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