for
Bush 100 Club
...www.bushwatch.com
for
Bush 100 Club
...www.bushwatch.com
Some have said that Bush, feeling he only has one term to get his conservative politices enacted, is going to forego the honeymoon period as far as actions are concerned and immediately begin enacting his rabid right policies. However, those who have observed his entire political career know exactly what he is up to. His strategy has always been to have his most unpopular policies quickly put into place during the first two years, then spend the second two years pretending he's a moderate politician. Obviously, it's now worked twice, first in his run for a second term as Texas governor, secondly in his recent presidential campaign, because most folks seem to have short memories. At present, of course, he is talking as though he is a moderate politician, but his actions show that's a lie. Anyway, please remember to share this list in two years with anyone who claims Bush is a moderate politician and not the rabid conservative that he is.--Politex, 1/22/01
DAY 68, Wednesday..." The United States has abandoned the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming, which President George W. Bush opposes as being against U.S. economic interests, a White House spokesman said on Wednesday... Environmentalists reacted with fury and dismay Wednesday after the White House confirmed it would not back the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, a deal agreed by the Clinton administration. "The world is tottering on the brink of climate disaster," Friends of the Earth Europe said in a statement in which it accused President George W. Bush of deciding "to rat" on the UN treaty. "The Kyoto Protocol is the only international treaty capable of addressing climate change," the organisation's climate campaigner, Roda Verheyen, added. "The science is proven, the political momentum is there and so this latest move of the US administration just looks shabby." "George Bush is attempting to tear up the Kyoto Protocol in the face of world opinion," Greenpeace's climate campaign director, Bill Hare, told AFP. "This has been a tremendous coup by the (US) fossil fuel industry, a coup of epic proportions." Kyoto, hammered out in 1997, is a skeleton treaty that sets out national quotas that would cut the output of "greenhouse" gases. These are carbon gases disgorged from oil, gas and coal that scientists say could catastrophically change weather patterns in the coming century. But the framework accord is a dead letter at present." --Reuters, 3/28/01
DAY 67, Tuesday..." "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll... found a hardening of opposition to Bush.... In the poll, Americans express mixed views about the president's proposals to avert a recession and question key assumptions that undergird the administration's economic recovery plans.... The public also is skeptical about key elements of Bush's tax cut proposal. Cutting taxes still ranks low among the public's priorities for the administration, behind education, protecting the economy and Social Security. Although 49 percent of those interviewed said they expect to benefit from the Bush tax cut, just as many say they would not be helped. Among those expecting to benefit: 7 in 10 Republicans, and 2 out of 3 Americans with household incomes of $75,000 or more. But only one-third of Democrats, as well as one-third of the country's least affluent citizens -- families making $20,000 or less -- expect a boost from the tax plan.... Respondents, by 61 percent to 31 percent, said he cares more about protecting "large business corporations" than "ordinary working people."... Most Americans also doubt the administration's projections about the budget surplus -- money it is counting on to finance a tax cut while it increases spending on public education and other domestic programs. Seven in 10 survey respondents, including a majority of Republicans, dismiss as "unrealistic" the administration's forecast of a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over the next 10 years. The survey also found that more than 2 in 3 Americans say they support reducing the tax cut in future years if the federal budget surpluses turn out to be smaller than expected -- a proposal the administration has consistently rejected but majorities of Republicans, Democrats and political independents support.... Barely half -- 52 percent -- of those interviewed said they would support allowing people to invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market, down from 64 percent in May." --Washington Post, 3/27/01
DAY 66, Monday..."A Cuban-American with an enduring enmity for Fidel Castro - and a penchant for likening Castro's communist regime to that of the Nazis - has been nominated by President Bush to be the United States' chief diplomat for Latin America policy. The nomination of Otto Reich, who fled Cuba as a teenager when Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista, could set up the first major public debate over Bush's foreign policy, which already has toughened the US stance toward North Korea and Russia. Reich, an architect of the Helms-Burton Act, which reinforced US sanctions on Cuba, almost certainly would attempt to reinvigorate US embargo policies after the unofficial warming of the Clinton administration, during which tourism, social exchanges, and business contacts gradually expanded. During the last few years, while working as a private business consultant, Reich has spoken out sharply against any relaxation of pressure on Cuba. In 1999, he said that for an American major league team to play baseball there was ''like playing soccer in Auschwitz,'' the Nazi concentration camp. Last year, he likened returning young Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba to sending back an escaped slave to a plantation where his father was also a slave. Reich, 55, rose to public prominence - liberals would say notoriety - during the Reagan administration, in which he served as assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development, with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean, and then as a special adviser to the secretary of state for public diplomacy. In the latter job, he played a major role in administration attempts to sway public opinion against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua and in favor of the ''contras.'' When what became known as the Iran-contra scandal broke into public view, critics accused Reich and others of violating legal restraints on the CIA and on domestic propaganda. No charges were filed against Reich, who said at the time: ''When you drive 55 miles per hour in a 55 mile-per-hour zone, you are close to the line, but entirely legal. I never crossed the line.'' Later in the Reagan era, Reich became ambassador to Venezuela, an appointment that initially caused ripples of concern in the region because of his reputation as a conservative. Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee that will vote on the nomination, said the appointment ''raises real concerns about the commitment of the Bush administration to a bipartisan foreign policy.'' --Boston Globe, 6/25/01
DAY 62, Thursday..."Timothy J. Muris... was named...by President Bush to become the next chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.... Muris became a controversial figure during the Reagan years, as he and then-FTC Chairman James C. Miller III aggressively set out to undo many of the regulatory initiatives the agency began in the Carter administration.... Many lawyers who know him predict Muris, if confirmed by the Senate, will favor more mergers and pursue fewer suits against alleged monopoly practices than the current commission.... Given his past regulatory philosophy it's anticipated he will urge the industry to regulate itself voluntarily." --WP, 3/21/01
DAY 61, Wednesday..."Making it clear he would not sign any version of the so-called patients’ bill of rights now before Congress, President Bush said Wednesday...the right prescription...would guarantee timely access to affordable care without inviting 'frivolous' lawsuits [and that all such lawsuits be in federal, not state, court].... Charging that the Senate version of the bill would allow 'frivolous litigation … that undermines patient care,' Bush called for 'reasonable caps' on damage awards. '(Those) caps are too high,” he said. “They will drive up health care costs.' Bush did not say whether limits should be placed on damages, but Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician and ally of Bush, is expected to introduce a bill soon that would place limits at $500,000. Bush also has insisted that any legislation allow patient lawsuits only in federal courts and not in state courts, where damage awards typically are larger. The bipartisan legislation co-authored by Sens. Kennedy and McCain would send most cases to state courts. Kennedy immediately issued at statement criticizing Bush’s 'failure to act' in a timely manner. 'For six long weeks, we have waited on President Bush to join us to pass meaningful HMO reform and for six long weeks he has failed to act,' Kennedy said. 'It’s time to stop talking and start acting to pass a real patients’ bill of rights.' Rep. John Dingell, ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce committee, said Wednesday that Bush’s outline would unfairly lower compensation caps for injuries, prevent certain state-based patient protections from taking effect and would deposit cases in federal courts, 'where they stand in line behind drug dealers, waiting for a hearing.'" --MSNBC, 3/22/01
DAY 60, Tuesday..." The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will revoke a Clinton administration rule that would have sharply reduced the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water.... While environmentalists said the tough new arsenic standard is essential to protecting millions of Americans from cancer and other health threats, EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman insisted there is "no consensus on a particular safe level" in ordering the withdrawal of the standard.... The proposed rule, issued Jan. 22, would have reduced the acceptable level of arsenic in water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. Congress mandated a toughening of the standard, and the measure promulgated by the Clinton administration would have brought the United States into compliance with a standard already adopted by the World Health Organization and the European Union. However, the rule was strongly opposed by officials of some western states, mining and chemical companies and wood processors that would have been directly affected by the rule and that would have incurred the greatest costs. The EPA action follows closely on Bush's announcement last week that he was jettisoning a campaign pledge to seek reductions in the carbon dioxide emissions of the nation's power plants." --WP, 3/20/01
DAY 59, Monday..."The government announced today that the principal Medicare trust fund would not run out of money until 2029, the longest period of solvency ever projected in the history of the program. And officials extended the life of the Social Security trust fund by one year, to 2038.The projected date of insolvency for the Medicare trust fund is four years later than the estimate made by the Clinton administration 12 months ago.But the Bush administration said the long-term financial outlook for Medicare was bleak because health costs were rising rapidly. And it said Congress still needed to make major changes in Social Security to prepare for the retirement of 76 million baby boomers. The improvement in the condition of Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund surprised experts on the program. They had predicted that the trust fund would be depleted a few years earlier because Congress recently increased Medicare payments to health care providers, while economists have increased long- term estimates of health costs. Unveiling the annual report on Social Security and Medicare, President Bush and members of his cabinet took what appeared to be good news and made it sound like bad news. Mr. Bush said the report underlined the need for Congressional action to strengthen Social Security and Medicare. "We have only so many years to get the systems back on track," he told Hispanic business leaders meeting at the White House. "It's time to quit the posturing and time to reform the systems." Moreover, Mr. Bush said, "part of the Social Security reform must include allowing younger workers the option to take some of their own money and put it in the private markets, under safe conditions." [Meanwhile, the private market that Bush is talking about continues its downward trend towards a full recession.] --NYT, 3/20/01
DAY 55, Thursday..."The Bush administration warned that electricity blackouts in California ``appear inevitable'' this summer but issued its strongest opposition yet to addressing the problem with federal controls on wholesale power prices. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) said Thursday that price caps on wholesale energy suppliers will ``discourage investment in new generation at a time when it is most needed'' and drive power producers to other regions of the country.``Let me be clear on this,'' he told a Senate hearing on price control legislation, ``Any action we take must either help increase supply or reduce demand. ... Price caps will not increase supply or reduce demand.''Legislation proposed by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., would require federal regulators to impose price controls if they find wholesale electricity costs unjust and unreasonable. --AP, 3/15/01
DAY 54, Wednesday..."The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today that two companies that sold electricity to power- plagued California might have engaged in actions designed to inflate prices there, potentially earning $10.8 million in excessive profits. The agency said that unless the two companies, Williams Energy Marketing and Trading and AES Southland, could show within 20 days that they did not violate federal laws, the agency would require them to refund profits earned in April and May 2000." --NYT, 3/15/01
DAY 53, Tuesday..."President Bush told Congress Tuesday that his administration would not impose mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide on the nation's power plants.... The environmental group, Sierra Club, was outraged by the president's decision, claiming Bush was bowing to "big business, rather than protecting our children." "We're royally disappointed with this one. He's betraying his campaign promise," said Sierra spokesman Allen Mattison. "Now that he's in the White House, he's taking a dive on the issue." Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a key element of reducing so-called "greenhouse gases." Without cutting back such emissions, Mattison said, the world will see more rising sea waters, droughts, agricultural disasters and heat waves in the years to come. "The only way to curb global warming is to get carbon dioxide emissions under control," he said." --CNN, 3/13/01
DAY 52, Monday..." President George W. Bush said on Monday he was proud of his faith-based program as the White House sought to deflect an aide's reported comment that the plan was being postponed amid criticism. Bush, asked if he was backing away from his plan, told reporters at Florida's Tyndall Air Force Base: ``Not at all.'' The faith-based plan to send more government money to religious charities has generated criticism from groups worried it crosses the constitutional line between church and state. Some religious conservatives fear faith-based groups would lose their religious identity in meeting requirements for qualifying for federal dollars. Don Eberly, deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was quoted by the Washington Post on Monday as saying the administration would delay sending its legislative language to Capitol Hill. 'We're postponing,' Eberly told the Post." --Reuters, 3/12/01
DAY 48, Thursday..."President Bush's top trade negotiator says the U.S. steel industry may deserve sweeping, short-term relief from a flood of foreign imports. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told Congress on Wednesday that the new administration was looking ``very seriously'' at employing a rarely used broad trade remedy that would allow imposition of various barriers to protect the domestic industry.... Such a move was rejected by the Clinton administration, which believed it would send the wrong signal at the time of the 1997-98 global financial crisis if the United States began retreating behind protectionist barriers....Trade analysts viewed Zoellick's comments with some surprise given that Bush during the campaign stressed the traditional Republican support for free trade and opposition to protectionist barriers." --AP, 3/8/01
DAY 47, Wednesday..."The Senate on Wednesday voted not to allow people seeking bankruptcy protection because of disastrous medical bills to have a better chance of erasing their debts in court than consumers filing for other reasons. Senators voted, 65-34, to reject the exemption for medical debts from sweeping bankruptcy legislation that would force many consumers to eventually repay their credit card and other debts, rather than have them dissolved. It was the first Senate vote related to the bankruptcy overhaul legislation, which overwhelmingly passed the House last Thursday and is expected to be signed by President Bush if it reaches his desk. The bill was vetoed in December by then-President Clinton, who contended it would hurt ordinary people and working families that fall on hard times. It has been pushed by the banking, credit card and retail credit industries, while consumer groups and unions have opposed it." --AP, 3/7/01
DAY 46, Tuesday..."In action...were members of a large coalition of Mr. Bush's business backers who want to roll back new federal rules designed to protect workers from repetitive-motion injuries.In a private meeting with congressional leaders..., President Bush signed off on a plan to kill the ergonomic regulations, using the powers of the Congressional Review Act. That act, passed in 1996, gives Congress 60 days to reject regulations issued by federal agencies. But it was never used during Mr. Clinton's term because to take effect, a resolution rejecting new rules has to be approved by the president." --WSJ, 3/6/01
DAY 45, Monday..."Three corporate executives will be nominated by the Bush administration to be the secretaries of the Air Force, Army and Navy, The Washington Times reported Saturday. The three men have been interviewed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the White House is expected to announce next week that it will send their names to the Senate for confirmation, the Times quoted unidentified sources as saying. Gordon R. England, 63, who retired last week as a vice president at General Dynamics Corp., will be nominated as Navy secretary, the Times said. England was responsible for the company's information systems and international programs. The newspaper also said James G. Roche, 61, a vice president at Northrop Grumman Corp., has been picked to head the Air Force. Roche, a retired Navy captain, worked in the State Department during the Reagan administration and later was Democratic staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee. The nominee for Army secretary will be Thomas E. White, 57, a retired Army general and AN EXECUTIVE WITH ENRON CORP., A HOUSTON-BASED ENERGY COMPANY [AND BUSH'S MAJOR CORPORATE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTOR, e Times said. White was executive assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."--AP, 3/3/01
DAY 41, Thursday..."Christine Todd Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said President Bush would not automatically offer the same compromises former President Clinton's negotiators hammered out with European countries at failed climate talks last November. "The United States is committed to ensuring we address the global environmental issues. This administration has been on the record, the president has indicated his commitment to this," Whitman said on the fringes of a G8 environment ministers meeting. But she added the U.S. government felt no obligation to return to a compromise that was nearly agreed at November's United Nations conference in The Hague on the future of a 1997 U.N. pact to cut the pollution thought to cause climate change. The statement will come as a blow to environmental groups which saw the two weeks of talks in The Hague make some progress toward finalizing a global pact to reverse the growth in developed nations' "greenhouse gas" emissions." --Reuters, 3/2/01
DAY 40, Wednesday..."WASHINGTON - A disaster-prevention program that was credited with saving lives in the Seattle earthquake Wednesday had been targeted for cancellation by the Bush administration a few hours before the templor struck. In the budget proposal it presented to Congress on Wednesday, the administration canceled the Federal Emergency Management Agency's "Project Impact", saying the $25 million federal-city program "has not proven effective". Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said, "Today, Seattle is showing the nation exactly why FEMA funding is necessary and the real impact that some of these budget cuts would have for America." Project Impact even helped retrofit bridges in Seattle, she said." --S.J. Mercury, 3/1/01
DAY 39, Tuesday...Last Night Bush told Congress that he wanted to "break down barriers to equality for the disabled." Last week the five conservative members of the Supreme Court who elected him "overruled Congress and held that state governments can arbitrarily deny jobs to disabled people without violating the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The court's decision to gut the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990 by a huge bipartisan majority in Congress and signed into law by former President Bush, is yet another assault on representative democracy. Not content with short-circuiting the presidential election, the court has now decided that it, and not Congress, shall make the laws." LAT, 2/27/01
DAY 38, Monday... "Bush friends in US-Congress under the leadership of Senator Frank Murkowski...introduced a 325-page bill in the Senate that will reduce cash royalties to be paid by energy firms for offshore production when oil and gas prices drop below $18 a barrel. That means that the taxpayers have to subsidize our energy companies in case there is too much oil and gas on the market. Trent Lott promised to make sure that this magnificent scheme would be put on the fast track in the Senate. Dick Cheney's commission is also hard at work to review our energy policies. The Bush-iosi are concocting a bigger scheme than the California "Energy Crisis". --Nancy, 2/27/01
DAY 34, Thursday..."Education: President Bush put a dollar figure on his education reform proposals, asking Congress for an 11 percent—or $4.6 billion increase—in federal spending for education. That's still less than half what the Democrats wanted to spend. Under Bush, total federal outlays for education would rise to $44.5 billion." --Ridgeway, 2/23/01
DAY 33, Wednesday..."Environment: In press interviews, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said she wouldn't protest Bill Clinton's eleventh-hour monument designations, even though she disagreed with what the former president had done. However, she indicated rules governing activities in the different monument areas might be drawn to allow certain sorts of private business activity—oil and gas development, anyone?—and accommodate nearby property owners. --Ridgeway, 2/22/01
DAY 32, Tuesday...Last week, "with renewed Middle East adventurism signaled by the sudden attack on Iraq, military recklessness seemed to be the most significant aspect of Bush's first month in office. The Iraq strikes were under way as Bush left the U.S. on Friday to meet with Mexican president Vicente Fox.... At the same time, Bush's programs in Congress seemed to be going nowhere. New Mexico's Republican senator Pete Domenici, who heads the Budget Committee, admitted that the president's $1.6 trillion tax plan didn't have the votes to pass, and it was common knowledge that it would be torn to shreds by the time the special interests get at it. Bush's ballyhooed education plan rearranges the chairs on the deck of the Titanic and carries no price tag. Although the president set up an office for his much-touted faith-based action plans, pols rightly spotted an attack on their turf, and liberals raised questions about separation of church and state that promise to tie up the scheme in court for years. One morning Bush shut down the White House AIDS office only to reopen it in the afternoon. The president even seems to be waffling about setting a cap on legal suits against doctors, a subject that makes conservatives froth at the mouth. He still seeks to play to his right wing, and despite a stated desire to "move on," last week gave the go-ahead for a criminal investigation of the Marc Rich pardon. Even the international uproar over the sub accident brought only a presidential order to "review" civilians going on maneuvers, and the Navy merely halted civilians from being on board during "emergency procedures." Meanwhile, mum's the word on the growing energy crisis and increasing signs of serious economic problems at home. --James Ridgeway, 2/21/01
DAY 31, Monday..."George Bush completes his first month in office today, having pulled off the seemingly impossible - cloaking his lack of a mandate under the banner of bipartisanship while pursuing the most radically conservative agenda since the Reagan era." Guardian, 2/19/01
DAY 29, Saturday...Yesterday, Commerce Sec. and Bush Midland billionaire buddy Don Evans decided that he would be the one to have "the final call on whether to adjust the 2000 census results. House Democrats say that could ultimately leave millions of poor people and minorities uncounted. Evans' action Friday returned to the commerce secretary's office the final say over the politically sensitive decision to adjust raw population numbers with a statistical method known as sampling that could protect against an undercount. A regulation issued last year by the Clinton administration had transferred the decision-making power to the Census Bureau's director and a committee of career statisticians at the agency....The stakes are high: The sampled numbers, if approved, could be used to redraw political district boundaries and redistribute over $185 billion in federal funds. Democrats reacted angrily to the announcement, made late Friday of a holiday weekend. "The secretary's action is a perilous step toward disenfranchising the estimated millions of minorities, children and rural residents who were not counted by the 2000 census," said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. The Bush administration "has clearly signaled their intention to influence the final decision for what can only be construed to be motivated by partisan political gain," Gephardt added." AP, 2/17/01
DAY 28, Friday..."Two dozen U.S. and British aircraft bombed five radar and other antiaircraft sites around Baghdad yesterday with guided missiles in the first major military action of the Bush administration. It was the largest airstrike against Iraq in two years and targeted sites near the Iraqi capital, a significant departure from the low-key enforcement of "no-fly" zones in the country's south and north, which the United States declared off-limits to Iraqi aircraft after the Persian Gulf War. President Bush, speaking at a news conference in Mexico alongside Mexican President Vicente Fox, called the raid "routine." But it was widely interpreted in Washington and other world capitals as presaging a get-tough attitude by the new administration toward a country that has vexed U.S. policymakers for more than a decade." --WP, 2/17/01
DAY 27, Thursday..."As his first month in office draws to a close [Bush] has not yet held a formal news conference. That's a mistake. These are the days that set the precedents for a presidency. If the Bush administration fails to set and adhere to a regular schedule of televised meetings with the press, he will be disserving the public and weakening his governing discipline." --William Safire
DAY 26, Wednesday..." UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will not send to the Senate for ratification a treaty creating the world's first global criminal court that was signed by his predecessor Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday. "As you know, the United States, the Bush administration, does not support the International Criminal Court. President Clinton signed the treaty but we have no plans to send it forward to our Senate for ratification," Powell told reporters during a visit to U.N. headquarters. Some Republicans advocated that Bush should even somehow attempt to revoke Clinton's signature, contending the treaty violated U.S. sovereignty or might be used against American soldiers abroad. The International Criminal Court, based on the principles of the Nazi war crime trials at the end of World War II, would try individuals accused of mass murders, war crimes and other gross human rights violations. Widely supported by all Western nations, the court is expected to be set up in the Hague within the next two years after 60 national legislatures have ratified its statutes. A total of 28 nations have done so to date while another 139 have signed the treaty, which usually signals an intention to ratify. Clinton, when he signed the treaty, said he did so to "reaffirm our strong support for international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity." 2/15/01
DAY 25, Tuesday... "In the budget he proposed as a candidate last year, Bush promised to set aside $132 billion over 10 years to help people not covered by private or public health insurance. So far, however, he has not committed any of the federal surplus for this purpose. Unless funds are promptly earmarked, the money will vanish into tax cuts and other priorities." --LAT, 2/14/01
DAY 24, Monday... "After a campaign in which he derided the Clinton administration's handling of the military, Mr. Bush has said he does not intend to increase the Pentagon's budget significantly until Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld completes a review of military strategy and the armed services. The $5.7 billion — $1.4 billion for pay, $3.9 billion for health care and $400 million for housing — would fall within the $310 billion budget that President Bill Clinton outlined for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year that begins in October." --NYT, 2/13/01
DAY 22, Saturday... Patients' bill of rights. The bipartisan measure that passed the House last year and just missed in the Senate is back before a less Republican House and an evenly split Senate. It has fresh blood - John McCain and New Democrat John Edwards of North Carolina - and fresh thinking but retains its core of requiring access to treatment and ending the HMOs' immunity from punishment in the courts in cases where denial leads to real harm. Bush last week signaled his opposition, both by proposing to cover about 100 million fewer patients and continuing effective legal immunity for the HMOs. Keep in mind that by bipartisan I'm talking about measures in which GOP support is at least 20 percent. --Tom Oliphant, 2/11/01
DAY 21, Friday... "Democrats lashed out at President George W. Bush's budget priorities on Friday, allegedly he was considering a $1 billion cut in the Justice Department's budget to help finance his sweeping tax cut plan. The Democratic National Committee said the proposed cutbacks would hurt the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and local police, while helping to fund Bush's $1.6 trillion tax-cut package, which Democrats oppose. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe said it was "clearly a case of misplaced priorities." The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives urged Bush to reconsider. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer would not comment on reports that Bush may cut the Justice Department's budget by $1 billion in the next fiscal year." --Reuters, 2/9/01
DAY 20, Thursday... "According to the latest Gallup poll, conducted over this past weekend, 57% of Americans approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president, while 25% disapprove and 18% have no opinion. The approval percentage is comparable to what Bill Clinton received in his initial rating -- 58% -- and somewhat higher than the 51% rating received by both George H.W. Bush in 1989 and Ronald Reagan in 1981, shortly after each assumed office for the first time. But the 25% disapproval that President George W. Bush receives is the highest initial disapproval that any president has received since Gallup began measuring approval over half a century ago....Bush’s disapproval is 19 points higher than what his father, George H.W. Bush, received in January, 1988." --Gallup News Service, 2/8/01
DAY 19, Wednesday... "President Bush scrambled yesterday to defend his commitment to race relations and helping people with AIDS after his chief of staff [not so] mistakenly said the offices devoted to those issues would be closed. White House officials insisted chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. had been misinformed when he told USA Today that the offices, both created by President Bill Clinton, would be shuttered. The officials said Bush will keep an AIDS office, although with a smaller staff, and will continue to focus on race relations with a Task Force on Uniting America that will not have its own office but will involve senior officials from several parts of the White House. The confusion marked the first significant stumble of a White House that has basked in mostly favorable reviews for its smooth and disciplined performance. The episode also marred Bush's careful effort to repair his relations with African Americans, many of whom remain embittered about the vote in Florida." --WP, 2/8/01
DAY 18, Tuesday..." President George W. Bush has decided to shut down the White House offices on AIDS policy and race relations, angering activists who say the move sends the wrong signal about his commitment to those issues, USA Today reported on Wednesday. The Office of National AIDS Policy and the Office on the President's Initiative for One America, both created by former President Clinton...were created to highlight the issues and help government agencies work together." --Reuters, 2/7/01
DAY 17, Monday..."Bush, who campaigned on a promise to bring Republicans and Democrats together on legislation defining patients' rights, raised objections today to the major bipartisan bill addressing the issue in Congress....He said the McCain-Kennedy bill would make it too easy for patients to sue health maintenance organizations and insurance companies. And he said he feared that the bill could increase insurance costs, prompting employers to discontinue coverage." --NYT, 2/6/01
DAY 15, Saturday..." Germany, the frontline of the US military presence in Europe during the cold war, will confront the new American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in Munich [today] about Washington's plans to build a national missile defence system (NMD). The Germans are particularly worried that the Pentagon may ask its European allies come under an extended missile shield. One senior official in Berlin called it a "poisoned chalice". At an annual conference on security policy, Mr Rumsfeld, a cold war hawk and now a proselytiser for NMD, will come face to face with a formidable coalition of European leaders apprehensive about the proposed system. Opposition to the NMD-nicknamed "son of Star Wars" - is not the only potential source of tension in Munich this weekend. Europe is nervously awaiting the response of President Bush's team to its plan to set up a common European defence force. Berlin is afraid that a tough line from Washington, which is suspicious that European force ocould undermine Nato, together with mounting tension caused by the NMD, could prompt the worst crisis in US-European relations in decades. The Germans will tell Mr Rumsfeld that they have a list of questions about the efficacy and impact of the proposed anti-missile shield. The first is whether the system, designed to protect America against attack from so-called "rogue" states such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea, would be extended to cover Europe - and, if so, at what price. Senior foreign policy advisers in Berlin fear that the huge cost of development could make NMD unpopular with highly taxed European electorates. "How would we explain to the German people why we are spending millions on NMD rather than on health or the environment?" a senior German diplomat asked. There is also concern that a wider missile system could be used by the US to argue that a separate European defence force was unnecessary. Senior advisers to the German government are warning that the missile plan could prompt China in particular to develop something similar and defray the vast cost by selling the technology to some of the states against which NMD is directed. The Germans' other prime objection is that the system would undermine international arms-control treaties." --Guardian, 2/2/01
DAY 14, Friday...This week Stephen Goldsmith, a spokesman for Bush's faith-based program, said it was possible for the government to give funds to religious organizations as long as they did not use those funds for religious purposes. Last week another Bush spokesman said it was impossible for the government to give funds to international orgainizations that included abortion education in their programs because funds for abortion education could not be kept separate from the other funds. Another lie was that the funds would be used for abortions, not abortion education. --Politex, 2/3/01
DAY 13, Thursday..."DURING THE transition, George W. Bush seized on the weakening economy to press his case for a big tax cut, even though few experts believe that tax policy is the best way to smooth the economic cycle. Now the president is seizing on California's electricity crisis to press his case for drilling in Alaska's national parks, even though there is only a tenuous connection between these two issues. Mr. Bush's energy policy, like his proposed tax cut, may or may not be advisable. But his opportunistic use of current events clearly is not." --Washington Post, 2/3/01
DAY 12, Wednesday..."House Republican leaders are backing away from the creation of a new select committee on electoral reform after President Bush and members of the Judiciary Committee raised "serious reservations" about the formation of the panel, according to GOP sources....Democrats said they are taking [steps] in response to what they consider signs that GOP leaders are trying to delay the issue to death." --Roll Call, 2/1/01
DAY 11, Tuesday..." Charitable Choice: Aiming to boost plans for expanding faith-based social services, the president wants to broaden the concept of charitable choice, which allows federal support for social programs sponsored by religious groups. The president's goal is to marry the Christian right's interest in religion with liberals' desire to broaden social programs. To make the program work, he wants to expand tax deductions, giving people the right to deduct contributions even if they don't itemize their returns. The plan is likely to cause a real fight in Congress over the separation of church and state." --VV, 2/2/01
DAY 10, Monday..."THE MEDICARE payroll tax has traditionally been reserved for paying hospital bills. The cost of other care has been covered by a combination of premiums and general revenues. Now the Bush administration wants to change that mix. The purpose is to create more room -- or the appearance of room -- for the president's proposed tax cut. The administration would use the payroll tax -- Medicare's share of "FICA" -- to cover a larger share of costs, beginning with the cost of the prescription drug benefit that, to different degrees, both parties want to confer. The larger the share assigned to the payroll tax, the smaller the burden left to be borne by general revenues, and the more it will seem that the country can afford the tax cut. But the converse is also true: the larger the burden on the payroll tax, the faster the Medicare program runs out of money. The shift the administration suggests would amount to financing a significant share of the tax cut -- as much as a third of a trillion dollars' worth in just the first 10 years -- at Medicare's expense. And that is wrong." --Washington Post, 2/4/01
DAY 8, Saturday..."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One week after taking office, President George W. Bush delivered his first weekly radio address on Saturday, focusing on his top domestic policy proposal thus far -- reforming America's schools.... Bush's proposal would...allow poor students in failing schools to apply the federal and state aid their schools receive -- averaging about $1,500 per student per year -- to help low-income parents pay for private tuition, a tutor or an after-school program. Some Democrats have objected to the voucher initiative because they say it would drain federal funds from already financially strapped public schools" and that it would further break down the distinction between church and state. 1/28/01
DAY 7, Friday..."Despite objections from Russia and other countries, President George W. Bush will move ahead with a national missile defense plan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday." (MSNBC) The Bush version of Reagan's failed "Star Wars" system, designed to defend all 50 states, has been called "limited" by the Bush administration, but if it is ever built it will be the costliest defensive weapon system in U.S. history. No administration has ever demonstrated that the system is capable of working, and there is little indication that the outcome will be any different under Bush. --Politex, 1/26/01
DAY 6, Thursday...Given the growing anticipated surplus, Chairman Greenspan now believes that it would be possible to both bring down the deficit and have tax cuts, but, unlike Bush, cautions "that any long-term tax plan should be phased in, in recognition of the uncertainties in the budget outlook." Greenspan also scoffed at the Bush "notion that tax cuts are needed to stimulate the slowing economy. Monetary policy remains the best weapon for the near term — as Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill all but conceded in his confirmation hearings. Mr. Greenspan said the economy was now close to zero growth and that inflationary pressures were under control — a statement that some took as a signal that the Fed will cut interest rates again next week. That, not a big tax cut, is the best remedy." --NYT ED, 1/26/01
DAY 5, Wednesday...Bush's "initial approach to Congress also did not signal a high priority for bipartisanship....Indications were that major legislative proposals would be introduced first and bipartisan consensus, if any, would be achieved in negotiations later.... The administration has not so far indicated any great interest in negotiating with the Democratic Senate and House leadership, preferring to seek the support of individual Democrats. On the tax-cut proposal... the administration has succeeded in peeling off Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia [, the newly-appointed conservative ex-governor of Georgia,] to co-sponsor, with Republican Phil Gramm of Texas, a bill embodying the president's ideas of reducing taxes by $1.3 trillion and eliminating the marriage tax "penalty" and the inheritance tax." --Christian Science Monitor, 1/16/01
DAY 4, Tuesday..."President George W. Bush on Tuesday unveiled his education reform bill, with its school voucher component, even as Democrats and an alliance of moderate Republicans offered their own plans, minus the divisive issue of vouchers." MSNBC, 1/23/01
DAY 3, Monday..."Bush has decided to block U.S. funds to international family-planning groups that offer abortion and abortion counseling, a White House official said Monday." --CNN, 1/22/01
DAY 1, Saturday..."Moving quickly upon taking office, President George W. Bush on Saturday issued an order that essentially blocked some of the last-minute executive orders and rules laid down by outgoing President Clinton. The order was believed to apply to such orders as new regulations for managed care programs under Medicare and new environmental rules on runoff from animal feeding operations." --Reuters, 1/20/01
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