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In the ultimate act of hubris George Bush retreaded his broken promises from the 2000 election and presented them again in the third debate ~ hoping that no one would notice .
Bush can run but he can't hide from his deceptions and the Center for American Progress lists and comments on all the broken promises ~ ( Affordable Healthcare, Fiscal Sanity, Tax Cuts for Middle Class, Paying Down Deflicit and increased Pell Grants.
Allen L Roland
DEBATE
President Makes Promises He's Already Broken
Center for American Progress / Oct 14, 2004
To those listening closely last night, President Bush's rhetoric during the third and final presidential debate on domestic issues may have sounded eerily familiar. Indeed, the president trotted out many of the exact same promises and pledges he campaigned on four years ago. In 2000, Bush promised to pay down the deficit, provide tax relief for the middle class, make health insurance more affordable and practice fiscal responsibility. Since then, he has compiled a vast record of failure in each of those areas. Even more troubling than President Bush's misstatement about Osama bin Laden, his refusal to address the minimum wage and his obfuscations on the assault weapons ban was the portrait of a president making exactly the same promises he made to the American people four years ago – promises he's already broken.
BUSH PROMISE: MAKE HEALTH CARE MORE AFFORDABLE: In 2000, President Bush campaigned on the promise he would insure more Americans by "making health insurance affordable for hard-working, low-income families." Last night, he blamed "defensive medicine," "lawsuits" and "information technology" for his inability to deliver on that pledge and put forward some already discredited ideas to "control the costs in health care." But the president's record speaks for itself: since Bush took office, health insurance premiums have risen by an average rate of 12.5 percent per year and the "ranks of the uninsured" have swelled for three straight years. As for Bush's favorite scapegoats, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that even aggressive malpractice reform "would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent." The CBO "also says there is no way to gauge the cost of 'defensive medicine,' but that evidence it's a major factor in rising costs is 'weak or inconclusive.'"
BUSH PROMISE: FISCAL SANITY: In 2000, the Bush-Cheney campaign website said that to "restore confidence in government," President Bush would "attack pork-barrel spending." Last night, the president promised he would enforce "fiscal sanity in the halls of Congress." But that pledge is "hard to take" from a president who has failed to veto a single spending bill during his time in office and now seems ready to sign the "bloated corporate tax bill just passed by Congress." The new bill includes pork for "just about every special interest that retains a lobbyist in Washington."
BUSH PROMISE: TAX CUTS FOR MIDDLE CLASS: In 2000, President Bush said the "vast majority" of his tax cuts would "go to the bottom end of the [income] spectrum." Last night, Bush said, "Most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans." In between those two statements, the president has passed a series of tax cuts overwhelmingly skewed towards the upper class. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities figures show "The top 20 percent of earners received 69.8 percent of President Bush's tax cuts" and about one–third of the Bush tax cuts have gone to the top one percent of households. In addition, "the richest 1 percent are paying a lower share of federal taxes in 2004 than in 2000, while those in the middle are paying a greater share."
BUSH PROMISE: PAY DOWN DEFICIT: In 2000, President Bush boasted he would "pay the debt down to a historically low level." Last night, he promised to "reduce the deficit in half by five years." In between these two statements, President Bush has transformed a $5.6 trillion projected surplus into a $5.2 trillion projected deficit in just three years – the worst fiscal deterioration in at least the last half century. Total national debt now stands at $7,419,244,676,835.15. The president blames 9/11 and Iraq for the downturn, but the CBO estimates that Bush's fiscal policies, rather than external factors, "account for much of the reduction."
BUSH PROMISE: INCREASE PELL GRANTS: In 2000, President Bush campaigned on the promise he would "Fully fund the Pell grant program for first-year students by increasing the maximum grant amount…to $5,100." Last night the president said he would "continue to increase Pell grants." But budgets speak louder than words, and unfortunately, Bush's 2005 budget reneges on the promise he made in 2000, capping the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,050 for the third year in a row. The American Association of Community Colleges characterizes the Pell grant freeze as "'a severe blow' to students from low-income families at a time of declining state and local support for public higher education."
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