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Compiled by the Small Planet Institute, created by Frances Moore Lapp.
Additional info available from:
SNAPSHOT OF OUR LAST FOUR YEARS
RESULTS OF WAR
We've spent $151 billion on the war in Iraq - 3 times the original estimate. We've found no weapons of mass destruction and no link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terrorists. The war has killed over 1,000 Americans and 16,000 - mostly civilian Iraqis. It diverted us from capturing the 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden and has actually "accelerated recruitment" of his terrorist network. The war was declared illegal by the head of the U.N. and has turned many allies against us.
JOBS AND THE ECONOMY
We've lost 1 million jobs since President Bush took office, - the only administration to see a net loss since the 1930 s Depression. Home foreclosures jumped 50%, and 4 million Americans sank into poverty. But this administration has reduced the occupations eligible for overtime pay and proposed allowing states to opt out of the Federal minimum wage of $5.15.
HEALTH CARE ACCESS
6.3 million fewer people are insured than when Bush took office. Drug prices have risen nearly 3 times faster than inflation.
But this administration passed a law barring Medicare from negotiating lower prices from drug corporations.
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Bush's Clear Skies Act would repeal key parts of the Clean Air Act and allow more pollution from coal-fired plants.
HOMELAND SECURITY
The Bush administration has proposed cutting funds for firefighters and first responders, and cutting funding for police in half.
FINANCIAL STABILITY
President Bush turned a $236 billion annual surplus into a $520 billion deficit - creating the largest national debt in history - by cutting taxes for the wealthy. The interest on this debt costs more than the combined budgets of homeland security, education, transportation, justice and environment.
WAR IN IRAQ
NO WMD FOUND
President Bush took us to war based on an imminent threat from Saddam Hussein s weapons of mass destruction. None were found.
IRAQ NOT INVOLVED IN 9/11
The 9/11 Commission found that Iraq had no role in the 9/11 attacks and no relationship with Al Qaeda. Yet, as early as the day after 9/11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged President Bush to bomb Iraq - against the advice of his counterterrorism officials.
SPAWNING MORE TERRORISTS
A military think tank found that the Iraq War "accelerated recruitment" for Al Qaeda - an estimated 18,000 active members are now part of this terrorist network.
DIVERSION FROM OSAMA BIN LADEN
After only 4 months searching for Osama bin Laden -- reports General Tommy Franks -- President Bush pulled crucial resources out of Afghanistan to prepare for the Iraq war. That was 8 months before the Senate had approved the war on Iraq.
The CIA has fewer experienced case officers in its headquarters unit assigned to capturing Osama bin Laden than before 9/11.
The Bush administration put Pakistan in charge of finding Osama bin Laden, even though its military is known to have members sympathetic to his radical Islamist agenda.
JOBS AND ECONOMY
LOST JOBS -- A FIRST FOR ANY PRESIDENT IN 60 YEARS
We've lost nearly a million jobs, making Bush's administration the first since the 1930s to lose rather than gain jobs.
Bush promised his 2003 tax cuts would create jobs, but they have produced 2.7 million fewer jobs than his administration had predicted - not enough to keep up with new people entering the work force each month.
FULL-TIMERS SETTLE FOR PART-TIME WORK
On Bush's watch, the number of Americans who say they are working part-time because they can't find full-time jobs has increased 35%.
The largest increase for any president on record.
MANUFACTURING WORKERS HIT HARDEST
Between 2001 and 2003, almost 1 in 10 manufacturing workers were laid-off from a job they had held for at least 3 years.
By the beginning of 2004, 33% of displaced manufacturing workers had still not returned to work; and when they did, 73% of them had to take a pay cut
RECOVERY HELPS CORPORATE PROFITS
Of the economic gains in the last 3 years, only 15% has gone to wages and salaries, the smallest share in 50 years. 47% has gone to corporate profits, more than in any period since World War II.
RECORD TRADE DEFICIT MAKES US DEPENDENT
Under President Bush the U.S. has experienced the largest trade deficit in history, making us dependent on foreign countries, especially China and Japan. They loan the United States 87% of the dollars needed to cover the gap between what we import and export.
HEALTH
MORE AMERICANS LACK ACCESS
6.3 million fewer people are insured than when Bush took office - now 45 million. About 1 in 3 under age 65 lacked insurance for some time in 2002-2003. We're the only industrialized country failing to cover all its citizens.
SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE SOARS
Under Bush, health care spending climbed 4 times faster than inflation. America spends far more per person on health care than any other nation, yet our medical system ranks 37th.
Citizens of 23 countries live longer on average than Americans.
HEALTH CARE PREMIUMS RISE SHARPLY
Under Bush's watch, health insurance premiums have risen to their highest rate in 13 years.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE
Drug prices have risen nearly 3 times faster than inflation under Bush, but his Medicare plan bars the government from negotiating lower prices with drug companies.
The result? $139 billion in new profits for drug companies over the next 8 years.
RECORD MEDICARE PREMIUM INCREASE
Medicare health insurance premiums will rise by 17.5% in 2005. The largest Medicare premium increase in history.
POOREST ELDERLY LOSE IMPORTANT COVERAGE
Bush's new Medicare legislation strips the poorest 6 million elderly Americans of eligibility for joint coverage by Medicare and Medicaid.
ENVIRONMENT
DIRTIER, TOXIC WATER
Bush's appointees changed the Clean Water Act so it no longer applies to up to 60% of our rivers, lakes and streams - permitting industries to pollute these waterways.
CITIZENS NOW PAY FOR CLEAN-UP
The Bush administration has shifted the environmental clean-up burden from the polluter to the taxpayer. One in 4 Americans lives within 4 miles of a toxic "Superfund" site. In 1995, taxpayers paid 18% of the cost to clean up toxic waste sites - now we pay all of the cost.
VULNERABLE TO OIL PRICE HIKES
Bush's energy plan ignores renewable energy - instead giving over $40 billion in tax credits and subsidies to coal, oil and nuclear corporations. The administration let auto fuel efficiency sink to a 22 yr. low. Yet, scientists predict that within 16 years we'll hit "The Big Rollover" - when demand for oil outstrips capacity, leading to massive, permanent price hikes.
GLOBAL WARMING
Global warming is a greater threat than terrorism, says the Pentagon. In his 2000 campaign, Bush called for regulating carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. But he refused to set limits on this greenhouse gas and pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, a global-warming prevention treaty signed by 155 countries.
DEBT IS GETTING WORSE
Bush turned a $236 billion annual budget surplus into a $422 billion deficit. When he took office the nation's total debt was $5.6 trillion and declining, but Bush has increased it by over 30% -- $1.7 trillion.
More than any president in history.
INTEREST PAYMENTS SOARING
At current rates, by 2009 our government will spend more on interest on debt than on all domestic discretionary programs combined.
As it is, paying interest on the debt costs us more than homeland security, education, transportation, justice and environment budgets combined.
TAX CUTS
Bush's tax cuts resulted in $166 billion less revenue in 2003 or about 44% of our deficit. In 2000, 63% of the nation's corporations paid no federal taxes at all -- yet Bush wants to give companies an additional $119 billion in tax cuts.
EDUCATION
SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT GAP GROWS
Under Bush, the U.S. has continued to fall behind other industrial nations in academic performance. Our high school graduation rate is lower than in countries like France, Germany and Japan.
BROKEN PROMISE FOR "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" ACT
Bush said the No Child Left Behind Act was designed to close this achievement gap, yet in 2004 his budget provided $9 billion less for the Act than Congress authorized. Bush has never met the level of funding authorized to implement his key education Act.
SCHOOLS REJECT DEMANDS NOT BACKED WITH FUNDS
Underfunding the No Child Left Behind Act means that many schools are unable to meet the Act's strict requirements. In Reading, Pennsylvania, the school board has sued the state and federal governments, saying the Act has created an unfair financial burden on the schools.
NO HELP FOR SOARING COLLEGE COSTS
College tuition and fees have risen 35% since Bush took office, yet the administration has refused to provide funding that would allow more students to attend college. For 3 straight years, Bush has broken his campaign promise to increase the federal student Pell Grant maximum to $5,100 a year.
NEW LIMITS ON EARLY EDUCATION
The country's biggest early education program, Head Start, has proven to help poor children succeed. Yet Bush plans to freeze Head Start enrollment, preventing 40% of children now eligible for Head Start from benefiting from the program.
Compiled by the Small Planet Institute, created by Frances Moore Lapp.
Additional info available from:
SNAPSHOT OF OUR LAST FOUR YEARS
RESULTS OF WAR
We've spent $151 billion on the war in Iraq - 3 times the original estimate. We've found no weapons of mass destruction and no link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terrorists. The war has killed over 1,000 Americans and 16,000 - mostly civilian Iraqis. It diverted us from capturing the 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden and has actually "accelerated recruitment" of his terrorist network. The war was declared illegal by the head of the U.N. and has turned many allies against us.
JOBS AND THE ECONOMY
We've lost 1 million jobs since President Bush took office, - the only administration to see a net loss since the 1930 s Depression. Home foreclosures jumped 50%, and 4 million Americans sank into poverty. But this administration has reduced the occupations eligible for overtime pay and proposed allowing states to opt out of the Federal minimum wage of $5.15.
HEALTH CARE ACCESS
6.3 million fewer people are insured than when Bush took office. Drug prices have risen nearly 3 times faster than inflation.
But this administration passed a law barring Medicare from negotiating lower prices from drug corporations.
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Bush's Clear Skies Act would repeal key parts of the Clean Air Act and allow more pollution from coal-fired plants.
HOMELAND SECURITY
The Bush administration has proposed cutting funds for firefighters and first responders, and cutting funding for police in half.
FINANCIAL STABILITY
President Bush turned a $236 billion annual surplus into a $520 billion deficit - creating the largest national debt in history - by cutting taxes for the wealthy. The interest on this debt costs more than the combined budgets of homeland security, education, transportation, justice and environment.
WAR IN IRAQ
NO WMD FOUND
President Bush took us to war based on an imminent threat from Saddam Hussein s weapons of mass destruction. None were found.
IRAQ NOT INVOLVED IN 9/11
The 9/11 Commission found that Iraq had no role in the 9/11 attacks and no relationship with Al Qaeda. Yet, as early as the day after 9/11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged President Bush to bomb Iraq - against the advice of his counterterrorism officials.
SPAWNING MORE TERRORISTS
A military think tank found that the Iraq War "accelerated recruitment" for Al Qaeda - an estimated 18,000 active members are now part of this terrorist network.
DIVERSION FROM OSAMA BIN LADEN
After only 4 months searching for Osama bin Laden -- reports General Tommy Franks -- President Bush pulled crucial resources out of Afghanistan to prepare for the Iraq war. That was 8 months before the Senate had approved the war on Iraq.
The CIA has fewer experienced case officers in its headquarters unit assigned to capturing Osama bin Laden than before 9/11.
The Bush administration put Pakistan in charge of finding Osama bin Laden, even though its military is known to have members sympathetic to his radical Islamist agenda.
JOBS AND ECONOMY
LOST JOBS -- A FIRST FOR ANY PRESIDENT IN 60 YEARS
We've lost nearly a million jobs, making Bush's administration the first since the 1930s to lose rather than gain jobs.
Bush promised his 2003 tax cuts would create jobs, but they have produced 2.7 million fewer jobs than his administration had predicted - not enough to keep up with new people entering the work force each month.
FULL-TIMERS SETTLE FOR PART-TIME WORK
On Bush's watch, the number of Americans who say they are working part-time because they can't find full-time jobs has increased 35%.
The largest increase for any president on record.
MANUFACTURING WORKERS HIT HARDEST
Between 2001 and 2003, almost 1 in 10 manufacturing workers were laid-off from a job they had held for at least 3 years.
By the beginning of 2004, 33% of displaced manufacturing workers had still not returned to work; and when they did, 73% of them had to take a pay cut
RECOVERY HELPS CORPORATE PROFITS
Of the economic gains in the last 3 years, only 15% has gone to wages and salaries, the smallest share in 50 years. 47% has gone to corporate profits, more than in any period since World War II.
RECORD TRADE DEFICIT MAKES US DEPENDENT
Under President Bush the U.S. has experienced the largest trade deficit in history, making us dependent on foreign countries, especially China and Japan. They loan the United States 87% of the dollars needed to cover the gap between what we import and export.
HEALTH
MORE AMERICANS LACK ACCESS
6.3 million fewer people are insured than when Bush took office - now 45 million. About 1 in 3 under age 65 lacked insurance for some time in 2002-2003. We're the only industrialized country failing to cover all its citizens.
SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE SOARS
Under Bush, health care spending climbed 4 times faster than inflation. America spends far more per person on health care than any other nation, yet our medical system ranks 37th.
Citizens of 23 countries live longer on average than Americans.
HEALTH CARE PREMIUMS RISE SHARPLY
Under Bush's watch, health insurance premiums have risen to their highest rate in 13 years.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE
Drug prices have risen nearly 3 times faster than inflation under Bush, but his Medicare plan bars the government from negotiating lower prices with drug companies.
The result? $139 billion in new profits for drug companies over the next 8 years.
RECORD MEDICARE PREMIUM INCREASE
Medicare health insurance premiums will rise by 17.5% in 2005. The largest Medicare premium increase in history.
POOREST ELDERLY LOSE IMPORTANT COVERAGE
Bush's new Medicare legislation strips the poorest 6 million elderly Americans of eligibility for joint coverage by Medicare and Medicaid.
ENVIRONMENT
DIRTIER, TOXIC WATER
Bush's appointees changed the Clean Water Act so it no longer applies to up to 60% of our rivers, lakes and streams - permitting industries to pollute these waterways.
CITIZENS NOW PAY FOR CLEAN-UP
The Bush administration has shifted the environmental clean-up burden from the polluter to the taxpayer. One in 4 Americans lives within 4 miles of a toxic "Superfund" site. In 1995, taxpayers paid 18% of the cost to clean up toxic waste sites - now we pay all of the cost.
VULNERABLE TO OIL PRICE HIKES
Bush's energy plan ignores renewable energy - instead giving over $40 billion in tax credits and subsidies to coal, oil and nuclear corporations. The administration let auto fuel efficiency sink to a 22 yr. low. Yet, scientists predict that within 16 years we'll hit "The Big Rollover" - when demand for oil outstrips capacity, leading to massive, permanent price hikes.
GLOBAL WARMING
Global warming is a greater threat than terrorism, says the Pentagon. In his 2000 campaign, Bush called for regulating carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. But he refused to set limits on this greenhouse gas and pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, a global-warming prevention treaty signed by 155 countries.
DEBT IS GETTING WORSE
Bush turned a $236 billion annual budget surplus into a $422 billion deficit. When he took office the nation's total debt was $5.6 trillion and declining, but Bush has increased it by over 30% -- $1.7 trillion.
More than any president in history.
INTEREST PAYMENTS SOARING
At current rates, by 2009 our government will spend more on interest on debt than on all domestic discretionary programs combined.
As it is, paying interest on the debt costs us more than homeland security, education, transportation, justice and environment budgets combined.
TAX CUTS
Bush's tax cuts resulted in $166 billion less revenue in 2003 or about 44% of our deficit. In 2000, 63% of the nation's corporations paid no federal taxes at all -- yet Bush wants to give companies an additional $119 billion in tax cuts.
EDUCATION
SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT GAP GROWS
Under Bush, the U.S. has continued to fall behind other industrial nations in academic performance. Our high school graduation rate is lower than in countries like France, Germany and Japan.
BROKEN PROMISE FOR "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" ACT
Bush said the No Child Left Behind Act was designed to close this achievement gap, yet in 2004 his budget provided $9 billion less for the Act than Congress authorized. Bush has never met the level of funding authorized to implement his key education Act.
SCHOOLS REJECT DEMANDS NOT BACKED WITH FUNDS
Underfunding the No Child Left Behind Act means that many schools are unable to meet the Act's strict requirements. In Reading, Pennsylvania, the school board has sued the state and federal governments, saying the Act has created an unfair financial burden on the schools.
NO HELP FOR SOARING COLLEGE COSTS
College tuition and fees have risen 35% since Bush took office, yet the administration has refused to provide funding that would allow more students to attend college. For 3 straight years, Bush has broken his campaign promise to increase the federal student Pell Grant maximum to $5,100 a year.
NEW LIMITS ON EARLY EDUCATION
The country's biggest early education program, Head Start, has proven to help poor children succeed. Yet Bush plans to freeze Head Start enrollment, preventing 40% of children now eligible for Head Start from benefiting from the program.
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