Bob Zimmerman
17. Bush and Cheney are Pursuing a Policy
Sat Feb 7 12:02:51 2004
64.140.158.10

17. Bush and Cheney are Pursuing a Policy of Economic
Class Warfare in America:
Bush, Cheney and their giant corporate campaign contributors are
aggressively pursuing economic policies that are nothing but blatant
economic class warfare. Bush trade practices are driving Americans
out of jobs and manufacturing companies out of business, and giving
large trade advantages to China and other countries.
- New York Times, August 18, 2003.
Under Bush and Cheney:
-well over one million people have been added to the poverty rolls;
-well over three million people have lost their jobs;
-over $2 trillion has been hijacked from Social Security;
-those who are already wealthy received over $2 trillion in tax
giveaways;
-social programs for the needy have been slashed;
-the fifty states have been pressured to slash vital programs;
-well over one million people have lost their health insurance;
-about 45 million people are without access to necessary health
care;
-more bankruptcies have been filed than under any other president;
-wage rates, overtime pay, and employment benefits for low and
middle income
earners are under increasing downward pressure and are being
slashed;
-job growth in America is the slowest in 50 years.
Recently, IBM announced it will export 5,000 high paying jobs to
India and China and Kodak is eliminating 15,000 jobs. By the end of
2003, 10% of U.S.-based computer services jobs and 5% of all
technology jobs will be exported to cheap labor markets overseas. If
this trend continues, by 2010 well over 50% of America’s high tech
jobs will have vanished, and America will have completed its
transformation from an advanced to a Third World economy.- Wall
Street Journal, December 15, 2003.
Why is Bush trying so hard to destroy American jobs, American
wage rates, the social safety net, unions, and the American middle
class? Americans must realize that economic globalization is
nothing but a code phrase for the further enrichment of the
already wealthy at the expense of American workers and retirees.
America needs a strategic plan for wage and job growth and that
plan should contain ways and means for withdrawing from
NAFTA and the WTO. In his 2004 State of the Union address
Bush touts a $500 million jobs creation program but fails to
mention he has just cut $700 ! million from the very programs he
is touting. Say one thing, do the opposite, a Bush hallmark.

18. Bush has Looted the U.S. Treasury to Enrich His
Wealthy Friends:
Bush looted the U.S. Treasury to the tune of $3 trillion to provide
political payoffs to wealthy neocon special interest groups.
Meanwhile, his political operatives are straight-arming these same
special interest groups to raise $200-$400 million for his 2004
campaign. Bush publicly describes his looting of the U.S. Treasury
as a tax cut for all Americans. In private he said, “Haven’t we
already given money to rich people?”
- Quote from transcript of Economic Team meeting minutes obtained by
former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.
Why has it taken so long for the American people to say enough is
enough? When will Americans rise up and demand an end to the
blatant political bribery (huge campaign contributions) that fund
Bush and his fellow neocons?

19. Bush Tax Refunds are an Ugly Scam on Working
Families:
Actually, the zero to $200 in tax relief that many middle-income
earners did receive was more than offset by Bush-forced increases in
local property and state taxes, tuition hikes, and increased energy
costs. For example, under Bush property taxes have skyrocketed
more than 27% in Dallas, 25% in Houston, and 18% in New York
City. Meanwhile, the average millionaire (mostly Bush campaign
contributors) received political payoffs (called tax cuts) averaging
over $90,000 and many millions of impoverished and working-poor
Americans have seen their Medicaid health insurance vanish.
Amongst many other useful things, this taxpayer money could have
funded:
-a real drug prescription program;
-universal access to necessary health care for the 45 million
Americans, including over 9 million children, not presently insured;
-state budget shortfalls;
-the repair of our nation’s public schools;
-the elimination of homelessness;
-the clean up of toxic waste sites;
-provided Head Start to an additional 1.8 million children;
-AIDS research and provide community-based services;
-the Department of Homeland Security;
-research into countermeasures against bio-terrorism;
-1.5 million affordable housing units;
-special education services for children with disabilities;
-extensive infrastructure jobs creation programs;
-working capital for start-up and small businesses;
-benefits for veterans;
-increases in Social Security payments.
- Salon, May 29, 2003, New York Times, December 31, 2003.
Why does the Bush looting of the U.S. Treasury, the most
grievous theft in U.S. history, go unpunished? Much of what is
amiss in America, primarily our joblessness, our growing levels of
poverty, our burgeoning militarism, and our environmental
neglect was ignored by Bush when he chose to use the taxes of
working people to repay the bribes of ! his campaign contributors
instead of protecting and providing for the vast majority of
America’s people.

20. Bush is Waging War on America’s Children:
Bush promised to “leave no child behind,” and instead delivered
nothing but distress in the form of an unfunded mandate that thwarts
all efforts to level America’s educational playing field. By promising
one thing and then doing the opposite, Bush is waging an all-out war
on America’s children, particularly those that live in poverty, and
those who are mentally or physically challenged. The Every Child
Matters Education Fund has documented how Bush tax giveaways
for his wealthy political supporters are injuring America’s children.
Amongst many other things, under Bush:
-the premier early childhood program for disadvantaged
preschoolers (Head Start) is threatened and under-funded.
-comprehensive health care services (CHIP) for children living in
poverty is under-funded and threatened.
-after-school programs for children are under-funded and threatened,
this even though over 7 million children are left home alone without
supervision on a regular basis.
-welfare-to-work programs (TANF) are under-funded and
threatened.
-literacy programs (Even Start) and pre-school grants for children
with disabilities are frozen (IDEA).
-child counseling, dropout prevention, migrant high school
equivalency, juvenile offender rehabilitation, and safe and drug free
schools programs are all under-funded and threatened.
Cuts in programs for children result from the Bush administration’s
shifting of national priorities, shifting spending away from programs
to help children in favor of tax giveaways for those who are already
rich. – For a detailed accounting of the Bush War on Children see
www.everychildmatters.org, and current and archived press releases at the
Children’s Defense Fund, www.cdfactioncouncil.org.
Why does Bush regularly promise one thing to the public and
then do precisely the opposite thing in private? Why has Bush
abandoned our neediest women and children? Why does Bush,
who claims compassion for the needy, give them only the back of
his hand and his heel? What Bush really means by “leave no
child behind” is take them off of the streets and put them in
prisons.

21. Bush is Contributing to the Spread of AIDS amongst
our Youth:
Bush has come out against comprehensive sex education programs
for our youth, leaving many children without adequate knowledge to
make good decisions about their sexual health. Inadequate knowledge
unnecessarily elevates their vulnerability to disease, unwanted
pregnancies, and wasted lives. – Sources are far too numerous to list.
Why is Bush pushing social policies that harm our children?

22. Bush Failed to Provide Promised Funding to Fight
Global AIDS:
Bush promised to fight the spread of global AIDS but failed to
provide the necessary funding. Meanwhile, 14 million people will die
from AIDS next year. For the fiscal year 2004, the Bush
administration has committed only $200 million to the global fund to
fight AIDS. Meanwhile, it is spending $100-200 billion to rebuild
and export democracy to Iraq. “These are grotesquely distorted
priorities.”
– Miami Herald, October 1, 2003, USA Today, September 14, 2003.
Why is Bush withholding the federal funds so desperately needed
to combat the devastating global AIDS epidemic?

23. Bush is Waging War on the Environment:
Bush elevated the sophistication of political rhetoric by calling
environmentalists “green, green, lima beans.” He refuses to enforce
environmental law, he is waging war on our environment by
dismantling sections of landmark environmental legislation, including
the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and he is supporting oil and
mineral exploration in environmentally sensitive areas. He practices
double speak by calling his anti-environment programs things like
“healthy forests,” and “clear skies,” when, in fact, these programs
are intentionally designed to destroy our wilderness areas and pollute
our air and water. Other than a few giant corporations, no American
benefits from Bush’s efforts to destroy our environmental standards.
Under Bush, environmental violation notices have dropped 50% from
the monthly average under Clinton, and punishment by! fine or
prosecution has fallen 28%. –Knight Ridder/Tribune, December 9, 2003.
- See www.nrdc.org for a comprehensive view of the Bush War on the
Environment.
Why does Bush favor the interests of environmental polluters over
those of the vast majority of the American people? The answer is
clear. The environmental polluters pay huge bribes (called
campaign contributions) to Bush and his cronies.Why does Bush
expect that the American people will continue to allow him to
poison our air and water and destroy our wilderness areas?

24. Bush and Cheney’s Foreign Policy is Creating Global
Terror and Instability:
Bush and Cheney say that America needs no “permission slip” from
the United Nations to launch a war against any nation he deems
objectionable (a policy very similar to those of Hitler and Stalin).
–Bush State of the Union address, 2004.
It is just this sort of arrogant braggadocio that has substantially
heightened global instability and American insecurity. Bush pre-
emptive wars and his withdrawal of America from many important
longstanding treaty obligations, far more than any other president in
U.S. history, has created in most European countries an image of
America as a war-mongering rogue state. The vast majority of the
world’s people and most heads of state were against the Bush-led
invasion of Iraq. Most of the world now considers America the
greatest threat to world peace.
– BBC, February 11, 2003.
Why won’t Bush get it? Why doesn’t he understand that acts of
terror are the acts of desperate people, and not the acts of nation
states. Finding and punishing terrorists requires police action,
not military action. As long as there are desperate people there
will be terrorists. To reduce global terrorism we must reduce
global desperation, and not, as Bush does, incite and inflame it.
To reduce global terrorism requires a concerted effort with our
allies.

25. Bush Lies about the Invasion of Iraq are a Substantial
Stain on America:
Bush lies are a substantial stain on America. Bush squandered
America’s entire stock of global empathy and goodwill following
9/11 by invading Iraq under false pretenses, in violation of
international law, and without the approval of the United Nations.
Bush has repeatedly lied to the American people about almost
everything. At first, following the lead of Deputy Secretary of
Defense Paul Wolfowitz (who acts more like a Mossad agent than an
American deputy secretary of defense), Bush said Iraq’s weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) posed an imminent danger to America.
When no WMD were found, he said we invaded Iraq so that we
could install democracy there, as if democracy were just another
American export product. – Washington Post, September 11, 2003.
– For a comprehensive list of Bush lies see hundreds of them at
www.now.org.
Why does Bush so often lie to the American people? Why did
Bush use 9/11 as a pretense for invading Iraq? Why did Bush not
concentrate instead on crushing Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda
terrorist network and on shoring up America’s domestic defenses,
ports, reactors, chemical plants, and the like? Bush say he wants
to export democracy to Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. The
truth is different. The only things Bush has exported to the
Middle East is the mass murder of innocent Iraqis, American
taxpayer money, the American military, Halliburton, and Bechtel.

26. Bush and Cheney Deliberately Spread Hatred, Fear,
and Loathing in
America:
Bush and Cheney, through the Department of Homeland Security,
has repeatedly announced a series of false terrorist threats that
unnecessarily spread fear and loathing throughout America. Bush
does this for the sole purpose of terrorizing Americans into thinking
his government is working hard to protect them. – Sources are far too
numerous to list.
Why does Bush think the American people are so easily
hoodwinked? The facts speak for themselves. Bush knew about
9/11 before it happened and he failed to take action. The major
terrorists are in the White House and most of the world now
thinks that America is a terrorist nation led by insecure
adolescent bullies.

27. Bush is Deliberately Rescinding the U.S. Constitution
and the Bill of Rights:
Bush has said that the terrorists want to take away our freedoms.
Our course, it would be impossible for foreign terrorists to do that.
But Bush, Ashcroft, and their neocon cohorts have done just that;
they have soiled our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. These anti-
democrats, posing as super-patriots, have even sent secret service
agents to interrogate high school students for wearing anti-war t-
shirts. Bush rammed the USA Patriot Act (that authorizes domestic
spying, warrantless searches and seizures, and long-term detention
without being charged with a crime or the right to counsel) through a
9/11-numbed Congress, thus dealing the greatest blow to civil and
human rights ever experienced in America.
- See www.aclu.org for a detailed elaboration of the Bush war on our civil
rights.
Why does Bush think the American people will allow him another
four years to finish the job of transforming America into a full
fascist state run by neocons for the sole benefit of the wealthy?

28. Bush and Cheney’s Iraqi War Planning is a
Catastrophic Blunder:
Bush and Cheney preemptively invaded Iraq under false pretenses
and without an exit strategy, catastrophic blunders (or were they
intentional) that are now costing hundreds of American lives,
thousands of American casualties, thousands of Iraqi lives, and
hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. A recent poll taken by an
Iraqi research center shows fewer than 15% of Iraqis view the U.S.
as a liberator, dow