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This
Is Getting Old, Mr. President
President
George W. Bush looked relaxed and confident when he gave his
State of the Union address to Congress on Jan. 20. His easy
delivery, his smiles and engaging glances, radiated security
and happiness. He was in command, and the future was his and
it was good.
The president was so happy that it seems churlish to point
out the shabby deceptions in his speech. For example, his
remarks on health care began with congratulations to Congress
for “strengthening Medicare.” He noted with obvious pleasure
that, “starting this year, seniors can choose to receive a
drug discount card, saving them 10 to 25 percent off the retail
price of most prescription drugs.”
Actually, seniors have been able to get those cards from pharmacies
and pharmaceutical companies for the past few years. What’s
new is the government’s endorsement of these private discount
plans. But Bush neglected to tell the whole truth—namely,
that which drugs are covered and the amount of discount depends
on the whim of the pharmaceutical company.
He went on to say that “In January of 2006, seniors can get
prescription drug coverage under Medicare.” To be completely
truthful, he should have said that in two years Medicare beneficiaries
will be able to pay every month for a privately run prescription-drug-coverage
insurance policy. The premiums to pay for this private insurance
will be deducted from their Social Security checks, and the
premiums are expected to rise every year. By the way, these
new premiums will be in addition to the premiums seniors already
pay for Medicare Part B. The most astonishing part of Bush’s
plan to reduce drug costs is the provision that forbids Medicare
from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to lower the
cost of drugs. Yup.
Despite what the president told us, none of this “strengthens”
Medicare. On the contrary, these programs are designed to
weaken it. Why in the world would George W. Bush want to strengthen
our government health-care system? As he said, lifting his
voice for emphasis, “A government-run health care system
is the wrong prescription.” At that point, Republicans
burst into a thunderous applause that abated only long enough
for him to declare that it’s “the system of private medicine
that makes America’s health care the best in the world.” No.
America’s health-care system isn’t the best in the world—not
unless you’re very, very rich or very well insured.
Bush finds it very hard to tell the truth about his foreign
affairs, too. Two years ago he had told us that Saddam Hussein
had weapons of mass destruction and was soon to use them against
us. Now he said, “We’re seeking all the facts. Already, the
Kay Report identified dozens of weapons-of-mass-destruction-related
program activities and significant amounts of equipment that
Iraq concealed from the United Nations.” The clumsy phrase
about “weapons-of-mass-destruction-related program activities”
is the result of our president trying to twist the truth around
to sound like something more to his liking.
Three days after he uttered those purposely confusing words,
the author of the Kay Report, David Kay, stepped down as leader
of our hunt for banned weapons. “I don’t think they existed,”
he said. “What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced
after the end of the last (1991) Gulf War, and I don’t think
there was a large-scale production program in the ’90s.”
David Kay was the president’s own investigator, and Bush knew
what was in the report. So he decided to talk with a forked
tongue. He knew that Kay was leaving and he had already chosen
Kay’s successor. But, being George W. Bush, he hadn’t expected
Kay to volunteer the truth to the press.
Bush won’t tell the truth about his foreign policy, but he
won’t stop talking about it either. So we have the sad spectacle
of our president again reciting a list of “our partners Britain,
Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand,
Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine,
Romania, the Netherlands—(applause)—Norway, El Salvador, and
the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq.”
To speak plainly, with rare exceptions, our “partners” had
to be bribed or threatened to give minimal token support to
a policy which, in their own country, had little popular backing
and much opposition. And “committing” troops is quite different
from actually having sent them into combat. On the day that
Bush spoke, Japan—third on his list of supporters—had an advance
party of 35 troops in Iraq. According to the Associated Press,
most Japanese oppose the deployment.
During the run-up to the war, the Pentagon and the State Department
produced reports for Bush that gave an accurate picture of
Iraq’s collapsing oil production and the skimpy revenue it
brought in. But he turned around and gave our Congress a wholly
different account and he assured us – through the words of
Donald Rumsfeld in the Financial Times– “When it comes
to reconstruction, before we turn to the American taxpayer,
we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government
and the international community.”
Well, here we are. Military expenses in the Middle East and
elsewhere drove up the spending that Congress controls by
almost 16 percent in fiscal year 2003. And the president will
have to ask for an additional $40 billion or more for military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year. That will be
on top of the $400-billion military budget he will send to
Congress in February. Tens of billions here, hundreds of billions
there, it adds up.
The U.S. plunged into a record $374 billion budget deficit
in fiscal 2003, and the White House has projected the fiscal
2004 deficit could top $500 billion. Add up the accumulated
deficits, and you get a total outstanding public debt of more
than $7 trillion. In case the typographer gets it wrong, that’s
a numeral seven followed by twelve zeros.
It’s easy to find the deceptions and twisted half-truths in
Bush’s State of the Union address, but it’s really no fun.
He’s the president of the United States, and he’s a liar,
and it’s dispiriting.
—Gene
Mirabelli
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