It's quite in vogue right now to hate George W. Bush. And I find it somewhat disturbing.
It's like all the Johnny-Come-Lately's are tainting the long term legitimate concerns many Americans have had about George W. Bush, his competence, and his administration. It's been evident to some of us from day one.
Everyone is now (finally) against the war in Iraq, and recognizing the lies that were told to get us into it. That's the sole basis for many American's disapproval of the President and his administration.
However, I have been watching this president since he took office, I and others have been tracking his harmful actions, and so this post will be dedicated to informing readers and showing the reasons -- other than Iraq -- that the President and his Administration are worthy of your disapproval.
The following table documents the actions of Bush during the first four months of his "reign" - and prior to September 11, 2001. It's what alerted some of us early that he would be a disaster of a President.
1-22-2001: CNN
Bush defunds international organizations that provide abortions or abortion counseling to poor women. Organizations that provide healthcare to the third world will no longer be allowed to offer abortions or even counseling about options that include abortion if they want to continue to receive federal funding. Either they forego the funding, which could mean they'd have to shut down, or they comply with this directive, which adds to population problems and subjects women to the morality of conservative Americans. Back-alley abortions will likely result in death for many women.
2-7-2001: CNN
Bush almost closes White House AIDS and race offices. In what will become a pattern for the Bush administration, Chief of Staff Andy Card announces that White House will close its offices on AIDS and race relations. After a brief but virulent media firestorm, the administration backtracks, claiming that the person responsible for running the White House "wasn't aware" that the offices were remaining open.
3-3-2001: Washington Post
Bush lies about his tax cut. Contrary to Democratic reports that more than 40 percent of his tax cut goes to the richest 1 percent of Americans, Bush says that only 22 percent will go to them. But his analysis, Bush leaves out the estate tax cut and the last bits of income tax rate reductions--all of which go to the rich. He just picks and chooses the portions he likes in order to come up with the number he wants--and it's still too high.
3-9-2001: CNN
Bush postures over North Korea. Secretary of State Colin Powell announces that he'd like to continue the diplomatic progress the Clinton administration has made with North Korea. A day later, Bush contradicts his chief diplomat, saying he doesn't trust North Korea to honor their agreements. When a reporter later points out that America has only one agreement with North Korea--which the country has honored--the administration's press flacks explain this by saying that referring to the future in the present tense is just the way the president talks. Meanwhile, the world sits in wonder over our Bush's huge diplomatic step backward.
3-13-2001: CNN
Bush reverses stance on CO2 emissions. Despite a campaign pledge to the contrary, Bush decides he won't tell American factories to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, one of the leading causes of the greenhouse effect. He says the energy crisis requires him to delay action in this area, but does nothing to curb U.S. consumption, which would reduce pollution and alleviate the energy crisis.
3-20-2001: CNN
Bush signs ergonomics repeal. Bush signs a bill that repeals Clinton administration rules designed to protect Americans from ergonomic injuries. The rules, 10 years of study by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the making, are opposed by Bush's friends in the business world, who fear the cost. Of course the long-term cost of dealing with injured workers is much higher.
3-20-2001: CNN
Bush keeps the arsenic levels in drinking water high. Bush delays Clinton administration rules that would have lowered the maximum allowable level of arsenic in drinking water. The standard has remained unchanged since 1942. Who benefits from the higher levels?. The mining companies and other industrial interests that would have to pay more to avoid polluting the water supply. These interests donated generously to Bush's campaign. Anyone surprised?
3-22-2001: CNN
Bush ends ABA's role in selecting federal judges. For 50 years, the American Bar Association has advised the White House on the qualifications of potential nominees for the federal bench. Ever since it gave Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork a mixed (but mostly positive) review, conservatives have been gunning for the ABA, claiming that the organization has a liberal bias. Bush has given into their demands and seems poised to replace the ABA's advice with that of the Federalist Society, a group of lawyers that makes no bones about its ultraconservative biases.
3-23-2001: Salon.com
Bush cuts programs for children in his budget. Showing the compassionate side of his conservatism, Bush reduces spending on programs that deal with child abuse, preschool education, and training for pediatricians.
3-29-2001: CNN
Bush pulls out of the Kyoto treaty. Prompting an outcry from the international community, Bush says that the United States won't support the Kyoto treaty to reduce global warming because it would hurt the American economy and doesn't hold third-world countries responsible for their pollution. Bush sees no irony in being concerned about the effects of pollution reduction on the world's strongest economy while caring not a whit about the most fragile economies.
3-30-2001 : Washington Post
Bush cuts police budget. One of the reasons for the sharp reductions in crime during the Clinton administration was the increase in community police. Now Bush wants to cut those cops out of the budget to pay for increased security in our schools because, after all, shootings in schools get more media coverage than shootings on the street.
3-30-2001 : Washington Post
Bush makes it easier for criminals to get federal contracts. Our law-and-order conservative president doesn't want to throw the people who run corporations that break worker safety and environmental laws in jail. Bush would rather they get federal contracts, so he suspends Clinton administration rules making it more difficult for companies that broke the law to bid on lucrative federal contracts. Why isn't this simply illegal?
3-31-2001 : Women's Enews
Bush closes White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach. A common campaign theme for Bush was "W Stands for Women." This catchy slogan made it onto thousands of posters, but the message never got through to Bush. One of his first acts as president is to close the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach, created by President Clinton to give women's groups a greater role in public policy.
4-4-2001 : New York Times
Bush cuts health programs for uninsured. The budget plan Bush sent to Congress includes deep cuts in programs championed by the Clinton administration. The cuts will make it more difficult to provide training to doctors and nurses who want to provide services in underserved areas. The programs he's cutting have also increased the number of minorities in healthcare jobs.
4-4-2001 : USA Today
Bush declares open season on the national parks. Soon visitors to our now-peaceful national parks will be greeted with a dramatic new site: oil and natural gas drills. While I'm not an expert in such manners, it's impossible to imagine a national park remaining unchanged after an oil drilling team gets through with it. National parks are supposed to be preserves, not oil fields, and Bush's insistence on solving energy problems by finding more fuel instead of reducing consumption is doubly bad for the environment.
4-6-2001 : San Francisco Chronicle
Bush removes protections for marine wildlife. Every environmental policy has its opponent in the world of business, and marine wildlife protection zones are no exception. Commercial fishermen resent the zones because it limits the areas that they can catch fish. Given the choice between a U.S. business interest and saving a few hundred species of fish, mammal, and plant, President Bush unsurprisingly looks poised to choose the former.
4-12-2001 : Washington Post
Bush delays release of a report linking dioxin consumption to cancer. While some of us would like the government to keep us fully informed on public health issues, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans are doing the bidding of the chemical and agribusiness industries and delaying a report on that links dioxins--one of which was the active ingredient in Agent Orange--to cancer. The EPA has studied and restudied this issue for years, but it has never released a final report because of industry pressure. Now that Bush is running the EPA, cattlemen and chemical companies aren't worried at all about these results affecting administration policy.
4-12-2001 : Washington Post
Bush tries to cut birth control coverage for federal workers. In what can only be described as an attempt to impose his religious beliefs on all federal workers, Bush is trying to remove birth control coverage from all federal insurance plans. He is, in effect, trying to make sure that women who choose to work for the government--single or married--don't make their own decisions about whether or not they want to have a baby. It's an unprecedented attack on women's freedom to make their own reproductive choices, one that has nothing to do with abortion.
4-12-2001 : Washington Post
Bush makes it harder to put species on the endangered list. The vast majority of animals and plants on the endangered species list get there because of lawsuits. Someone (usually an environmental group) sues a government entity or private company to prevent encroachment on a species' habitat, and a court order places the species on the endangered list. Now Bush wants to take that power out of the courts' hands and give it to Gale Norton--a woman who once wrote that the Endangered Species Act was unconstitutional.
4-13-2001 : CNN
Bush donates cash to the gay-bashing Boy Scouts. Making money off campaign autobiographies is a no-no for politicians. So Bush made sure to find an appropriate charity to donate the proceeds from his ghost-written A Charge to Keep. He split the money evenly among the Boys and Girls Clubs (although the $25,000 they got doesn't do much to make up for the $60 million he cut out of the budget--see item for 14 April above), the Girl Scouts, and the Boy Scouts, which regularly kicks out its members for being gay. It's always nice to know that our leader has no qualms about supporting an organization that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.
4-13-2001 : Washington Post
Bush relaxes standards on appliance energy efficiency. Faced with an energy crisis, the Bush administration has consistently chosen to plunder the land for more oil rather than try to conserve energy--the better for his cronies in the energy business. Pleasing one more sector of the corporate world--appliance manufacturers--Bush decides to relax Clinton administration rules requiring air conditioners to be more energy efficient.
4-14-2001 : Salon.com
Bush cuts funding to programs he's used as photo ops. The president visits an Atlanta area children's hospital. His wife goes to a library to kick off "The Campaign for America's Libraries." He visits a Boys and Girls Club six times since he started campaigning, always making sure there are plenty of photographers around. But the budget Bush sends to Congress cuts training programs for pediatricians, federal funding for libraries, and money that goes to the Boys and Girls Clubs. Just like in the campaign, where he took credit for Texas laws he had fought, Bush has no problems appearing to support the things he doesn't, as long as it looks good for the voters.
4-17-2001 : USA Today
Bush auctions the rights to offshore Florida oil drilling. The president is a states' rights conservative who often during the campaign refused to tackle difficult questions (such as the one about the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina statehouse) by saying that issues should be decided by the people of an individual state. But Bush doesn't stick to his principles if it stands in the way of his oil buddies making some cash. Against the wishes of the people of Florida and the state's Republican governor--Bush's brother Jeb--the administration has decided to auction the rights to offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first time we've seen someone say "fuck you" to the environment, states' rights, and his own brother in one fell swoop.
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