navigable rivers, streams and their tributaries." (New York Times, 1/11/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 19: I Guess You'd Say I'm A Good Steward Of The Land.
-- REALITY: Bush Stacked Environmental Protection Spots with Industry Supporters. The New York Times ed-board noted, "The Bush administration made sure early on to fill key policy-making jobs in the important environmental agencies -- Interior, Agriculture, Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency -- with lawyers and lobbyists from the very industries the agencies are supposed to regulate." (New York Times, 10/6/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 20: To Keep Jobs Here, We Need To Pass An Energy Plan That Makes Our Nation Less Dependent On Foreign Sources Of Energy.
-- REALITY: America Has Become More Dependent on Foreign Oil. Over the past four years, America has become increasingly dependent on foreign oil. In 2000, 58.2 percent of the oil consumed in the United States was imported. That has increased to 61.7 percent today. (EIA, "Overview of US Petroleum Trade")
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-- Myth 1/4Myth 1/4, n. A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable. (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, (c) 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)
-- Myth 1/4Myth 1/4, n. Something you know is true but do not want to be true. (George W. Bush)
BUSH MYTH No. 1: Snow Claimed Bush's Jobs Failure is a "Myth." "Claims like the one that Bush will be the first president to end a term with fewer jobs than when he started are nothing more than 'myths,' Snow claimed." (The Courier (Ohio), 10/12/04)
-- REALITY: What Bush Has To Show For His First Term In Office: Net Job Loss, Stagnating Wages And Long Term Unemployment Up. George Bush will be the first President since the 1930s to create no new jobs as President, facing the loss of 1.6 million private sector jobs and 2.7 million manufacturing jobs. Long-term unemployment is at its highest level in two decades, and two million more Americans are unemployed now than when Bush took office. This is the worst jobs recovery in 50 years. Meanwhile, wage growth (2.3 percent from August '03 to August '04) has been outpaced by inflation (3.0 percent from July '03 to July '04) and jobs in growing industries pay an average of $8,484 less than jobs in shrinking industries. (Bureau of Labor Statistics; Economic Report of the President, 2002; Council of Economic Advisers, 2/4/04, "Strengthening America's Economy")
BUSH MYTH No. 2: The Recession, September 11th, the Stock Market, Corporate Scandals, The War Are all to Blame for the Poor Economic Results.
-- REALITY: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George Bush Sr. All faced Wars And Managed To Create Jobs. Franklin Roosevelt led America toward victory in World War II, after recovering from a devastating attack upon Pearl Harbor. Yet Roosevelt still managed to create jobs: from 1941 until his death in 1945, FDR created 5,567,000 private sector jobs. Truman led the United States to victory over Japan in World War II, and acted to prevent Communist North Korea from taking over South Korea, yet he managed to create 6,452,000 private sector jobs during his term. LBJ committed the United States to the divisive war in Vietnam, yet managed to create 9,458,000 private sector jobs during his term. Nixon faced the Vietnam War, yet created 7,117,000 private sector jobs during his term.The first Bushs recession lasted July 1990-March 1991. George H.W. Bush led a victorious world coalition against Iraq after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Yet George H.W. Bush created 1,465,000 private sector jobs during his term. (Bureau of Labor Statistics; National Bureau of Economic Research)
BUSH MYTH No. 3: I Provided Tax Relief that Was the Fuel that Got Our Economy Growing Again.
-- REALITY: Independent Analysts Agree that Bush's Tax Cuts Were Ineffective Stimulus. The Congressional Budget Office described some of Bush's tax plans as the "least likely to generate significant stimulus" and Goldman Sachs described them "especially ineffective as a stimulative measure." (Congressional Budget Office, "Economic Stimulus: Evaluating Proposed Changes in Tax Policy," January 2002; and Goldman Sachs U.S. Economics Analyst)
BUSH MYTH No. 4: We Have A Deficit Because This Country Went Into A Recession. You Might Remember The Stock Market Started To Climb Dramatically Six Months Before I Came To Office, And Then The Bubble Of The 1990s Popped, and We're At War
-- REALITY: The War Is Responsible For Less Than 10 Percent Of The Deterioration In The Fiscal Outlook. The 10-year budget outlook has deteriorated by more than $8 trillion. Of this deterioration, less than 10 percent is due to spending on Afghanistan, Iraq, the War on Terror and Homeland Security. CBO forecasts that expenditures on conflicts around the world will total $315 billion from 2005-14. The homeland security increases in the wake of 9/11 add an additional roughly $250 billion from 2005-14 (that is a $23 billion increase in 2004 carried forward over the next decade). (CBO Economic and Budget Outlook: an Update, 9/04 and CBO Federal Funding for Homeland Security," 4/30/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 5: We'll Look At The Budget. One Is To Make Sure Congress Doesn't Overspend.
-- REALITY: Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth Said of Bushs Spending, "There's Now not any Pretense that Bush is Committed to Smaller Government." Stephen Moore, President of the Club for Growth, said of Bush's economic leadership, "In the last three years we've had the biggest farm bill, the biggest education bill, the biggest foreign aid bill and now the biggest health care bill in 30 years...There's now not any pretense that Bush is committed to smaller government." (Washington Post, 12/6/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 6: I Didn't Block Prescription Drug Importation.
-- REALITY: George Bush Blocked Drug Re-Importation. In a Statement of Administration Policy issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget on July 23, 2003, Bush stated his strong opposition to drug re-importation. The SAP states, "H.R. 2427 (to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs) is dangerous legislation. It would expose Americans to greater potential risk of harm from unsafe or ineffective drugs, would be extremely costly to implement, and would overwhelm FDA's already heavily burdened regulatory system." (Office of Management and Budget, SAP on HR 2472, 7/23/03, www.whitehouse.gov/omb )
BUSH MYTH No. 7: The Prescription Drug Cards Are Working.
-- REALITY: AAPR Says Drug Companies are Rising Prices to Offset Medicare Discounts. The AARP identified increases in the prices of prescription drugs and accused drug companies of trying to offset the Medicare prescription drug discounts by increasing prices. AARP policy director John Rother said, "Manufacturers are offsetting discounts with prices that are higher than they otherwise would have been." (Associated Press, 7/1/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 8: I'm The First President Ever To Allow Federal Funding For Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
-- REALITY: Bush's Ban Prevents 99.999 Percent of Stem Cells From Being Used. George W. Bush has put his ideological agenda ahead of the interests of the American people by placing a ban on embryonic stem cell research. His ban has prevented the use of 99.999 percent of potential stem cells from being used, standing in the way of possible cures and therapies. In addition, only a small amount of the cells open to research are able to be used because they are polluted with mouse cells. (Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research)
BUSH MYTH No. 9: In 1997, Kerry Voted For The Formula That Helped Cause The Increase In Medicare Premiums.
-- REALITY: Premiums Increased Only 14 Percent Throughout Clinton's Second Term. In contrast, through President Clinton's second term, Medicare premiums increased by only 14 percent. During President Bush's first four years, Medicare premiums increased by 56 percent so it is not the formula at fault, it is the fact that Bush has done nothing to control costs. (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies)
BUSH MYTH No. 10: We'll Expand Health Savings Accounts So People Can Pay Health Expenses With Tax-Free Money.
-- REALITY: The Bush Plan Raise Premiums and Drops Coverage. Bushs Health Savings Accounts will increase premiums for a large number of Americans. They will also encourage employers to stop offering health care benefits causing 1.4 million Americans to lose coverage. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/1/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 11: We Need Association Health Plans To Help Our Small Businesses Afford Insurance.
-- REALITY: Associated Health Plans Could Raise Premiums for 4 out of 5 Small Businesses. Studies show that AHPs will increase the cost of insurance for many small businesses and will increase the number of uninsured. The CBO estimated that AHPs could raise premiums for 4 out of 5 small businesses that keep traditional insurance. A study by Mercer found over 1 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage. (CBO, January 2000; Mercer Risk, Finance and Insurance)
BUSH MYTH No. 12: When You Hear Me Talk About Changing Systems To Help People, This Is -- This Will Help People When They Have Their Own Personal Savings Accounts, Which Will Enable Them To Actually Receive Their Social Security Benefits
-- REALITY: Bush's Plan Will Eliminate Benefits. According to CBO, the President's plan "would reduce expected retirement benefits relative to scheduled benefits, even when the benefits paid from IAs under CSSS Plan 2 are included....For example, benefits for the 1980s birth cohort would be 30 percent lower, and benefits for the 2000s cohort would be 45 percent lower." (CBO, "Long-term Analysis of Plan 2 of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security," 7/21/2004, pp. 11 and Figure 2A)
BUSH MYTH No. 13: Thanks To Our Reforms In Education, Math And Reading Scores Are Increasing In Our Public Schools.
-- REALITY: The Nation's Report Card Shows No Progress Since The Law Took Effect. No Child Left Behind didn't take effect until September 2002, and test scores from 2003 (the most recent data released from the Nation's Report Card) show that reading scores have declined or stayed flat for white students, African American students, and Hispanic students in both grade 4 and grade 8. The only group that continued to improve from 2002 to 2003 is Asian American and Pacific Islander students. (National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress)
BUSH MYTH No. 14: Under My Budget, 10 Million Students Will Get Record Levels Of Grants And Loans To Help With College.
-- REALITY: Bush Broke Pell Grant Promise and Tried to Cut 84,000 Kids Off of Pell Grants. During his 2000 campaign, Bush promised to increase the maximum Pell Grant award -- a critical source of educational support for low-income and minority students -- to $5,100. Yet his 2005 budget is the third in a row that has refused to increase the value above the current $4,050. His Pell Grant formula proposal would deny 84,000 low income students eligibility for funding because their families would appear to have more money available to pay for college than they really do. [Bush Speech in Hampton, New Hampshire, 8/30/00; Associated Press, 5/2/02; Chronicle for Higher Education, 4/4/03; House Budget Committee Democratic Caucus, 2/6/04, www.house.gov/budget_democrats; Institute for Higher Education Policy, Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Issues and Options, March 2003, www.ihep.com; PIRG Higher Education Project, http://www.pirg.org/highered/highered.asp?id2=7964; Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/1/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 15: Our Government Has Trained Over Half A Million First Responders And Tripled Spending On Homeland Security.
-- REALITY: Homeland Security Spending Did Not Come Close To Tripling Under Bush. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), “Gross budget authority for those functions in that year, excluding supplemental appropriations enacted immediately after September 11, totaled about $17 billion. Adding the supplemental appropriations raises that figure by almost $4 billion, bringing total funding for 2001 to $21 billion. The Congress and the President increased that amount to… an estimated $41 billion for 2004.” These CBO estimates are for the homeland security function, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The Bush administration’s own estimates show that the Department of Homeland Security itself did not even see its budget double: growing from $19.7 billion in FY 2001 to $36.5 billion in FY 2004. (CBO, "Federal Funding for Homeland Security," 4/30/2004 and OMB, Budget FY 2005, page 178)
BUSH MYTH No. 16: We Proposed And Passed A Healthy Forest Bill, Which Was Essential To Working With -- Particularly In Western States -- To Make Sure That Our Forests Were Protected.
-- REALITY: Bush Administration Rolled Back Protections of Our Forests. The Bush administration gutted the roadless rule that protected our forests from logging and commercial development. The New York Times reported, "For broad impact, though, nothing quite matches the decision to scuttle the roadless rule. Nearly three years in the making, that rule essentially gave blanket protection to some of the last truly wild places in America, critical watersheds for fish and wildlife and important sources of drinking water for metropolitan areas in the West. The Bush administration offers instead a less protective and more uncertain system under which state and local officials would become the moving force in deciding whether to log or conserve forest lands." (New York Times, 7/18/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 17: I'm A Big Proponent Of Clean Coal Technology, To Make Sure We Can Use Coal But In A Clean Way.
-- REALITY: Bush Repeatedly Underfunded the Clean Coal Program. In the Department of Energy Budget requests from FY2002-FY2005 Bush has requested an average of $120 million for the Clean Power Initiative. FY2005: $50 million, FY2004: $130 Million; FY2003: $150 Million; FY2002: $150 Million. (Department of Energy Budget Request, FY2002-FY2005)
BUSH MYTH No. 18: I've Got A Plan To Increase The Wetlands By 3 Million.
-- REALITY: Bush Administration Rolled Back Protections for Wetlands. George Bush lifted protections for 20 million acres of wetlands. The New York Times reported, "The Bush administration opened the way today for a redefinition of federal rules that could remove obstacles to development on millions of acres of isolated wetlands historically protected under the Clean Water Act. In the meantime, until any new rules are made final, the corps and the E.P.A. issued new guidance to their field offices discouraging them from asserting jurisdiction over wetlands unless they lie adjacent to traditional navigable rivers, streams and their tributaries." (New York Times, 1/11/03)
BUSH MYTH No. 19: I Guess You'd Say I'm A Good Steward Of The Land.
-- REALITY: Bush Stacked Environmental Protection Spots with Industry Supporters. The New York Times ed-board noted, "The Bush administration made sure early on to fill key policy-making jobs in the important environmental agencies -- Interior, Agriculture, Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency -- with lawyers and lobbyists from the very industries the agencies are supposed to regulate." (New York Times, 10/6/04)
BUSH MYTH No. 20: To Keep Jobs Here, We Need To Pass An Energy Plan That Makes Our Nation Less Dependent On Foreign Sources Of Energy.
-- REALITY: America Has Become More Dependent on Foreign Oil. Over the past four years, America has become increasingly dependent on foreign oil. In 2000, 58.2 percent of the oil consumed in the United States was imported. That has increased to 61.7 percent today. (EIA, "Overview of US Petroleum Trade")
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