The State of the Union - how is Bush doing?

A look back at previous SOTU addresses by Dubya, and his various claims and/or promises that have fallen (mostly unnoticed) by the wayside...

State of the Union 2004

CLAIM: "If we failed to act in Iraq the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day."

STATUS: "The 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. inspections destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capability and, for the most part, Saddam Hussein did not try to rebuild it, according to an extensive report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq," Washington Post, 10/7/04

STATUS: The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. A senior intelligence official said Duelfer's findings will stand as the Iraq Survey Group's final conclusions and will be published this spring. Washington Post, 1/12/05

CLAIM: "America is committed to keep dangerous weapons from dangerous regimes."

STATUS: Under Bush's watch, North Korea's nuclear arsenal is thought to have quadrupled. Charles Pritchard, formerly Colin Powell's top official dealing with North Korea, has warned for months that "the White House lacks an effective strategy to dissuade North Korea from building up its nuclear arms." And, according to Pritchard, the situation has deteriorated because "the administration has neither offered much of a carrot nor wielded a stick." New York Times, 5/7/04

STATUS: According to a recent Harvard University report titled "Securing the Bomb: An Agenda for Action," "less fissile materials were secured in the two years after Sept. 11 than in the two years before." Harvard Report, 5/04

CLAIM: "The American economy is growing stronger."

STATUS: Job growth over the last 18 months has fallen short of administration predictions by 1,703,000—more than one-third fewer jobs than the president's Council of Economic Advisers said would be created even without the tax cuts. EPI, 1/05

CLAIM: "The tax relief you passed is working."

STATUS: The tax cuts have drained resources from domestic programs utilized by middle-class families. The Bush tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of Americans this year alone will cost $148 billion. "That is twice as much as the government will spend on job training, $6.2 billion; college Pell grants, $12 billion; public housing, $6.3 billion; low-income rental subsidies, $19 billion; child care, $4.8 billion; insurance for low-income children, $5.2 billion; low-income energy assistance, $1.8 billion; meals for shut-ins, $180 million; and welfare, $16.9 billion." UFE, 4/7/04; Detroit News, 9/29/04

STATUS: Between June 2003 and December 2004, the economy produced 3.1 million fewer jobs than the administration predicted would result after the last round of tax cuts. Jobwatch.org, 1/7/05

CLAIM: "We are providing more funding for our schools."

STATUS: "The bipartisan National Governors Association voted unanimously in 2003 to name No Child Left Behind an 'unfunded mandate,' which means the federal government isn't supplying the money needed to make the law work." Bloomberg, 1/12/05

STATUS: For 2005, the administration has requested $9.4 billion less for No Child Left Behind than the bill supposedly ensures. Title I, the program to help poor kids, is underfunded by $7.2 billion, leaving nearly 5 million kids without academic help. Star-Telegram, 2/26/04

PROMISE: "I will increase support for community colleges."

STATUS: Last year, the Bush administration proposed cutting the largest direct aid initiative to community colleges, the Perkins program for technical and vocational training, from $1.3 billion to about $1 billion. Congress had to step in to save the funding. Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/26/04

PROMISE: "Millions of Americans will be able to save money tax-free for their medical expenses in a health savings account."

STATUS: HSAs will likely drive up the annual deductibles paid by workers. Because of their adverse effects on employer-based coverage, HSAs could swell the ranks of the uninsured. USA Today, 5/25/04; CBPP, 5/10/04

PROMISE: "I will defend the sanctity of marriage."

STATUS: Efforts to pass a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban same-sex marriage failed in July. CNN, 7/16/04

PROMISE: "I will double the federal funding for abstinence programs."

STATUS: Bush more or less made good on this promise, requesting $270 million for abstinence-only programs in 2005. Studies have showed the well-funded programs "teach adolescents false and misleading information about reproductive health" and fail to increase abstinence. Waxman Report, 12/2/04; WP, 12/2/04; Advocates for Youth, 9/27/04

PROPOSAL: "I propose series of measurements called Jobs for the 21st Century."

This initiative included increasing Pell grants…

STATUS: For three straight years, Bush has proposed freezing or cutting Pell grants. Ed Workforce, 2/2/04

STATUS: A spending bill the White House helped push through Congress last November allows the U.S. Department of Education to proceed with a new eligibility formula that will remove an estimated 90,000 qualified students from eligibility for Pell Grants. St. Petersburg Times, 12/24/04

…And Community-Based Job Training Grants

STATUS: Bush's 2005 budget proposed cutting job training and vocational education by 10 percent – that's $656 million – from what Congress pledged to those programs in 2002. Workforce Alliance, 4/5/04

STATUS: Two federal banking agencies headed by Bush appointees are trying to change laws that would cripple the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination by banks against low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. AP, 10/21/04

PROPOSAL: "Pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation, and make America less dependent on foreign energy sources."

STATUS: The energy bill proposed by President Bush would allow power companies "to set up multiple subsidiaries and blur their financial reports, leading to market manipulation similar to that seen during the California energy crisis." Sierra Club

STATUS: The president's bill allows "automakers to sell more gas guzzlers by failing to raise fuel economy standards" and "fails to increase our use of clean, renewable energy by excluding a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) that would ensure that more of our electricity comes from clean, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power." Sierra Club

STATUS: President Bush's primary plan to reduce foreign energy dependence, drilling the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, would not reduce the price of oil and would produce only 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil (the United States consumes about 7 billion barrels each year). Sierra Club

PROPOSAL: "Reform in immigration laws and a new temporary worker program."

STATUS: President Bush blocked the Dream Act, which had bipartisan support and would have enabled 65,000 high school graduates who are undocumented immigrants to become citizens if they completed college, and allowed them to pay the in-state rate for tuition at public colleges and universities. Washington Post, 7/21/04

PROPOSAL: "New funding to continue our aggressive, community based strategy to reduce demand for illegal drugs."

STATUS: In his FY04 budget, the president proposed cutting funding for the Safe and Drug Free Schools program by $25 million. The 2005 budget proposes freezing funding for the program. House Committee on Education and Workforce, 2/2/04


State of the Union 2003

PROMISE: "I will send you a budget that increases discretionary spending by 4 percent next year—about as much as the average family's income is expected to grow."

STATUS: Real median household income fell 0.1 percent in 2003, from $43,381 to $43,318. According to the latest census data, median household income has dropped 3.5 percent since the beginning of the Bush presidency in 2000. Mother Jones, 8/27/04; Census

PROPOSAL: "I have sent you Clear Skies legislation that mandates a 70-percent cut in air pollution from power plants over the next 15 years."

STATUS: The Bush administration's "Clear Skies" proposal, due to be debated in Congress in the coming weeks, would not reduce pollution as much as existing Clean Air Act regulations, according to an interim report by the National Academy of Sciences. LA Times, 1/14/05

PROMISE: "I ask Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean."

STATUS: Congress approved $2.9 billion to fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases in 2005, but it cut the U.S. pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to $350 million – almost $200 million less than last year's donation. "The administration is also blocking the Fund from receiving $88 million that Congress appropriated in the 2004 fiscal year." Kaiser, 11/19/04

PROMISE: "I am instructing the leaders of the FBI, and CIA, the Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to merge and analyze all threat information in a single location."

STATUS: "The Bush administration's effort to create a national database of potential terrorist targets such as dams, pipelines, chemical plants and skyscrapers is far behind schedule and may take years to finish." USA Today, 12/8/04

PROMISE: "We're strongly supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency."

STATUS: The Bush administration campaigned behind closed doors to prevent respected Egyptian diplomat Mohammed ElBaradei from sitting for a third term as head of the IAEA because of "his willingness to challenge the administration's assertions on Iraq and Iran." No country would join the U.S. effort, however. The administration stooped so low as to install "dozens of intercepts of Mohamed ElBaradei's phone calls with Iranian diplomats and…scrutinize[d] them in search of ammunition to oust him." Washington Post, 12/12/04; Washington Post, 01/22/05

State of the Union 2002

PROMISE: "We need to replace aging aircraft and make our military more agile, to put our troops anywhere in the world quickly and safely. Our men and women in uniform deserve the best weapons, the best equipment, the best training—and they deserve a pay raise."

STATUS: In December, a soldier serving in Iraq asked why he had to "dig through local land fills" to find scrap metal to properly arm his military combat vehicle. Rumsfeld's response? "You have to go to war with the Army you have." CNN, 12/9/04

PROMISE: "We'll increase funding to help states and communities train and equip our heroic police and firefighters."

STATUS: According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), "At least two-thirds of the nation's fire departments are understaffed." Cuts in federal aid to local police agencies have pushed local agencies "to the breaking point." USA Today, 11/28/04; USA Today, 11/16/04

STATUS: Under the SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Act, Congress authorized $7.6 billion over seven years to improve fire department funding, but President Bush "didn't request any money for the program in his 2005 budget." USA Today, 11/28/04

PROMISE: "Our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term, so long as Congress restrains spending and acts in a fiscally responsible manner."

STATUS: The federal budget deficit will reach a record $448 billion this year, exceeding last year's record of $412 billion. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), "the long-term outlook for the US budget deficit has deteriorated since the end of last year." FT, 1/26/05

This SOU?

More of the same, but with 95% of Republicans Corrupt & Complicit, and 75% of Democrats Corrupt & Complicit, and ALL of the corporate Media Corrupt & Complicit........what hope of accountability is there? It will literally take people who are unafraid of political suicide to stand up and draw measure.

I am taking notes for my class.

Basically i think he comes of rather lacking of intelligence but here is what i noticed:

+he is interested in expanding technology and improving it.

+security is a large issue which it always has been

+he wants to make us less reliant on other countrys for energy

+ hs econonomic plan has improved but he still sucks

+he wants to "strengthen and save" social security.

+in 2018 social security will be paying more than it takes in, this was met by mixed results

-he talks to much on social security
* the camera kept showing democrats such as rock obama and sharpton

I was born dring the tenure of Ronald Reagan, Went through puberty under Bush Sr. And grew to manhood under clinton. In the space of my 26 years on this earth I have seen Americans taken hostage in Iran, Watched the Soviet Union fall, and the Twin towers fall. However I have never been more proud to be American, or of the American president than I am today.

The pesidents State of the Union speech outlined a vison of American leadership more ambitious, and broader in scope than anything since Reagan commanded Gorbachev to "tear down that wall" It was a vision of an America whch uses its muscle, political, economic, and military, to activley pursue a better future for the world as a whole. A future in which America will redeem itself for the necessary evils of the cold war by fighting against the tryannies, and injustices we once had to support in order to wage war on the greater evil of the Soviet Union. The presdent lid out a vision in which America would once again be known as the Guardian of Liberty, and Guarantor of Freedom. A vision which, finally, is worthy of America.

The Presidents vision, of an America unashamed of its power, proud of its influence, and uncompromising in its ideals, is one which I have been waiting for my entire life. No longer will America be ashamed of its status as the worlds only remianing superpower as we were under Clinton, or unwilling to fight for the ideal of freedom in the face of international oppositon as we were under Bush Sr. This America is an America which will not compromise with dicators, desposts, or murderers. This America is an America which will not appease those who who wish us harm, or those who are willing to commit atrocities simply because opposing them is difficult, and the results uncertain.

On a domestic front Presdent Bush has given us a vision of a Nation where the people have control of thier own destny, where the byzntine tax laws give way to an understandable sumple and fair system. A nation where the true engine of our economy the small businesses are free from unnecessary lawsuits, and where our dependece on foreign energy is reduced. A nation where teachers are required to teach and students are required to study. It is a vision of a nation we can be truly proud of once again.

Some will say that the President has set his sights too high, that his idealism has overwhelmed his realism, and that these goals, while lofty, can not or will not be achieved. Others will say that this Vision is nothing more than smoke and mirrors and that he has no intenton of carrying through. Some will say that we have no right to even set many of these goals, that it is not our place to change the world.

I say that nothing great was ever accomplished except by those who set out to do the impossible, in spite of the naysayers, I say that that the last four years have proven President Bush to be a man whom, for Better or for worse, follows his staed course of acton with unwavering faith in himself, his nation, and its peoples. I say that it is not only our right but oour solemn even sacred duty as the worlds strongest nation to ensure the freedom, and liberty of not just our people but all peoples.

Today I am truly proud to be an American.

Reagan commanded Gorbachev to "tear down that wall"

get real

seriously though, the Bush administration in history will mark the beginning of the decline of American power.

thanks,
drfunk

[edit on 3-2-2005 by drfunk]

Originally posted by drfunk

Reagan commanded Gorbachev to "tear down that wall"

get real

thanks,
drfunk

[edit on 3-2-2005 by drfunk]

What do you mean? Get Real? You need to brush up on your history. Reagan did tell Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". Reagan crushed Gorbachev and the Soviet Union.

Originally posted by Carseller4

Reagan did tell Gorbachev to "tear down this wall".

He did indeed; one of the most powerful political speeches ever, IMO.

Reagan crushed Gorbachev and the Soviet Union.

To quote you, Carseller: "You need to brush up on your history." Reagan didn't do a damn thing to Gorbachev *or* the USSR. Gorbachev is to blame for its collapse: he instituted peristroika and glasnost. Once the Soviet people found out about all the books to be read, rock music to be heard, and Levi's to be worn, it was all over but the shoutin'.

Vastly oversimplified, but still more accurate than "Reagan crushed Gorbachev...."

Reagan didn't crush the Soviet Union...I thought the main thing was their failing control of certain places like Poland that led to the big changes. We helped...but we were not the only one working at this.

Bush's SOU speech was perhaps his best one to date. He looked natural doing it. He looked like he was truly enjoying the moment. I think a lot of it was bull, but I gotta give it to him for having a very good speech.

Originally posted by mwm1331
The presdent lid out a vision in which America would once again be known as the Guardian of Liberty, and Guarantor of Freedom. A vision which, finally, is worthy of America.

Excellent post, mwm1331; thanks for the perspective. Bush's rhetoric last night did indeed sound wonderful; I just hope he actually meant some of it.