Image courtesy of Gerard Van der Leun under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
After lying to us every day for six months about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, then taking us into an unnecessary preemptive invasion and occupational quagmire under false pretenses, no American should believe a word that comes from the mouth of George W. Bush or his henchmen.
Setting that horrendous war crime aside for the moment, the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives has produced a pictorial document titled “The Bush Credibility Gap” that lists the programs Bush has praised then cut funding for. It is a must-read for every concerned American. Please take a look at that document before proceeding here.
Once you’ve seen that document, I only want you to consider a few other pieces of reality from the Bush administration.
First, this is the President that borrowed an additional $555 billion during fiscal 2003 that ended September 30th and has already borrowed another $141.8 billion in the first two months of the new 2004 fiscal year. He has already borrowed 25 percent of last year’s horrendous increase to the national debt. Surely, he could easily have borrowed enough money to keep these programs going had he desired to do so, if he intended to live up to the publicity statements he made during his photo opportunities.
Second, President Bush and his cronies continually harp on the tax cuts he’s made and how these have stimulated the economy. These were income tax cuts that went mostly to the wealthy who it can be argued pay the greatest amount of income tax, but we are constantly told that “everybody got something” and that putting money in people’s pockets will increase consumer spending and help the economy recover. Yet, he has done nothing to lessen the American worker’s payroll taxes that last year produced a $90.2 billion surplus for the government to enjoy—$81.8 billion from Social Security, the government’s largest slush fund, and $8.4 billion in Medicare surplus. How much would this money have stimulated the economy had workers not been overcharged for these entitlements?
Third, where’s the trust fund? The new Medicare Bill, a $400 billion expense spread over ten years with most of it going into effect eight years from now, doesn’t even mention the Medicare Trust Fund. This so-called trust held $276.1 billion at the close of fiscal 2003, more than two-thirds of the new Medicare Bill, and would be immediately available for prescription drug benefits to the elderly—if it were a real trust.
Fourth, although rapidly disappearing as an objective in Iraq, Bush stands behind the idea that democracy is good for everyone. The irony here is that we can’t even deliver it in our own country and are moving towards touch screen voting that’s wide open to corruption both in computer hacking and the absence of a paper trail. Also, do we ever recommend or insist that third world countries install an electoral college?
Fifth, and perhaps most important of all, while trying to rid the rest of the world of weapons of mass destruction, Bush is on a binge to increase our own killing devices. Not only did he walk out of the 1972 Ballistic Missile Treaty without leaving something better behind, but he is now on a course to develop “field nukes” so the infantry can rain down destruction with one-third the power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is on top of the “Mother of All Bombs,” the “star wars” program, stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons already on hand, cluster bombs and depleted uranium blanketing much of Iraq with radio activity and causing sickness to our own troops, and “COIL” the chemically oxidized iodine laser that obliterates all animal and plant life. We are even invigorating space travel to the moon for military purposes.
Once the exclusive domain of conspiracy theorists, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is no longer secret but is sending representatives to speak on the loyal laugh-a-lot paparazzi news media. The New World Order, headquartered in the District of Corruption along with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), is out in the open with an agenda to eliminate the middle class and divide the spoils amongst a few really wealthy individuals worldwide. And people with six and seven digit salaries falsely believe that they’re part of this privileged class because they read monitors or work for Halliburton.
Presenting one face to the public, a face that tells people what they want to hear, while doing just the opposite, and often doing it in secret, seems to be the hallmark of the George W. Bush administration. Sadly, the democrats don’t seem to be much different, haven’t much of record to stand behind, and the third parties seem to have faded into oblivion.
In the recent words of President Bush: “Those who lie, cheat and steal go to jail.” Would you then please tell us, dear President, how the Medicare and Social Security trust funds came to be—and what their function is?
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”