Sunday, August 29, 2004 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
GEORGE DOES LIE
Yes, it's amazing but Bush does lie! Frequently!
"Bush lies" is reprinted here courtesy of Eazyguy62 who did all the hard work of collecting and putting this together. It's long - but so is Bushie's nose. Thank you, Guy!!
Bush Quote:
“Iraq [is] the central front in the war on terror.” - UN speech [White House Web site]
The Facts:
Knight-Ridder reported that experts now say the "Iraq war is diverting resources from war on terror." Specifically, "a growing number of counter-terrorism experts are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al Qaeda." Republican and Democratic experts "are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al Qaeda." Similarly, the U.S. Army War College reported that the Iraq war "diverted attention and resources away from the security of the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable al Qaeda." - Knight-Ridder, 11/26/03; BBC, 1/13/04
Bush Quote:
“All governments that support terror are complicit in a war against civilization.” - UN Speech [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
The Administration continues its close ties with the Saudis despite the findings of a bipartisan commission investigating 9/11. The commission found the Saudigovernment “not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups through suspect charities and other fronts.” - LA Times, 8/2/03
Bush Quote:
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.” [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
Declassified documents “undercut Bush administration claims before the war that Hussein had links to al Qaeda.” - LA Times, 7/19/03
Bush Quote:
"[My] first goal is an economythat [will] employ every man and woman who seeks a job." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
More than 2 million jobs have been lost since President Bush took office, and he is expected to have a net record of job losses by the end of his term - the first President with such a dismal record since Herbert Hoover.
Bush Quote:
"I'm sure the numbers are beginning to look better." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
"Data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the Bush administration fell 437,000 jobs short in August, losing 93,000 jobs, instead of creating the 344,000 it had projected for each month after July 2003." - EPI, 9/5/03
Bush Quote:
“We have made clear the doctrine which says, if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist you're just as guilty as the terrorist. We're holding regimes accountable for harboring and supporting terror.” [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
"That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that 'rogue regime' for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention." - LA Times, 5/22/01
Bush Quote:
"Tax relief means new jobs for Americans." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts: Since Bush's first tax cut in June, 2001 the economy has shed 2.75 million jobs. - CBPP Bush Quote: "The United States has no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
More than three years into his tenure, Bush had spent a total of five days in Mexico and so neglected its affairs that even "Mexican President Vicente Fox...has been alienated." WP reported president's meeting with his onetime friend at a summit in Bangkok would be "their first in a year." - Washington Post, 10/17/03
Bush Quote:
"We must fix the problem of frivolous lawsuits against our doctors and hospitals." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found last year that "malpractice costs account for a very small fraction of total health care spending" and that even radical reform "would have a relatively small effect on total health plan premiums." - CBO, 9/25/02
Bush Quote:
"If there's a Medicare reform bill signed by me, corporations have no intention to what they call dump retirees into a system they don't want to be dumped into." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
"In a move that will likely "create anxiety for many of the 12 million Medicare beneficiaries who also receive health benefits from their former employers," the Equal Employment OpportunityCommission voted yesterday to "allow employers to reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they become eligible for Medicare at age 65." - NY Times, 4/23/04
Bush Quote:
“Credibility comes when you say something is going to happen and then it does happen…You are not credible if you issue resolutions and then nothing happens.” [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
Bush said about his first tax cut, “Tax relief will create new jobs” and the economy proceeded to shed almost 3 million jobs. He said about his second tax cut, “tax relief means new jobs for Americans” and the economy continued to shed jobs. He said about the war in Iraq in May, “major combat operations have ended” and yet more troops have died since that statement than during the war. - George W. Bush, 4/16/01, 9/5/03, 5/1/03
Bush Quote:
“So I’ve proposed additional measures to keep the economy on the path to greater job creation…by making permanent the tax cuts that have helped our economy.” [Source: CNN Web site]
The Facts:
Since the first Bush tax cut took effect in June 2001,the U.S. economy has lost 2.75 million jobs – the unemployment rate has risen from 4.4% to 5.6%. Since the second Bush tax cut took effect in May 2003, the economy has shed 124,000 more jobs. - BLS
Bush Quote:
“The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership.” [White House Web site]
The Facts:
According to Amnesty International’s 2003 annual report, “The world has become more dangerous, and governments more repressive, since the effort to fight terrorism began after the 9/11, attacks on the United States.” For the U.S. specifically, “Since March, 353 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, including 229 in hostile fire.” - NY Times, 5/29/03; CNN, 10/28/03
Bush Quote: 9/29/2000
"[If elected], Governor Bush will work to…establish mandatory reduction targets for emissions of four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide." [Source: Bush Environmental Plan]
Fact:
"I do not believe that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide." - President Bush, 3/13/03
Bush Quote: 9/26/2002
“You can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.” - National Journal, 8/9/03
Bush Quote: 9/26/2002
“The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons…And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 9/24/2003
"We've had differences [with Germany and France] and they're over, and we're going to work together." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The Bush Administration announced it "will bar companies from France, Germany, Russia and other countries that opposed the war in Iraq from bidding on $18.6 billion in prime contracts for reconstruction of the country." - LA Times, 12/10/03
Bush Quote: 9/23/2003
"The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.” [Source: White HouseWeb site -- Speech to UN]
Facts:
"CIA interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Saddam." - NY Times, 1/15/04
"Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." - Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04
Bush Quote: 10/28/2003
"General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether or not he needs more troops... And he told me he does [have enough troops]." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
Less than two weeks later, the Bush Administration announced its decision"to dispatch thousands of Marines to Iraq as part of a revised troop rotation that will swell the size of the US occupation by up to 50,000 troops." - Boston Globe, 11/6/03
Bush Quote: 10/28/2003
“I’ve asked the American people to foot the tab for $20 billion of reconstruction…Others are stepping up as well, 13 billion out of the Madrid Conference…The Iraqi oil revenues – excess Iraqi oil revenues, coupled with private investments, should make up the difference.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The World Bank and the UN estimate that $56 billion over four years is necessary to rebuild Iraq – leaving the total pledged by the U.S. and others (counting loans) $23 billion dollars short of what is required. The top civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, told Congress in September that “for thenext two years, whatever revenue was reaped from oil production would not exceed the cost of Iraq's day-to-day operating expenses.” In 2005 he estimated “a surplus of only $4 million to $5 million.” - LA Times, 10/26/03; NY Times, 10/5/03
Bush Quote: 10/27/2003
"A free and secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
According to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, "Majorities in seven of the eight foreign countries said the war in Iraq hurt or had no effect on the war on terrorism, and only in the United States did a majority believe that the ouster of Saddam Hussein will make the Middle East more democratic." - WP, 3/17/04
Bush Quote: 10/22/2003
“You've got to have some patience in foreign policy.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq.” - CBS, 9/4/02
Bush Quote: 10/22/2003
"I made it clear that a [diplomatic] process had gone on way before I made the decision to use military force.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
According to Bush’s State Department Director of Policy and Planning Richard Haas, the decision to go to war had been made by July of 2002 – 8 months before the invasion. When asked whether there was a particular moment when he realized war in Iraq was definite, Haas said, “The moment was the first week of July (2002), when I had a meeting with Condi…She said, essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath.” - New Yorker, 3/31/03
Time reported in May (2002) that in late March of 2002 Vice President Dick Cheney told Senators “The question was no longer if the U.S. would attack Iraq...The only question was when." - Time, 5/6/02
Bush Quote: 10/18/2002
On October 18, 2002, our Nation marks the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act and begins the Observance of the Year of Clean Water. This landmark environmental legislation has been central to the important progress we have made as a Nation in improving the quality of our drinking water and the health of our waters, wetlands, and watersheds." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
Under Bush's new budget, funding for clean water infrastructure would drop from $2.6 billion to $1.8 billion. The programs slated for reductions include "sewage treatment plants, water purification facilities, and targeted pollution-prevention investments." - Joint Budget Analysis by Environmental Groups, 2/4/04
Bush Quote: 10/17/2003
"If this were a spending contest, I would come in second. I readily admit I'm not going to grow the size of the federal government like [Gore] is." [Source: Debate transcript]
Facts:
"The numbers are astonishing. Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor. And I've never known a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination that this Congress has." - John McCain (R-AZ), Fox News, 11/30/03
"Conservative Republican frustration over the failure of the Bush administration and the House Republican leadership to restrain federal spending has boiled over in recent days, producing a rare confrontation between GOP lawmakers and party leaders." - The Hill, 12/3/03
Bush Quote: 10/17/2003
"Your question was deployment. It must be in the national interests, must be in our vital interests whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we're going." [Source: Debate transcript]
Fact:
“The U.S. military is overstretched by deployments in Iraq and elsewhere, forcing the Pentagon to keep thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform long beyond their release dates with potentially dangerous effects on morale, experts say.” - Reuters, 1/9/04
Bush Quote: 10/17/2003
"The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
According to testimony from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 10/16/03 the Bush Administration had deployed 1 soldier for every 189 people in Iraq, and 1 soldier for every 1,913 people in Afghanistan. Both were dramatically worse ratios than Kosovo (1 per 48), Bosnia (1 per 58) and East Timor (1 per 86)--the deployments of the Clinton years which Bush maligned during his campaign.
Bush Quote: 10/17/2000
"If I'm the president . . . people will be able to take their HMO insurance company to court. That's what I've done in Texas and that's the kind of leadership style I'll bring to Washington." [Source: Debate transcript, reprinted in Washington Post]
Fact:
"Today, legislation for a federal patients' bill of rights is moribund in Congress. And the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in 2000." - Washington Post, 4/5/04
Bush Quote: 10/16/2003
"I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to future Presidents or future generations." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to other Presidents and other generations.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“Last month this economy exceeded expectations and added net new jobs.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The White House Council of Economic Advisors set expectations when President Bush proposed his economic stimulus package. The council said his economic policies would create 344,000 new jobs per month – not the paltry 57,000 jobs that were created. All told, Bush has overseen the loss of almost 3 million jobs – the worst record since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. - Economic Policy Institute
Bush Quote:
“I proposed and signed these [tax] measures to help individuals and help families.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The most recent CBS News/New York Times poll shows that “despite three tax cuts in as many years, only 19 percent [of Americans surveyed] said Bush's policies made their taxes go down. Forty-seven percent noticed no effect, while 29 percent perceived that their taxes have gone up.” - Washington Post, 10/7/03
“Almost half of all American taxpayers will get less than $100 this year and next from President Bush’s most recent tax plan. In 2005, three-quarters of taxpayers will get less than $100, and in 2006 and later years almost nine out of ten will get less than $100.” - Citizens for Tax Justice, 5/30/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“I twice led the Congress to pass historic tax relief for the American people. We wanted tax relief to be as broad and as fair as possible, so we reduced taxes on everyone who pays taxes.” [Source: White House Web site]
Facts:
"A new AP poll finds that almost half of all Americans 'said their overall tax burden — including federal, state and local taxes — had gone up over the past threeyears' - almost four times the 13% who said their overall taxes had gone down." - AP, 4/13/04
“One million children living in military and veteran families are being denied child tax credit help” in President Bush's tax cut. “More than 260,000 of these children have parents on active military duty.” - Children's Defense Fund, 6/6/03
Bush Quote: 10/09/2003
"It's a lot better than you probably think. Just ask people who have been there. They're stunned when they come back -- when they go to Iraq and the stories they tell are much different from the perceptions that you're being told life is like." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
"After I came back from Iraq, I thought things were not as good as the administration was painting.” - John McCain (R-AZ), NYT, 10/24/03
Bush Quote:
“Your lives can be changed in a moment with the sudden call to duty. I want to thank you for your willingness to heed that important call, and I want to thank your families. I want to thank your sons, daughters, husbands and wives who share in your sacrifice, who are willing to sacrifice for our country and who stand behind you.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
Less than 2 weeks after the President made these comments, “the Bush administration announced its formal opposition to a proposal to give National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon's health-insurance system, jeopardizing the plan's future and angering supporters. A recent General Accounting Office report estimated that one of every five Guard members has no health insurance.” - Gannett News Service, 10/23/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“Any time we put our troops into harm's way, you must have the best training, the best equipment, the best possible pay.” [Source: White House Web site]
Facts:
“The administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.” - Army Times, 6/30/03
“When Bush taunted gunmen in Iraq, many GIs must have nervously tugged at their obsolete flak jackets. For many GIs, Iraq appears to be a strictly BYOB war -- Bring Your Own Bulletproofs. The shortages [of protective gear] come down to money and priorities. Gen. Richard B. Myers confirmed last week that it would be December before there were enough plates for all of our people in Iraq.” - Op-Ed, Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 10/5/03
Bush Quote:10/9/2001
"And therefore, I felt it was important to send a clear signal to Congress that classified information must be held dear, that there's a responsibility that if you receive a briefing of classified information, you have a responsibility." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
White House aides said "President Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer who is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, one of the most visible critics of Bush's handling of intelligence about Iraq." - Washington Post, 9/28/03
"White House officials left open the possibility that the they might assert executive privilege on some materials or withhold all or parts of others to block a full investigation of the leak of classified information." - NY Times, 10/8/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2001
"We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's interest." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Bob Woodward said President Bush gave two reporters 90 minutes, often speaking candidly about classified information." - Providence Journal, 4/10/02
Bush Quote: 10/7/2002
“The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
"The International Atomic Energy Agency's report that Iraq has not resumed its nuclear program has challenged one of the Bush administration's main arguments for taking military action to topple the Iraqi government." - NY Times, 1/28/03
Bush Quote: 10/7/2002
"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical and biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
According to The Washington Post, Robert Boyd, the U.S. Air Force's senior intelligence analyst, has concluded that evidence uncovered in Iraq confirms the Air Force's prewar assessment that Iraq had been developing unmanned aerial vehicles (or drones) to fly reconnaissance missions, not to deliver WMDs. - Washington Post, 9/27/03
Bush Quote: 10/7/2002
"If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait?" [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
Bush didn't care whether or not Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. When Diane Sawyer tried to make a distinction between stating as a "hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons," Bush snapped back "so what's the difference?" - ABC,12/16/03
Bush Quote 1: 10/7/2002
"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - the smoking gun - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." [Source: White House Web site]
Bush Quote 2:
"Many people have asked how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear weapon. Well, we don't know exactly, and that's the problem." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans." - British Intelligence Agent, Sunday herald, 6/1/03
Bush Quote: 10/3/2003
“The [Kay] report states Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/02
Bush Quote: 10/3/2000
"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road." [Source: Debate transcript]
FACT:
"Nation-building has become a defining feature of the Bush Administration's foreign policy." - Boston Globe, 3/2/04
Bush Quote: 10/3/2000
"It's time for a new administration to deal with the energy problem." [Source: Debate transcript]
FACT:
"Nationwide, the average cost of gasoline rose 7.6 cents to $2.017 a gallon — the first time pump prices have averaged more than $2 a gallon nationwide." - LA Times, 5/18/04
Bush Quote: 11/27/2002
"We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th." [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11.” - CBS News, 5/23/02
“Despite mounting evidence that most of the nation's intelligence sleuths were clueless before the attacks, [President Bush] opposes outside scrutiny - a stance that puts him at odds with most Senate Democrats and some key Republican lawmakers.” - Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/2/02
The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, rebuffed once previously, asked again yesterday to interview the CIA analyst who wrote the Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing given to President Bush on al Qaeda's threat to the United States...The commission wants to interview the author of the article in the now-famous President's Daily Brief to determine her purpose in assembling the document and how much information she sought in doing so....The Bush administration in the past refused to allow the panel to interview CIA analysts responsible for assembling the briefs." - Washington Post, 4/13/04
Bush Quote: 11/24/2003
"Our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Nearly two years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, remnants of the Islamic extremist group are regrouping and attacking U.S. troops." - LA Times, 11/12/03
Bush Quote: 11/19/2003
"The tradition of free speech exercised with enthusiasm is alive and well here in London. We have that at home too. They now have that right in Baghdad as well." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"As criticism of his authority appeared in Iraqi media...Bremer placed controls on [Iraqi Media Network] content and clamped down on the independent media in Iraq , closing down some Iraqi-run newspapers and radio and television stations." - American Prospect, 10/1/03
Bush Quote: 11/19/1999
"Never again should an American president spend nine days in China, and not even bother to stop in Tokyo or Seoul." [Source: DOS Web site]
FACT:
"The glaring omission in President George Bush's journey to Asia is a stop in South Korea, which speaks volumes to the sorry state into which relations between Washington and Seoul have plunged." - Jakarta Post, 10/19/03
Bush Quote: 11/13/2003
"The budget I submitted earlier this year commits an additional $400 billion over 10 years to implement this vision of a stronger Medicare system. This is enough to meet our commitments to the seniors today and to future generations of Americans." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan...When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that...Bush administration officials insisted they acted legally in ordering the nation's top Medicare cost analyst to keep from lawmakers his estimate that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit might cost more than $100 billion [than what the White House promised]." - Knight Ridder, 3/11/04 and 4/2/04
Bush Quote: 11/13/2003
"What we're trying to do is to change the tone in Washington, D.C. We're trying to get rid of all the needless politics and focus on the people's business, focus on results, and not the ugly process that sometimes takes on. We're making good progress. We really are." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
" George Bush has cleaved the nation into two tenaciously opposed camps even more than his predecessors." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Bush Quote: 11/7/2003
"The economy's growing, new jobs are being created. There's an opportunity, and I hope you seize it. There's a wonderful, wonderful future ahead for people who at this moment think the future is a little dark." [Source: Bush/Cheney '04 Web site]
FACT:
Since President Bush's first tax cut in March 2001, the economy has shed more than 2 million jobs. He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to end his term with a net job loss record. Additionally, the White House Counsel of Economic Advisors pledged that the President's "jobs and growth" package would create 1,836,000 new jobs by the end of 2003 as part of its pledge to create 5.5 million new jobs by 2004. But the economy added 221,000 jobs since the last tax cut went into effect, meaning that as the President appeared on Meet The Press, the White House had fallen 1,615,000 jobs short of their mark. - EPI, 2/4/03; Jobwatch.org
Bush Quote: 11/6/2003
"With the steady leadership of President Karzai, the people of Afghanistan are building a modern and peaceful government." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"[S]ecurity in large areas of Afghanistan has so deteriorated that U.S. and U.N. officials fear that plans to hold presidential elections in June may be in jeopardy." The security situation threatens to undermine the goals of the 2001 Bonn agreement which placed the U.N. in charge of supervising Afghanistan's transition to a constitutional democracy. - LA Times, 1
Bush Quote: 11/6/2003
“For too long, many people in (the Middle East) have been victims and subjects – they deserve to be active citizens.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
Yielding to protests from the repressivedictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04
At the time of the President's speech about Democracy in the Middle East, the Iraqi population had virtually no say in how their country was run. According to the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, two-thirds of the Governing Council – which was handpicked by the United States – no longer regularly attended meetings. According to members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the Coalition Authority refused to disclose how it was spending both Iraqi and American funds. Secrecy also surrounded the process of awarding contracts, and the Pentagon was running the Iraqi Media Network.
Bush Quote: 11/6/2003
“As we watch and encourage reforms in the region, we are mindful that modernization is not the same as Westernization. Representative governments in the Middle East will reflect their own cultures. They will not, and should not, looks like us.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
Yielding to protests from the repressive dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04
“The Coalition Provisional Authority continues to make a fundamental mistake in the way it interacts with the Iraqi people. The CPA seems to think that all wisdom is made in America.” - John McCain (D-AZ), Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, 11/5/03
Bush Quote: 5/29/2003
“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort…Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 10/11/2002
"We're helping Afghanistan to claim its democratic future, and we're helping that nation to establish public order and safety...We will stay the course to help that country develop " [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
"This effort may fail. It will not fail because of a lack of desire, a lack of commitment by millions of Afghans, or a lack of bravery....Instead, it may fail because the administration has been unwilling to recognize the magnitude of the threats which we face and to direct sufficient political, military and financial resources to overcome them." - Testimony by Mark L. Schneider, Sr. Vice President, International Crisis Group, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on “Afghanistan – Continuing Challenges,” 5/12/04
Bush Quote: 11/2/2003
"The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.” [Source: CBS Web site]
FACT:
“White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that a White House advance staffer embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…The staffer and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the 'Mission Accomplished' banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” - NY Times, 5/16/03
Bush Quote: 5/24/2004
"Our coalition has a clear goal, understood by all -- to see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations." [Source: White House Web site]
"We will hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government." - Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The Bush administration's plans for a new caretaker government in Iraq would place severe limits on its sovereignty, including only partial command over its armed forces and no authority to enact new laws, according to administration officials." - IHT, 4/24/04
Bush Quote: 10/11/2000
"There's been too much finger pointingand too much name calling in Washington, D.C. I would like to unite this country to get an agenda done that will speak to the hopes and aspirations of the future." [Source: Debate transcript]
Fact:
"Bush's approach to leadership has invited Americans to take sides." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Bush Quote: 5/24/2004
"That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values."
FACTS:
"President Bush, along with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, signed off on a secret system of detention and interrogation that opened the door to such methods" of abuse that have been widespread in Iraq. - Newsweek, 5/24/04
"A Pentagon report set the framework for the use of torture" in Iraq. "A military lawyer who helped prepare the report said that political appointees heading the working group sought to assign to the president virtually unlimited authority on matters of torture." - WSJ, 6/7/04
Bush Quote: 5/17/2002
"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people." [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“White House officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes.” - ABC, 3/16/02
"A Congressional inquiry into intelligence activities before Sept. 11 found 12 reports over a seven-year period suggesting that terrorists might use airplanes as weapons." - NY Times, 4/4/04
Bush Quote: 5/11/2004
"Some say the No Child Left Behind Act doesn't provide enough money to meet our goals... People say, well, it's an unfunded mandate to put accountability systems in place. No, the accountability systems are largely funded by the federal government." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"This year alone, the Bush administration shortchanges American schools $9.4 billion under No Child Left Behind." - NY Times, 3/14/04
Bush Quote: 5/10/2004
“Our troops continue to face serious danger, and this government is giving them every means of protecting themselves and every means necessary to gain victory.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“Many soldiers who are there say the Pentagon is failing to protect them with the best technology America has to offer…That has translated into a lack of armor… A breakdown of the casualty figures suggests that many U.S. deaths and wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur. According to an unofficial study by a defense consultant that is now circulating through the Army, there have been 142 casualties by land mines or improvised explosive devices, while 48 others died in rocket-propelled-grenade attacks. Almost all those soldiers were killed while in unprotected vehicles, which means that perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had stronger armor around them, the study suggested.” - Newsweek, 5/3/04
“The military already has identified unmet funding needs, including initiatives aimed at providing equipment and weapons for troops in Iraq. The Army has publicly identified nearly $6 billion in funding requests that did not make Bush's $402 billion defense budget for 2005, including $132 million for bolt-on vehicle armor; $879 million for combat helmets, silk-weight underwear, boots and other clothing; $21.5 million for M249 squad automatic weapons; and $27 million for ammunition magazines, night sights and ammo packs. Also unfunded: $956 million for repairing desert-damaged equipment and $102 million to replace equipment lost in combat. The Marine Corps' unfunded budget requests include $40 million for body armor, lightweight helmets and other equipment.” - Washington Post, 4/21/04
Bush Quote: 5/2/2000
"[It is] going to be up for cities and states to make those decisions [about gay marriage]." [Source: CNN Web site]
FACT:
"President Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage." - Sacramento Bee, 2/25/04
Bush Quote: 5/1/2004
"And by the way, the reports from Afghanistan, at least the ones I get, are very encouraging. You know, we've got -- people who have been there last yearand have been back this year report a different attitude. And they report people have got a sparkle in their eye." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The overlookedwar continues with noend in sight. Narcotics trafficking is at an all-time high. If U.S. forces were to leave, the Taliban -- or something like it -- would regain power. The U.S. is lost in Afghanistan, bound to this wild country and unable to leave...The situation in Afghanistan, as laid outto me, looks nothing like a country alleged to be progressing toward representative democracy under American tutelage." - Robert Novak, 5/31/04
Bush Quote: 5/1/2003
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"More U.S. soldiers have died in combat in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, than died during main phase of the war, the U.S. military said on Tuesday." - Knight Ridder, 10/28/03 Bush Quote: 5/1/2003
"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT: "The occupation of Iraq has helped al-Qaeda recruit more members, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies." - BBC, 5/25/04
Bush Quote: 3/30/2004
"We don't need to be raising the federal gas tax. Gas taxes would hurt the economy. There are some -- there are some in the other party in Washington who would like to raise gas taxes. I think it would be wrong. I think it would be damaging to the economy, not positive to the economy." [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States." - Dick Cheney, 1986
"Gasoline taxes, by contrast, actually improve incentives in various ways. If you have ever been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you have probably wished there were fewer cars on the road. A gasoline tax would help to accomplish this by encouraging people to car-pool, take public transportation, or live closer to work." - Dr. N. Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (Appointed by Bush), 5/24/99
Bush Quote: 3/27/2001
"Tax relief is central to my plan to encourage economic growth and we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
The $5.6 trillion ten-year surplus projected in January 2001, as Bush took office, is gone, supplanted with at least $5.2 trillion in deficits over the next ten years -- a fiscal decline of $10.8 trillion in just three years. - CBPP, 10/28/03
Bush Quote: 3/20/2004
"We will not fail the Iraqi people, who have placed their trust in us. Whatever it takes, we will fight and work to assure the success of freedom in Iraq." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Is it possible it won't work? Yes." - Donald Rumsfeld, on the possibility of failure in Iraq, 5/12/04
Bush Quote: 3/17/2004
"When you hear people say, we cut individual income taxes, or tax on the rich, really what you ought to put in your mind is these were taxes to help the entrepreneurial class of America. Small businesses benefit." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
Only 3.7% of small businesses are affected by the top tax rate cuts that made up the bulk of the President's income tax cuts. Most small business owners "would be far more likely to receive no tax reduction whatsoever from the Administration's tax package than to benefit." - CBPP, 5/3/01
Bush Quote: 3/17/2000
"What is even more important is the duty of public officials to obey the existing laws, and I'm afraid your own record does not inspire confidence." [Source: AP transcript]
FACT:
The President and Vice President have both retained lawyers and have been questioned in a criminal investigation into whether administration officials were involved in “what could be a violation of federal law” when they deliberately leaked the name of a covert CIA operative. - CBS News, 6/24/04; NY Times 9/29/03
Bush Quote: 3/16/2004
"This year we're goingto put out a drug discount card for our seniors that will save between 10 to 20 percent off their drugs, which is positive." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The analysis finds that the prices available with the new Medicare discount drug cards are far higher than the prices available in Canada and the prices negotiated by the federal government on the Federal Supply Schedule, and are no lower than the prices currently available to individuals who do not have the cards." - Minority House Report, April, 2004
Bush Quote: 3/16/2004
"Inherent in the health savings accounts are savings, savings for employers, savings for employees. In other words, one way to deal with the cost of health care is to push for health savings accounts."
FACT:
"Sharply higher health insurance deductibles may hit workers in the next two years as employers embrace newly created tax-free Health Savings Accounts." - USA Today, 4/26/04
Bush Quote: 3/11/2004
"Over a million jobs were lost because of the [9/11] attack." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"White House officials were unable to point to any specific information that supports a direct link between massive job losses and the attacks." While one White House spokeswoman claimed that the President's statements were "supported by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)," that agency's associate commissioner "said BLS has not compiled any specific study on jobs which were lost specifically because of the Sept. 11 attacks." - Bureau of National Affairs, 3/22/04
Bush Quote: 3/7/2002
"America is ushering in a responsibility era...and this new culture must include a renewed sense of corporate responsibility. If you lead a corporation, you have a responsibility to serve your shareholders, to be honest with your employees." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
After Enron and other corporate scandals rose corporate governance to the forefront of the national policy debate "O'Neill and Greenspan devised a plan to make CEOs accountable." But, O'Neill reports, "Bush went with a more modest plan because 'the corporate crowd' complained loudly and Bush could not buck that constituency." - Time Magazine, 1/11/04
Bush Quote: 3/6/2003
"No matter what the whip count is, we're calling for [a U.N.] vote. We want to see people stand up and say what their opinion is about Saddam Hussein and the utility of the United Nations Security Council. And so, you bet. It's time for people to show their cards, to let the world know where they stand when it comes to Saddam." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"At a National Security Council meeting convened at the White House at 8:55 a.m., Bush finalized the decision to withdraw the resolution from consideration and prepared to deliver an address to the nation that had already been written." - Washington Post, 3/18/03
Bush Quote: 3/6/2003
"No matter what the whip count is, we're calling for the vote. We want to see people stand up and say what their opinion is about Saddam Hussein and the utility of the United Nations Security Council." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"On March 17, 2003, with a possible resolution waiting in the wings, Bush announced he would not call for a vote, saying, 'The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours.'" - Slate, 9/23/03
Bush Quote: 3/6/2003
"I've not made up our mind about military action. Hopefully, this can be done peacefully. Hopefully, that as a result of the pressure that we have placed -- and others have placed -- that Saddam will disarm and/or leave the country." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The inspections are not getting us there, the president said, getting down to business. The U.N. inspectors were just sort of stumbling around, and Hussein was showing no intention of real compliance. 'I really think I'm going to have to do this.' The president said he had made up his mind on war. The United States should go to war." - 1/13/04, from Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward, reprinted in Washington Post, 4/18/04
Bush Quote: 6/18/2004
"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." [Source: Washington Post, 6/18/04]
FACTS:
“The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no ‘collaborative relationship’ between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq.” - Washington Post, 6/17/04
"We simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all." - Bush Weapons Inspector David Kay, Boston Globe, 6/16/04
Bush Quote: 6/17/2004
"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"Bush and Cheney also have sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003 — the day the war in Iraq began — Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who 'planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.'" - USA Today, 6/16/04
"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001." - President Bush, 5/1/03
“[Iraq is] the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.” - Vice President Dick Cheney, 9/14/03
Bush Quote: 6/16/2003
"So when you hear the -- hear me talk about reducing individual tax rates, the American people have got to understand, that means capital infusion into the small businesses of America." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2005 would severely cut loans to small businesses and reduce funding to the Small Business Administration by over 10 percent." - Washington Times, 2/3/04
Bush Quote: 6/14/2004
"You can go to http://www.medicare.gov/. It's not all that hard. And there will be all kinds of information available to you." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"In Rep. Slaughter's district, the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee…surveyed ten independent pharmacies. Information on the Medicare.gov web site was inaccurate for every single pharmacy." - Letter from Government Reform Minority Office, 7/6/04
Bush Quote: 10/11/2001
"I think we should learn a lesson from the previous engagement in the Afghan area that we should not just simply leave after a military objective has been achieved." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
"Insecurity caused by terrorist activities, factional fights and drug related crime remain the major concern of Afghans today...Attacks against non-governmental organizations is contributing to the slowing of reconstruction...Individuals and communities suffer from abuses of their basic rights by local commanders and factional leaders...[There are] terrorist attacks from suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda." - U.N. Report, 11/11/03
Bush Quote: 6/13/2000:
"Something will happen when I'm president. As soon as I take office I will begin the process of moving the U.S. ambassador to the city Israel has chosen as its capital." [Source: NJDC Web site]
FACT:
"Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 7(a) of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-45) (the 'Act'), I hereby determine that it is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States to suspend for a period of six months the limitations set forth in sections 3(b) and 7(b) of the Act." - President Bush memorandum delaying congressionally mandated relocation of US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, 6/11/01
Bush Quote: 6/2/2004
"We are using all elements of our national power to deny terrorists the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"In his fiscal year 2005 budget request to Congress, Bush did not substantially increase funding for [nonproliferation] programs and actually proposed cuts to the Department of Defense component" of a program to safeguard or destroy nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons abroad. - Arms Control Association, 3/04
Bush Quote: 6/1/2004
"I can continue calling upon Congress to pass the energy bill and to make sure the American consumers are being treated fairly. What you're seeing at the gas pumps is something I've been warning for two years, and that is that we're hooked on foreign sources of energy and that if we don't become less dependent on foreign sources of energy we will find higher prices at our gas pumps. It's precisely what happened." [Source: Fox News Web site]
FACT:
"The Bush plan…would have no impact on energy prices, and no practical effect on U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil. Who would benefit? The oil, coal and nuclear industries that shoveled millions of dollars into Bush campaign coffers." - NRDC, 5/17/01
Bush Quote: 6/1/2004
"Had we drilled in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) back in the mid-'90s, we'd be producing an additional million barrels a day, which would be taking enormous pressure off the American consumer." [Source: Fox News Web site]
FACT:
"The U.S. Geological Service says the amount that could be recovered economically -- that is, the amount likely to be profitably extracted and sold -- is roughly 3.2 billion barrels, or only a six-month U.S. supply." - NRDC
Bush Quote: 6/1/2004
"I haven't had any extensive conversations with [Chalabi]...I don't remember anybody walking into my office saying, Chalabi says this is the way it's going to be in Iraq." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment." - President Bush, Meet the Press, 2/13/04
Bush Quote: 6/1/2003
"Here's what -- we've discovered a weapons system, biological labs, that Iraq denied she had, and labs that were prohibited under the U.N. resolutions." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort. Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 7/14/2003
"And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"UN weapons inspectors worked in Iraq from November 27, 2002 until March 18, 2003. During that time, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC) conducted more than 900 inspections at more than 500 sites. The inspectors did not find that Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons or that it had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program." - Arms Control Association Web site
Bush Quote: 1/29/2002
"Our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short term….” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"The federal deficit will hit a record $477 billion this year and get worse if lawmakers cut taxes or increase spending, the Congressional Budget Office projected Monday." - CNN, 1/26/04
"The idea that this is manageable or that we are going to grow our way out of the problem is just flat false." - U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, LA Times, 10/7/03
"The U.S. government's budget deficit came under fire on Wednesday from two global institutions (OECD and the IMF) saying a plan to halve the record gap by 2009 may not be enough to stop long-term damage to the world economy." - Reuters, 4/14/04
Bush Quote: 1/29/2002
“When America works, America prospers, so my economic security plan can be summed up in one word: Jobs.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
The economy has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs since January 2001, giving Bush the worst job creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover. Currently, "job growth remains well below par." - AP, 2/11/04; NY Times, 2/22/04
Bush Quote: 1/29/2002
“We’ll increase funding to help states and communities train and equip our heroic police and firefighters….” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"With deficit-stricken states unable to assist municipalities with homeland defense, many large police and fire departments say they have been forced to postpone the purchase of protective suits, biochemical detectors and communications equipment that would be used to respond to a terrorist attack. And a recent National League of Cities survey of 322 cities finds that 25 percent are cutting the ranks of their police forces or plan to shortly for economic reasons." - AFL-CIO Report
"President Bush's new budget would cut by one-third the money that thousands of fire departments rely on to keep their communities safe. The nation's firefighters are outraged by the White House plan, which would take $250 million away from grants that help rural agencies buy firetrucks, protective clothing, breathing apparatus, water tanks and other equipment." - Copley News Service, 2/6/04
"The International Association of Fire Fighters and Congress wanted more federal funding for firefighters [after 9/11], which the administration opposed." - The Hill, 3/11/04
Bush Quote: 1/29/2000
“The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price.” [Source: CNN Web site]
FACT:
"After a visit with a Saudi envoy, the White House indicated that 'President Bush will not personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds” about cutting oil production.'" - Knight Ridder, 4/1/04
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
"Americans are doing the work of compassion every day -- visiting prisoners, providing shelter for battered women, bringing companionship to lonely seniors. These good works deserve our praise; they deserve our personal support; and when appropriate, they deserve the assistance of the federal government.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The 2003 Bush Budget proposed cutting $88 million out of HHS Community Service programs – most of which is a $75 million cut (24%) cut to the Community Service Community Services Block Grant Program. Bush is also requesting a $90 million (20%) cut to AmeriCorps, which includes USA Freedom Corps, and an overall $39 million cut to the Corporation for National and Community Service." - House Democrats Web site
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
"Our intelligence sources tell us that [Saddam Hussein] has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board has concluded that the White House made a questionable claim in January's State of the Union address about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain nuclear materials because of its desperation to show that Hussein had an active program to develop nuclear weapons, according to a well-placed source familiar with the board's findings." - Washington Post, 12/24/03
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
"From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evadeinspectors." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
The key defector "failed a second polygraph test and in May 2002, intelligence agencies were warned that the information was unreliable." - Telegraph, 2/19/04
"The Bush administration's prewar assertion that Saddam Hussein had a fleet of mobile labs that could produce bioweapons rested largely on information from an Iraqi defector...who was never interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers." - Washington Post, 3/5/04
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
On 7/8/03, the Washington Post reported the Administration admitted the Iraq-Nuclear allegation was false. “Revelations by officials at the CIA, the State Department, the UN, in Congress and elsewhere” made clear that the White House knew the claim was false before making the allegation (7/20/03). In fact, “CIA Director George Tenet successfully intervened with White House officials to have the reference” removed from a Bush speech in Oct. of 2002. - Washington Post, 7/13/03
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
“Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” -Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 1/27/2002
"I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." [Source: AP]
FACT:
President Bush has not been to war. Bush was a member of the Texas Air National Guards between May 1968 and October 1973 and never left the country in relation to his duties. He was discharged 8 months before his six year term expired. "During his fifth year as a guardsman, Bush's records show no sign he appeared for duty." Such a "war" - Boston Globe, 5/23/00
Bush Quote: 1/26/2000
"What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots...And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price." [Source: Debate transcript]
FACT:
With gas prices soaring in the United States at the beginning of 2004, the Miami Herald reported the president refused to "personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds." - Miami Herald, 4/1/04
Bush Quote: 1/24/2002
"I have no ambition whatsoever to use [the war on terror or 9/11] as a political issue." [Source: BBC]
FACTS:
"An internal White House document outlining President Bush's re-election agenda starts with "War on terrorism (Con't)" and homeland security." - AP, 12/29/02
"President Bush's top political adviser said today that Republicans will make the president's handling of the war on terrorism the centerpiece of their strategy to win back the Senate and keep control of the House in this year's midterm elections. 'We can go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America,' Karl Rove said at the Republican National Committee meeting." - Washington Post, 1/19/02
"Using unusually pointed language, President Bush's chief political adviser Karl Rove suggested Republicans should run on the message that they are the party who can be trusted to successfully fight the war against terrorism." - ABC News, 1/18/02
"A White House aide told [PakistaniLieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq] last spring that 'it would be best if the arrest of killing of [any] HVT [High Value Target] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July' – the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston." - The New Republic, 7/7/04
Bush Quote:
"The Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook steps to build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material." There has been no evidence of "mobile biological production efforts." Iraq "did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991." - The Kay Report, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 1/18/2003
"[The 2003 tax cut will] give 23 million small business owners an average tax cut of $2,042." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Nearly four out of every five tax filers (79%) with small business income would receive less" than the average amount the President cited, with more than half of all small business owners receiving $500 or less. - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/21/03
Bush Quote 1/17/2003
“Having been here and seeing the care that these troops get is comforting for me and Laura. We are, should and must provide the best care for anybody who is willing to put their life in harm's way.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
On the same day President Bush made this comment, "The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it is immediately cutting off access to its health care system" to 164,000 veterans. - Washington Post, 1/17/03
The Veterans of Foreign Wars issued a statement after the President introduced his 2005 budget calling the proposal "disgraceful" and saying, "the president ignored veterans in the State of the Union Address and with today's release of his 2005 budget, it is further evident that veterans are no longer a priority with this administration." VFW Commander-In-Chief Edward Banas said "the funding package is a disgrace and a sham."
With the Bush Administration chronically underfunding veterans medical care, "Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see doctors. The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditions are so substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments." - UPI, 10/17/03
Bush Quote: 1/16/2003
"For the sake of affordable and accessible health care in America, we must have a limit on what they call non-economic damages." [Source: White House Web site]
BUSH QUOTE: 1/16/2003
"For the sake of affordable and accessible health care in America, we must have a limit on what they call non-economic damages." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT: "Even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small...the evidence available to date does not make a strong case that restricting malpractice liability would have a significant effect, either positive or negative, on economic efficiency. - CBO report, 1/8/04written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind.
Bush Quote: 10/11/2000
"And so I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war." [Source: Debate transcript]
Fact:
"In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy." - President Bush, 11/6/03
That's enough. You get the picture. Do I expect everyone who visits to read all this? No. But mayhaps they'll get a clearer picture of what we're in for if George Bush gets four more years in office. Certainly don't expect his campaign promises to be anywhere near fulfilled.
©2004 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
Yes, it's amazing but Bush does lie! Frequently!
"Bush lies" is reprinted here courtesy of Eazyguy62 who did all the hard work of collecting and putting this together. It's long - but so is Bushie's nose. Thank you, Guy!!
Bush Quote:
“Iraq [is] the central front in the war on terror.” - UN speech [White House Web site]
The Facts:
Knight-Ridder reported that experts now say the "Iraq war is diverting resources from war on terror." Specifically, "a growing number of counter-terrorism experts are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al Qaeda." Republican and Democratic experts "are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al Qaeda." Similarly, the U.S. Army War College reported that the Iraq war "diverted attention and resources away from the security of the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable al Qaeda." - Knight-Ridder, 11/26/03; BBC, 1/13/04
Bush Quote:
“All governments that support terror are complicit in a war against civilization.” - UN Speech [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
The Administration continues its close ties with the Saudis despite the findings of a bipartisan commission investigating 9/11. The commission found the Saudigovernment “not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups through suspect charities and other fronts.” - LA Times, 8/2/03
Bush Quote:
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.” [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
Declassified documents “undercut Bush administration claims before the war that Hussein had links to al Qaeda.” - LA Times, 7/19/03
Bush Quote:
"[My] first goal is an economythat [will] employ every man and woman who seeks a job." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
More than 2 million jobs have been lost since President Bush took office, and he is expected to have a net record of job losses by the end of his term - the first President with such a dismal record since Herbert Hoover.
Bush Quote:
"I'm sure the numbers are beginning to look better." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
"Data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the Bush administration fell 437,000 jobs short in August, losing 93,000 jobs, instead of creating the 344,000 it had projected for each month after July 2003." - EPI, 9/5/03
Bush Quote:
“We have made clear the doctrine which says, if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist you're just as guilty as the terrorist. We're holding regimes accountable for harboring and supporting terror.” [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
"That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that 'rogue regime' for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention." - LA Times, 5/22/01
Bush Quote:
"Tax relief means new jobs for Americans." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts: Since Bush's first tax cut in June, 2001 the economy has shed 2.75 million jobs. - CBPP Bush Quote: "The United States has no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
More than three years into his tenure, Bush had spent a total of five days in Mexico and so neglected its affairs that even "Mexican President Vicente Fox...has been alienated." WP reported president's meeting with his onetime friend at a summit in Bangkok would be "their first in a year." - Washington Post, 10/17/03
Bush Quote:
"We must fix the problem of frivolous lawsuits against our doctors and hospitals." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found last year that "malpractice costs account for a very small fraction of total health care spending" and that even radical reform "would have a relatively small effect on total health plan premiums." - CBO, 9/25/02
Bush Quote:
"If there's a Medicare reform bill signed by me, corporations have no intention to what they call dump retirees into a system they don't want to be dumped into." [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
"In a move that will likely "create anxiety for many of the 12 million Medicare beneficiaries who also receive health benefits from their former employers," the Equal Employment OpportunityCommission voted yesterday to "allow employers to reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they become eligible for Medicare at age 65." - NY Times, 4/23/04
Bush Quote:
“Credibility comes when you say something is going to happen and then it does happen…You are not credible if you issue resolutions and then nothing happens.” [Source: White House Web site]
The Facts:
Bush said about his first tax cut, “Tax relief will create new jobs” and the economy proceeded to shed almost 3 million jobs. He said about his second tax cut, “tax relief means new jobs for Americans” and the economy continued to shed jobs. He said about the war in Iraq in May, “major combat operations have ended” and yet more troops have died since that statement than during the war. - George W. Bush, 4/16/01, 9/5/03, 5/1/03
Bush Quote:
“So I’ve proposed additional measures to keep the economy on the path to greater job creation…by making permanent the tax cuts that have helped our economy.” [Source: CNN Web site]
The Facts:
Since the first Bush tax cut took effect in June 2001,the U.S. economy has lost 2.75 million jobs – the unemployment rate has risen from 4.4% to 5.6%. Since the second Bush tax cut took effect in May 2003, the economy has shed 124,000 more jobs. - BLS
Bush Quote:
“The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership.” [White House Web site]
The Facts:
According to Amnesty International’s 2003 annual report, “The world has become more dangerous, and governments more repressive, since the effort to fight terrorism began after the 9/11, attacks on the United States.” For the U.S. specifically, “Since March, 353 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, including 229 in hostile fire.” - NY Times, 5/29/03; CNN, 10/28/03
Bush Quote: 9/29/2000
"[If elected], Governor Bush will work to…establish mandatory reduction targets for emissions of four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide." [Source: Bush Environmental Plan]
Fact:
"I do not believe that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide." - President Bush, 3/13/03
Bush Quote: 9/26/2002
“You can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.” - National Journal, 8/9/03
Bush Quote: 9/26/2002
“The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons…And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 9/24/2003
"We've had differences [with Germany and France] and they're over, and we're going to work together." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The Bush Administration announced it "will bar companies from France, Germany, Russia and other countries that opposed the war in Iraq from bidding on $18.6 billion in prime contracts for reconstruction of the country." - LA Times, 12/10/03
Bush Quote: 9/23/2003
"The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.” [Source: White HouseWeb site -- Speech to UN]
Facts:
"CIA interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Saddam." - NY Times, 1/15/04
"Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." - Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04
Bush Quote: 10/28/2003
"General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether or not he needs more troops... And he told me he does [have enough troops]." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
Less than two weeks later, the Bush Administration announced its decision"to dispatch thousands of Marines to Iraq as part of a revised troop rotation that will swell the size of the US occupation by up to 50,000 troops." - Boston Globe, 11/6/03
Bush Quote: 10/28/2003
“I’ve asked the American people to foot the tab for $20 billion of reconstruction…Others are stepping up as well, 13 billion out of the Madrid Conference…The Iraqi oil revenues – excess Iraqi oil revenues, coupled with private investments, should make up the difference.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The World Bank and the UN estimate that $56 billion over four years is necessary to rebuild Iraq – leaving the total pledged by the U.S. and others (counting loans) $23 billion dollars short of what is required. The top civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, told Congress in September that “for thenext two years, whatever revenue was reaped from oil production would not exceed the cost of Iraq's day-to-day operating expenses.” In 2005 he estimated “a surplus of only $4 million to $5 million.” - LA Times, 10/26/03; NY Times, 10/5/03
Bush Quote: 10/27/2003
"A free and secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
According to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, "Majorities in seven of the eight foreign countries said the war in Iraq hurt or had no effect on the war on terrorism, and only in the United States did a majority believe that the ouster of Saddam Hussein will make the Middle East more democratic." - WP, 3/17/04
Bush Quote: 10/22/2003
“You've got to have some patience in foreign policy.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq.” - CBS, 9/4/02
Bush Quote: 10/22/2003
"I made it clear that a [diplomatic] process had gone on way before I made the decision to use military force.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
According to Bush’s State Department Director of Policy and Planning Richard Haas, the decision to go to war had been made by July of 2002 – 8 months before the invasion. When asked whether there was a particular moment when he realized war in Iraq was definite, Haas said, “The moment was the first week of July (2002), when I had a meeting with Condi…She said, essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath.” - New Yorker, 3/31/03
Time reported in May (2002) that in late March of 2002 Vice President Dick Cheney told Senators “The question was no longer if the U.S. would attack Iraq...The only question was when." - Time, 5/6/02
Bush Quote: 10/18/2002
On October 18, 2002, our Nation marks the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act and begins the Observance of the Year of Clean Water. This landmark environmental legislation has been central to the important progress we have made as a Nation in improving the quality of our drinking water and the health of our waters, wetlands, and watersheds." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
Under Bush's new budget, funding for clean water infrastructure would drop from $2.6 billion to $1.8 billion. The programs slated for reductions include "sewage treatment plants, water purification facilities, and targeted pollution-prevention investments." - Joint Budget Analysis by Environmental Groups, 2/4/04
Bush Quote: 10/17/2003
"If this were a spending contest, I would come in second. I readily admit I'm not going to grow the size of the federal government like [Gore] is." [Source: Debate transcript]
Facts:
"The numbers are astonishing. Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor. And I've never known a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination that this Congress has." - John McCain (R-AZ), Fox News, 11/30/03
"Conservative Republican frustration over the failure of the Bush administration and the House Republican leadership to restrain federal spending has boiled over in recent days, producing a rare confrontation between GOP lawmakers and party leaders." - The Hill, 12/3/03
Bush Quote: 10/17/2003
"Your question was deployment. It must be in the national interests, must be in our vital interests whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we're going." [Source: Debate transcript]
Fact:
“The U.S. military is overstretched by deployments in Iraq and elsewhere, forcing the Pentagon to keep thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform long beyond their release dates with potentially dangerous effects on morale, experts say.” - Reuters, 1/9/04
Bush Quote: 10/17/2003
"The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
According to testimony from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 10/16/03 the Bush Administration had deployed 1 soldier for every 189 people in Iraq, and 1 soldier for every 1,913 people in Afghanistan. Both were dramatically worse ratios than Kosovo (1 per 48), Bosnia (1 per 58) and East Timor (1 per 86)--the deployments of the Clinton years which Bush maligned during his campaign.
Bush Quote: 10/17/2000
"If I'm the president . . . people will be able to take their HMO insurance company to court. That's what I've done in Texas and that's the kind of leadership style I'll bring to Washington." [Source: Debate transcript, reprinted in Washington Post]
Fact:
"Today, legislation for a federal patients' bill of rights is moribund in Congress. And the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in 2000." - Washington Post, 4/5/04
Bush Quote: 10/16/2003
"I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to future Presidents or future generations." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to other Presidents and other generations.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“Last month this economy exceeded expectations and added net new jobs.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The White House Council of Economic Advisors set expectations when President Bush proposed his economic stimulus package. The council said his economic policies would create 344,000 new jobs per month – not the paltry 57,000 jobs that were created. All told, Bush has overseen the loss of almost 3 million jobs – the worst record since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. - Economic Policy Institute
Bush Quote:
“I proposed and signed these [tax] measures to help individuals and help families.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
The most recent CBS News/New York Times poll shows that “despite three tax cuts in as many years, only 19 percent [of Americans surveyed] said Bush's policies made their taxes go down. Forty-seven percent noticed no effect, while 29 percent perceived that their taxes have gone up.” - Washington Post, 10/7/03
“Almost half of all American taxpayers will get less than $100 this year and next from President Bush’s most recent tax plan. In 2005, three-quarters of taxpayers will get less than $100, and in 2006 and later years almost nine out of ten will get less than $100.” - Citizens for Tax Justice, 5/30/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“I twice led the Congress to pass historic tax relief for the American people. We wanted tax relief to be as broad and as fair as possible, so we reduced taxes on everyone who pays taxes.” [Source: White House Web site]
Facts:
"A new AP poll finds that almost half of all Americans 'said their overall tax burden — including federal, state and local taxes — had gone up over the past threeyears' - almost four times the 13% who said their overall taxes had gone down." - AP, 4/13/04
“One million children living in military and veteran families are being denied child tax credit help” in President Bush's tax cut. “More than 260,000 of these children have parents on active military duty.” - Children's Defense Fund, 6/6/03
Bush Quote: 10/09/2003
"It's a lot better than you probably think. Just ask people who have been there. They're stunned when they come back -- when they go to Iraq and the stories they tell are much different from the perceptions that you're being told life is like." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
"After I came back from Iraq, I thought things were not as good as the administration was painting.” - John McCain (R-AZ), NYT, 10/24/03
Bush Quote:
“Your lives can be changed in a moment with the sudden call to duty. I want to thank you for your willingness to heed that important call, and I want to thank your families. I want to thank your sons, daughters, husbands and wives who share in your sacrifice, who are willing to sacrifice for our country and who stand behind you.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
Less than 2 weeks after the President made these comments, “the Bush administration announced its formal opposition to a proposal to give National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon's health-insurance system, jeopardizing the plan's future and angering supporters. A recent General Accounting Office report estimated that one of every five Guard members has no health insurance.” - Gannett News Service, 10/23/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2003
“Any time we put our troops into harm's way, you must have the best training, the best equipment, the best possible pay.” [Source: White House Web site]
Facts:
“The administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.” - Army Times, 6/30/03
“When Bush taunted gunmen in Iraq, many GIs must have nervously tugged at their obsolete flak jackets. For many GIs, Iraq appears to be a strictly BYOB war -- Bring Your Own Bulletproofs. The shortages [of protective gear] come down to money and priorities. Gen. Richard B. Myers confirmed last week that it would be December before there were enough plates for all of our people in Iraq.” - Op-Ed, Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 10/5/03
Bush Quote:10/9/2001
"And therefore, I felt it was important to send a clear signal to Congress that classified information must be held dear, that there's a responsibility that if you receive a briefing of classified information, you have a responsibility." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
White House aides said "President Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer who is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, one of the most visible critics of Bush's handling of intelligence about Iraq." - Washington Post, 9/28/03
"White House officials left open the possibility that the they might assert executive privilege on some materials or withhold all or parts of others to block a full investigation of the leak of classified information." - NY Times, 10/8/03
Bush Quote: 10/9/2001
"We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's interest." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Bob Woodward said President Bush gave two reporters 90 minutes, often speaking candidly about classified information." - Providence Journal, 4/10/02
Bush Quote: 10/7/2002
“The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
"The International Atomic Energy Agency's report that Iraq has not resumed its nuclear program has challenged one of the Bush administration's main arguments for taking military action to topple the Iraqi government." - NY Times, 1/28/03
Bush Quote: 10/7/2002
"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical and biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
According to The Washington Post, Robert Boyd, the U.S. Air Force's senior intelligence analyst, has concluded that evidence uncovered in Iraq confirms the Air Force's prewar assessment that Iraq had been developing unmanned aerial vehicles (or drones) to fly reconnaissance missions, not to deliver WMDs. - Washington Post, 9/27/03
Bush Quote: 10/7/2002
"If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait?" [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
Bush didn't care whether or not Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. When Diane Sawyer tried to make a distinction between stating as a "hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons," Bush snapped back "so what's the difference?" - ABC,12/16/03
Bush Quote 1: 10/7/2002
"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - the smoking gun - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." [Source: White House Web site]
Bush Quote 2:
"Many people have asked how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear weapon. Well, we don't know exactly, and that's the problem." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans." - British Intelligence Agent, Sunday herald, 6/1/03
Bush Quote: 10/3/2003
“The [Kay] report states Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/02
Bush Quote: 10/3/2000
"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road." [Source: Debate transcript]
FACT:
"Nation-building has become a defining feature of the Bush Administration's foreign policy." - Boston Globe, 3/2/04
Bush Quote: 10/3/2000
"It's time for a new administration to deal with the energy problem." [Source: Debate transcript]
FACT:
"Nationwide, the average cost of gasoline rose 7.6 cents to $2.017 a gallon — the first time pump prices have averaged more than $2 a gallon nationwide." - LA Times, 5/18/04
Bush Quote: 11/27/2002
"We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th." [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11.” - CBS News, 5/23/02
“Despite mounting evidence that most of the nation's intelligence sleuths were clueless before the attacks, [President Bush] opposes outside scrutiny - a stance that puts him at odds with most Senate Democrats and some key Republican lawmakers.” - Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/2/02
The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, rebuffed once previously, asked again yesterday to interview the CIA analyst who wrote the Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing given to President Bush on al Qaeda's threat to the United States...The commission wants to interview the author of the article in the now-famous President's Daily Brief to determine her purpose in assembling the document and how much information she sought in doing so....The Bush administration in the past refused to allow the panel to interview CIA analysts responsible for assembling the briefs." - Washington Post, 4/13/04
Bush Quote: 11/24/2003
"Our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Nearly two years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, remnants of the Islamic extremist group are regrouping and attacking U.S. troops." - LA Times, 11/12/03
Bush Quote: 11/19/2003
"The tradition of free speech exercised with enthusiasm is alive and well here in London. We have that at home too. They now have that right in Baghdad as well." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"As criticism of his authority appeared in Iraqi media...Bremer placed controls on [Iraqi Media Network] content and clamped down on the independent media in Iraq , closing down some Iraqi-run newspapers and radio and television stations." - American Prospect, 10/1/03
Bush Quote: 11/19/1999
"Never again should an American president spend nine days in China, and not even bother to stop in Tokyo or Seoul." [Source: DOS Web site]
FACT:
"The glaring omission in President George Bush's journey to Asia is a stop in South Korea, which speaks volumes to the sorry state into which relations between Washington and Seoul have plunged." - Jakarta Post, 10/19/03
Bush Quote: 11/13/2003
"The budget I submitted earlier this year commits an additional $400 billion over 10 years to implement this vision of a stronger Medicare system. This is enough to meet our commitments to the seniors today and to future generations of Americans." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan...When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that...Bush administration officials insisted they acted legally in ordering the nation's top Medicare cost analyst to keep from lawmakers his estimate that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit might cost more than $100 billion [than what the White House promised]." - Knight Ridder, 3/11/04 and 4/2/04
Bush Quote: 11/13/2003
"What we're trying to do is to change the tone in Washington, D.C. We're trying to get rid of all the needless politics and focus on the people's business, focus on results, and not the ugly process that sometimes takes on. We're making good progress. We really are." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
" George Bush has cleaved the nation into two tenaciously opposed camps even more than his predecessors." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Bush Quote: 11/7/2003
"The economy's growing, new jobs are being created. There's an opportunity, and I hope you seize it. There's a wonderful, wonderful future ahead for people who at this moment think the future is a little dark." [Source: Bush/Cheney '04 Web site]
FACT:
Since President Bush's first tax cut in March 2001, the economy has shed more than 2 million jobs. He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to end his term with a net job loss record. Additionally, the White House Counsel of Economic Advisors pledged that the President's "jobs and growth" package would create 1,836,000 new jobs by the end of 2003 as part of its pledge to create 5.5 million new jobs by 2004. But the economy added 221,000 jobs since the last tax cut went into effect, meaning that as the President appeared on Meet The Press, the White House had fallen 1,615,000 jobs short of their mark. - EPI, 2/4/03; Jobwatch.org
Bush Quote: 11/6/2003
"With the steady leadership of President Karzai, the people of Afghanistan are building a modern and peaceful government." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"[S]ecurity in large areas of Afghanistan has so deteriorated that U.S. and U.N. officials fear that plans to hold presidential elections in June may be in jeopardy." The security situation threatens to undermine the goals of the 2001 Bonn agreement which placed the U.N. in charge of supervising Afghanistan's transition to a constitutional democracy. - LA Times, 1
Bush Quote: 11/6/2003
“For too long, many people in (the Middle East) have been victims and subjects – they deserve to be active citizens.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
Yielding to protests from the repressivedictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04
At the time of the President's speech about Democracy in the Middle East, the Iraqi population had virtually no say in how their country was run. According to the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, two-thirds of the Governing Council – which was handpicked by the United States – no longer regularly attended meetings. According to members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the Coalition Authority refused to disclose how it was spending both Iraqi and American funds. Secrecy also surrounded the process of awarding contracts, and the Pentagon was running the Iraqi Media Network.
Bush Quote: 11/6/2003
“As we watch and encourage reforms in the region, we are mindful that modernization is not the same as Westernization. Representative governments in the Middle East will reflect their own cultures. They will not, and should not, looks like us.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
Yielding to protests from the repressive dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04
“The Coalition Provisional Authority continues to make a fundamental mistake in the way it interacts with the Iraqi people. The CPA seems to think that all wisdom is made in America.” - John McCain (D-AZ), Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, 11/5/03
Bush Quote: 5/29/2003
“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort…Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 10/11/2002
"We're helping Afghanistan to claim its democratic future, and we're helping that nation to establish public order and safety...We will stay the course to help that country develop " [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
"This effort may fail. It will not fail because of a lack of desire, a lack of commitment by millions of Afghans, or a lack of bravery....Instead, it may fail because the administration has been unwilling to recognize the magnitude of the threats which we face and to direct sufficient political, military and financial resources to overcome them." - Testimony by Mark L. Schneider, Sr. Vice President, International Crisis Group, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on “Afghanistan – Continuing Challenges,” 5/12/04
Bush Quote: 11/2/2003
"The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.” [Source: CBS Web site]
FACT:
“White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that a White House advance staffer embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…The staffer and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the 'Mission Accomplished' banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” - NY Times, 5/16/03
Bush Quote: 5/24/2004
"Our coalition has a clear goal, understood by all -- to see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations." [Source: White House Web site]
"We will hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government." - Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The Bush administration's plans for a new caretaker government in Iraq would place severe limits on its sovereignty, including only partial command over its armed forces and no authority to enact new laws, according to administration officials." - IHT, 4/24/04
Bush Quote: 10/11/2000
"There's been too much finger pointingand too much name calling in Washington, D.C. I would like to unite this country to get an agenda done that will speak to the hopes and aspirations of the future." [Source: Debate transcript]
Fact:
"Bush's approach to leadership has invited Americans to take sides." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Bush Quote: 5/24/2004
"That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values."
FACTS:
"President Bush, along with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, signed off on a secret system of detention and interrogation that opened the door to such methods" of abuse that have been widespread in Iraq. - Newsweek, 5/24/04
"A Pentagon report set the framework for the use of torture" in Iraq. "A military lawyer who helped prepare the report said that political appointees heading the working group sought to assign to the president virtually unlimited authority on matters of torture." - WSJ, 6/7/04
Bush Quote: 5/17/2002
"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people." [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“White House officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes.” - ABC, 3/16/02
"A Congressional inquiry into intelligence activities before Sept. 11 found 12 reports over a seven-year period suggesting that terrorists might use airplanes as weapons." - NY Times, 4/4/04
Bush Quote: 5/11/2004
"Some say the No Child Left Behind Act doesn't provide enough money to meet our goals... People say, well, it's an unfunded mandate to put accountability systems in place. No, the accountability systems are largely funded by the federal government." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"This year alone, the Bush administration shortchanges American schools $9.4 billion under No Child Left Behind." - NY Times, 3/14/04
Bush Quote: 5/10/2004
“Our troops continue to face serious danger, and this government is giving them every means of protecting themselves and every means necessary to gain victory.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
“Many soldiers who are there say the Pentagon is failing to protect them with the best technology America has to offer…That has translated into a lack of armor… A breakdown of the casualty figures suggests that many U.S. deaths and wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur. According to an unofficial study by a defense consultant that is now circulating through the Army, there have been 142 casualties by land mines or improvised explosive devices, while 48 others died in rocket-propelled-grenade attacks. Almost all those soldiers were killed while in unprotected vehicles, which means that perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had stronger armor around them, the study suggested.” - Newsweek, 5/3/04
“The military already has identified unmet funding needs, including initiatives aimed at providing equipment and weapons for troops in Iraq. The Army has publicly identified nearly $6 billion in funding requests that did not make Bush's $402 billion defense budget for 2005, including $132 million for bolt-on vehicle armor; $879 million for combat helmets, silk-weight underwear, boots and other clothing; $21.5 million for M249 squad automatic weapons; and $27 million for ammunition magazines, night sights and ammo packs. Also unfunded: $956 million for repairing desert-damaged equipment and $102 million to replace equipment lost in combat. The Marine Corps' unfunded budget requests include $40 million for body armor, lightweight helmets and other equipment.” - Washington Post, 4/21/04
Bush Quote: 5/2/2000
"[It is] going to be up for cities and states to make those decisions [about gay marriage]." [Source: CNN Web site]
FACT:
"President Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage." - Sacramento Bee, 2/25/04
Bush Quote: 5/1/2004
"And by the way, the reports from Afghanistan, at least the ones I get, are very encouraging. You know, we've got -- people who have been there last yearand have been back this year report a different attitude. And they report people have got a sparkle in their eye." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The overlookedwar continues with noend in sight. Narcotics trafficking is at an all-time high. If U.S. forces were to leave, the Taliban -- or something like it -- would regain power. The U.S. is lost in Afghanistan, bound to this wild country and unable to leave...The situation in Afghanistan, as laid outto me, looks nothing like a country alleged to be progressing toward representative democracy under American tutelage." - Robert Novak, 5/31/04
Bush Quote: 5/1/2003
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"More U.S. soldiers have died in combat in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, than died during main phase of the war, the U.S. military said on Tuesday." - Knight Ridder, 10/28/03 Bush Quote: 5/1/2003
"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT: "The occupation of Iraq has helped al-Qaeda recruit more members, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies." - BBC, 5/25/04
Bush Quote: 3/30/2004
"We don't need to be raising the federal gas tax. Gas taxes would hurt the economy. There are some -- there are some in the other party in Washington who would like to raise gas taxes. I think it would be wrong. I think it would be damaging to the economy, not positive to the economy." [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States." - Dick Cheney, 1986
"Gasoline taxes, by contrast, actually improve incentives in various ways. If you have ever been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you have probably wished there were fewer cars on the road. A gasoline tax would help to accomplish this by encouraging people to car-pool, take public transportation, or live closer to work." - Dr. N. Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (Appointed by Bush), 5/24/99
Bush Quote: 3/27/2001
"Tax relief is central to my plan to encourage economic growth and we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
The $5.6 trillion ten-year surplus projected in January 2001, as Bush took office, is gone, supplanted with at least $5.2 trillion in deficits over the next ten years -- a fiscal decline of $10.8 trillion in just three years. - CBPP, 10/28/03
Bush Quote: 3/20/2004
"We will not fail the Iraqi people, who have placed their trust in us. Whatever it takes, we will fight and work to assure the success of freedom in Iraq." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Is it possible it won't work? Yes." - Donald Rumsfeld, on the possibility of failure in Iraq, 5/12/04
Bush Quote: 3/17/2004
"When you hear people say, we cut individual income taxes, or tax on the rich, really what you ought to put in your mind is these were taxes to help the entrepreneurial class of America. Small businesses benefit." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
Only 3.7% of small businesses are affected by the top tax rate cuts that made up the bulk of the President's income tax cuts. Most small business owners "would be far more likely to receive no tax reduction whatsoever from the Administration's tax package than to benefit." - CBPP, 5/3/01
Bush Quote: 3/17/2000
"What is even more important is the duty of public officials to obey the existing laws, and I'm afraid your own record does not inspire confidence." [Source: AP transcript]
FACT:
The President and Vice President have both retained lawyers and have been questioned in a criminal investigation into whether administration officials were involved in “what could be a violation of federal law” when they deliberately leaked the name of a covert CIA operative. - CBS News, 6/24/04; NY Times 9/29/03
Bush Quote: 3/16/2004
"This year we're goingto put out a drug discount card for our seniors that will save between 10 to 20 percent off their drugs, which is positive." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The analysis finds that the prices available with the new Medicare discount drug cards are far higher than the prices available in Canada and the prices negotiated by the federal government on the Federal Supply Schedule, and are no lower than the prices currently available to individuals who do not have the cards." - Minority House Report, April, 2004
Bush Quote: 3/16/2004
"Inherent in the health savings accounts are savings, savings for employers, savings for employees. In other words, one way to deal with the cost of health care is to push for health savings accounts."
FACT:
"Sharply higher health insurance deductibles may hit workers in the next two years as employers embrace newly created tax-free Health Savings Accounts." - USA Today, 4/26/04
Bush Quote: 3/11/2004
"Over a million jobs were lost because of the [9/11] attack." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"White House officials were unable to point to any specific information that supports a direct link between massive job losses and the attacks." While one White House spokeswoman claimed that the President's statements were "supported by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)," that agency's associate commissioner "said BLS has not compiled any specific study on jobs which were lost specifically because of the Sept. 11 attacks." - Bureau of National Affairs, 3/22/04
Bush Quote: 3/7/2002
"America is ushering in a responsibility era...and this new culture must include a renewed sense of corporate responsibility. If you lead a corporation, you have a responsibility to serve your shareholders, to be honest with your employees." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
After Enron and other corporate scandals rose corporate governance to the forefront of the national policy debate "O'Neill and Greenspan devised a plan to make CEOs accountable." But, O'Neill reports, "Bush went with a more modest plan because 'the corporate crowd' complained loudly and Bush could not buck that constituency." - Time Magazine, 1/11/04
Bush Quote: 3/6/2003
"No matter what the whip count is, we're calling for [a U.N.] vote. We want to see people stand up and say what their opinion is about Saddam Hussein and the utility of the United Nations Security Council. And so, you bet. It's time for people to show their cards, to let the world know where they stand when it comes to Saddam." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"At a National Security Council meeting convened at the White House at 8:55 a.m., Bush finalized the decision to withdraw the resolution from consideration and prepared to deliver an address to the nation that had already been written." - Washington Post, 3/18/03
Bush Quote: 3/6/2003
"No matter what the whip count is, we're calling for the vote. We want to see people stand up and say what their opinion is about Saddam Hussein and the utility of the United Nations Security Council." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"On March 17, 2003, with a possible resolution waiting in the wings, Bush announced he would not call for a vote, saying, 'The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours.'" - Slate, 9/23/03
Bush Quote: 3/6/2003
"I've not made up our mind about military action. Hopefully, this can be done peacefully. Hopefully, that as a result of the pressure that we have placed -- and others have placed -- that Saddam will disarm and/or leave the country." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The inspections are not getting us there, the president said, getting down to business. The U.N. inspectors were just sort of stumbling around, and Hussein was showing no intention of real compliance. 'I really think I'm going to have to do this.' The president said he had made up his mind on war. The United States should go to war." - 1/13/04, from Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward, reprinted in Washington Post, 4/18/04
Bush Quote: 6/18/2004
"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." [Source: Washington Post, 6/18/04]
FACTS:
“The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no ‘collaborative relationship’ between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq.” - Washington Post, 6/17/04
"We simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all." - Bush Weapons Inspector David Kay, Boston Globe, 6/16/04
Bush Quote: 6/17/2004
"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"Bush and Cheney also have sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003 — the day the war in Iraq began — Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who 'planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.'" - USA Today, 6/16/04
"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001." - President Bush, 5/1/03
“[Iraq is] the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.” - Vice President Dick Cheney, 9/14/03
Bush Quote: 6/16/2003
"So when you hear the -- hear me talk about reducing individual tax rates, the American people have got to understand, that means capital infusion into the small businesses of America." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2005 would severely cut loans to small businesses and reduce funding to the Small Business Administration by over 10 percent." - Washington Times, 2/3/04
Bush Quote: 6/14/2004
"You can go to http://www.medicare.gov/. It's not all that hard. And there will be all kinds of information available to you." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"In Rep. Slaughter's district, the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee…surveyed ten independent pharmacies. Information on the Medicare.gov web site was inaccurate for every single pharmacy." - Letter from Government Reform Minority Office, 7/6/04
Bush Quote: 10/11/2001
"I think we should learn a lesson from the previous engagement in the Afghan area that we should not just simply leave after a military objective has been achieved." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
"Insecurity caused by terrorist activities, factional fights and drug related crime remain the major concern of Afghans today...Attacks against non-governmental organizations is contributing to the slowing of reconstruction...Individuals and communities suffer from abuses of their basic rights by local commanders and factional leaders...[There are] terrorist attacks from suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda." - U.N. Report, 11/11/03
Bush Quote: 6/13/2000:
"Something will happen when I'm president. As soon as I take office I will begin the process of moving the U.S. ambassador to the city Israel has chosen as its capital." [Source: NJDC Web site]
FACT:
"Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 7(a) of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-45) (the 'Act'), I hereby determine that it is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States to suspend for a period of six months the limitations set forth in sections 3(b) and 7(b) of the Act." - President Bush memorandum delaying congressionally mandated relocation of US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, 6/11/01
Bush Quote: 6/2/2004
"We are using all elements of our national power to deny terrorists the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"In his fiscal year 2005 budget request to Congress, Bush did not substantially increase funding for [nonproliferation] programs and actually proposed cuts to the Department of Defense component" of a program to safeguard or destroy nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons abroad. - Arms Control Association, 3/04
Bush Quote: 6/1/2004
"I can continue calling upon Congress to pass the energy bill and to make sure the American consumers are being treated fairly. What you're seeing at the gas pumps is something I've been warning for two years, and that is that we're hooked on foreign sources of energy and that if we don't become less dependent on foreign sources of energy we will find higher prices at our gas pumps. It's precisely what happened." [Source: Fox News Web site]
FACT:
"The Bush plan…would have no impact on energy prices, and no practical effect on U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil. Who would benefit? The oil, coal and nuclear industries that shoveled millions of dollars into Bush campaign coffers." - NRDC, 5/17/01
Bush Quote: 6/1/2004
"Had we drilled in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) back in the mid-'90s, we'd be producing an additional million barrels a day, which would be taking enormous pressure off the American consumer." [Source: Fox News Web site]
FACT:
"The U.S. Geological Service says the amount that could be recovered economically -- that is, the amount likely to be profitably extracted and sold -- is roughly 3.2 billion barrels, or only a six-month U.S. supply." - NRDC
Bush Quote: 6/1/2004
"I haven't had any extensive conversations with [Chalabi]...I don't remember anybody walking into my office saying, Chalabi says this is the way it's going to be in Iraq." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment." - President Bush, Meet the Press, 2/13/04
Bush Quote: 6/1/2003
"Here's what -- we've discovered a weapons system, biological labs, that Iraq denied she had, and labs that were prohibited under the U.N. resolutions." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort. Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 7/14/2003
"And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"UN weapons inspectors worked in Iraq from November 27, 2002 until March 18, 2003. During that time, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC) conducted more than 900 inspections at more than 500 sites. The inspectors did not find that Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons or that it had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program." - Arms Control Association Web site
Bush Quote: 1/29/2002
"Our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short term….” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"The federal deficit will hit a record $477 billion this year and get worse if lawmakers cut taxes or increase spending, the Congressional Budget Office projected Monday." - CNN, 1/26/04
"The idea that this is manageable or that we are going to grow our way out of the problem is just flat false." - U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, LA Times, 10/7/03
"The U.S. government's budget deficit came under fire on Wednesday from two global institutions (OECD and the IMF) saying a plan to halve the record gap by 2009 may not be enough to stop long-term damage to the world economy." - Reuters, 4/14/04
Bush Quote: 1/29/2002
“When America works, America prospers, so my economic security plan can be summed up in one word: Jobs.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
The economy has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs since January 2001, giving Bush the worst job creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover. Currently, "job growth remains well below par." - AP, 2/11/04; NY Times, 2/22/04
Bush Quote: 1/29/2002
“We’ll increase funding to help states and communities train and equip our heroic police and firefighters….” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
"With deficit-stricken states unable to assist municipalities with homeland defense, many large police and fire departments say they have been forced to postpone the purchase of protective suits, biochemical detectors and communications equipment that would be used to respond to a terrorist attack. And a recent National League of Cities survey of 322 cities finds that 25 percent are cutting the ranks of their police forces or plan to shortly for economic reasons." - AFL-CIO Report
"President Bush's new budget would cut by one-third the money that thousands of fire departments rely on to keep their communities safe. The nation's firefighters are outraged by the White House plan, which would take $250 million away from grants that help rural agencies buy firetrucks, protective clothing, breathing apparatus, water tanks and other equipment." - Copley News Service, 2/6/04
"The International Association of Fire Fighters and Congress wanted more federal funding for firefighters [after 9/11], which the administration opposed." - The Hill, 3/11/04
Bush Quote: 1/29/2000
“The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price.” [Source: CNN Web site]
FACT:
"After a visit with a Saudi envoy, the White House indicated that 'President Bush will not personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds” about cutting oil production.'" - Knight Ridder, 4/1/04
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
"Americans are doing the work of compassion every day -- visiting prisoners, providing shelter for battered women, bringing companionship to lonely seniors. These good works deserve our praise; they deserve our personal support; and when appropriate, they deserve the assistance of the federal government.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The 2003 Bush Budget proposed cutting $88 million out of HHS Community Service programs – most of which is a $75 million cut (24%) cut to the Community Service Community Services Block Grant Program. Bush is also requesting a $90 million (20%) cut to AmeriCorps, which includes USA Freedom Corps, and an overall $39 million cut to the Corporation for National and Community Service." - House Democrats Web site
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
"Our intelligence sources tell us that [Saddam Hussein] has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board has concluded that the White House made a questionable claim in January's State of the Union address about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain nuclear materials because of its desperation to show that Hussein had an active program to develop nuclear weapons, according to a well-placed source familiar with the board's findings." - Washington Post, 12/24/03
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
"From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evadeinspectors." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
The key defector "failed a second polygraph test and in May 2002, intelligence agencies were warned that the information was unreliable." - Telegraph, 2/19/04
"The Bush administration's prewar assertion that Saddam Hussein had a fleet of mobile labs that could produce bioweapons rested largely on information from an Iraqi defector...who was never interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers." - Washington Post, 3/5/04
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
On 7/8/03, the Washington Post reported the Administration admitted the Iraq-Nuclear allegation was false. “Revelations by officials at the CIA, the State Department, the UN, in Congress and elsewhere” made clear that the White House knew the claim was false before making the allegation (7/20/03). In fact, “CIA Director George Tenet successfully intervened with White House officials to have the reference” removed from a Bush speech in Oct. of 2002. - Washington Post, 7/13/03
Bush Quote: 1/28/2003
“Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” -Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 1/27/2002
"I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." [Source: AP]
FACT:
President Bush has not been to war. Bush was a member of the Texas Air National Guards between May 1968 and October 1973 and never left the country in relation to his duties. He was discharged 8 months before his six year term expired. "During his fifth year as a guardsman, Bush's records show no sign he appeared for duty." Such a "war" - Boston Globe, 5/23/00
Bush Quote: 1/26/2000
"What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots...And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price." [Source: Debate transcript]
FACT:
With gas prices soaring in the United States at the beginning of 2004, the Miami Herald reported the president refused to "personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds." - Miami Herald, 4/1/04
Bush Quote: 1/24/2002
"I have no ambition whatsoever to use [the war on terror or 9/11] as a political issue." [Source: BBC]
FACTS:
"An internal White House document outlining President Bush's re-election agenda starts with "War on terrorism (Con't)" and homeland security." - AP, 12/29/02
"President Bush's top political adviser said today that Republicans will make the president's handling of the war on terrorism the centerpiece of their strategy to win back the Senate and keep control of the House in this year's midterm elections. 'We can go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America,' Karl Rove said at the Republican National Committee meeting." - Washington Post, 1/19/02
"Using unusually pointed language, President Bush's chief political adviser Karl Rove suggested Republicans should run on the message that they are the party who can be trusted to successfully fight the war against terrorism." - ABC News, 1/18/02
"A White House aide told [PakistaniLieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq] last spring that 'it would be best if the arrest of killing of [any] HVT [High Value Target] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July' – the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston." - The New Republic, 7/7/04
Bush Quote:
"The Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook steps to build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material." There has been no evidence of "mobile biological production efforts." Iraq "did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991." - The Kay Report, 10/2/03
Bush Quote: 1/18/2003
"[The 2003 tax cut will] give 23 million small business owners an average tax cut of $2,042." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT:
"Nearly four out of every five tax filers (79%) with small business income would receive less" than the average amount the President cited, with more than half of all small business owners receiving $500 or less. - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/21/03
Bush Quote 1/17/2003
“Having been here and seeing the care that these troops get is comforting for me and Laura. We are, should and must provide the best care for anybody who is willing to put their life in harm's way.” [Source: White House Web site]
FACTS:
On the same day President Bush made this comment, "The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it is immediately cutting off access to its health care system" to 164,000 veterans. - Washington Post, 1/17/03
The Veterans of Foreign Wars issued a statement after the President introduced his 2005 budget calling the proposal "disgraceful" and saying, "the president ignored veterans in the State of the Union Address and with today's release of his 2005 budget, it is further evident that veterans are no longer a priority with this administration." VFW Commander-In-Chief Edward Banas said "the funding package is a disgrace and a sham."
With the Bush Administration chronically underfunding veterans medical care, "Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see doctors. The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditions are so substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments." - UPI, 10/17/03
Bush Quote: 1/16/2003
"For the sake of affordable and accessible health care in America, we must have a limit on what they call non-economic damages." [Source: White House Web site]
BUSH QUOTE: 1/16/2003
"For the sake of affordable and accessible health care in America, we must have a limit on what they call non-economic damages." [Source: White House Web site]
FACT: "Even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small...the evidence available to date does not make a strong case that restricting malpractice liability would have a significant effect, either positive or negative, on economic efficiency. - CBO report, 1/8/04written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind.
Bush Quote: 10/11/2000
"And so I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war." [Source: Debate transcript]
Fact:
"In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy." - President Bush, 11/6/03
That's enough. You get the picture. Do I expect everyone who visits to read all this? No. But mayhaps they'll get a clearer picture of what we're in for if George Bush gets four more years in office. Certainly don't expect his campaign promises to be anywhere near fulfilled.
©2004 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
Comments:
Post a Comment
.
![[ Registered ]](http://www.ardeon.org/happy/journals/button.jpg)
