Bush In NYC: Watch Out, The 'Reformer With Results' Is Back

[Guest guest]

> Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:56:13 -0400

> Bush In NYC: Watch Out, The 'Reformer With

> Results' Is Back

 

> " Arianna Huffington "

> <arianna

>

> BUSH IN NYC: WATCH OUT, THE 'REFORMER WITH RESULTS'

> IS BACK

>

> By Arianna Huffington

>

> So far the Republican convention has been all about

> courage, compassion

> and lauding our War President for possessing ample

> quantities of both,

> including the theater-in-the-round stage designed to

> highlight the

> president's strength and authority, and the

> Deco-inspired presidential

> lectern meant to invoke the skyscrapers of New York

> (and oh, by the way,

> those two skyscrapers that are no longer there).

>

> But now it's time for the nitty-gritty: the War

> President's big acceptance

> speech.

>

> The word is that after a summer of substance-free

> campaign stumping, the

> president is ready to tangle with " the vision thing "

> and roll out his

> second-term plans for America.

>

> Sounds promising - until you discover that his

> vision for the future is

> little more than a reworked blast from the past.

>

> The 2000 campaign's " reformer with results " is

> planning to go back to that

> poisoned well and trot out a domestic agenda that

> promises to reform

> everything from Social Security to health care to

> the tax code.

>

> Of course, the last three and a half years have

> proven that when Bush

> starts talking about reform, it's time to be very

> afraid.

>

> His idea of education reform turned out to be the

> fraudulent No Child Left

> Behind Act, a massively underfunded federal mandate

> that truth-in-labeling

> laws should have required be rechristened the

> Millions of Children But

> Mercifully Not Your Own Left Behind Act. And his

> idea of Medicare reform

> was a multibillion dollar gift to drug companies and

> HMOs disguised as a

> prescription drug bill.

>

> Now he wants to do the same to Social Security and

> health insurance, all

> in the name of " empowering individuals " and creating

> " an ownership

> society " - or, in plain English, privatizing as much

> of the social welfare

> system as possible.

>

> But we are told that Bush has decided to run not

> only on future reforms

> but on past accomplishments.

>

> " We've got a great record, when you think about it, "

> he proclaimed, as if

> the idea had just dawned on him.

>

> Now, I'm not sure what record he's been looking at -

> maybe Andy Card

> replaced the dismal numbers from last week's Census

> Bureau report on

> income and poverty with Michael Phelps' Olympic

> stats in his latest

> morning briefing - but if the president truly

> intends to run on his

> record, I can only say: Bring it on!

>

> I realize that facts mean next to nothing to the

> fanatics in the Bush

> White House, but they mean a hell of a lot to the

> people whose lives they

> depict.

>

> Here then, for your voting-booth convenience, is a

> quick overview of

> President Bush's " great record " :

>

> Since he took office, 1.2 million people in America

> have lost their jobs,

> bringing the total to 8.2 million.

>

> The number of Americans living below the poverty

> line has increased by 4.3

> million to 35.9 million - 12.9 million of them

> children.

>

> The number of Americans with no health insurance has

> increased by 5.8

> million - with 1.4 million losing their insurance in

> 2003. The total now

> stands at 45 million.

>

> Forty percent of the 3.5 million people who were

> homeless at some point

> last year were families with children, as were 40

> percent of those seeking

> emergency food assistance.

>

> Median household income has fallen more than $1,500

> in inflation-adjusted

> terms in the last three years, and the wages of most

> workers are now

> falling behind inflation.

>

> Average tuition for college has risen by 34 percent,

> while 37 percent of

> fourth graders read at a level considered " below

> basic. "

>

> One third of the president's $1.7 trillion in tax

> cuts benefits only the

> top 1 percent of wealthiest Americans.

>

> President Bush also failed to fulfill his pledge to

> get Osama Bin Laden

> " dead or alive, " traded the moral high ground for

> preemptive war and the

> horrors of Abu Ghraib, never attended a funeral or

> memorial service for

> any of the 975 soldiers killed in Iraq, pulled out

> of the Kyoto agreement

> on global warming, gutted the Clean Air Act,

> initiated the rollback of

> more than 200 environmental regulations, backed a

> constitutional amendment

> to outlaw gay marriages, and refused to follow

> through on his promise to

> extend the assault weapons ban.

>

> So let's get one thing straight: Anyone who is

> lauding George Bush at the

> Republican Convention - and, yes, that includes you

> Rudy, Arnold, Governor

> George and Mayor Mike - is endorsing his disastrous

> and wholly immoderate

> record. Thus, by definition, all these Bush strokers

> have surrendered

> their moderate credentials - no matter how warm and

> fuzzy their positions

> on social issues. The president's record betrays

> both courage and

> compassion, and no amount of lofty rhetoric will

> change that.

>

> © 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.

> DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

>

> ---