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View Full Version : What has Bush done for you?



mesue
04-28-2005, 10:35 PM
Below is a list of what he did his first year in office, I could not find anything beyond that, (I'm sure the second list would be worse). I am serious about this question since many here think he is so great, what exactly has his policies and politics done for you? Its gotten so bad that even I am starting to feel sorry for the people still driving around with their Bush/ Cheney bumper stickers, especially the poor people. Honestly I can understand why a wealthy person would vote for Bush after all he is doing something for them. Here is what he did for all of us in his first year.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=12741

Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops

Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million

Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training

Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water

Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons

Cut funding by 28 percent for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks

Ended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws

Abandoned Bush's campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation

Reduced by 86 percent the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics and providers of care for people without insurance

Rescinded a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents

Suspended rules that would require hardrock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands

Cut $60 million from a Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America program for public housing

Proposed to eliminate a federal program, designed and successfully used in Seattle, to help communities prepare for natural disasters

Pulled out of the 1972 ABM treaty and the 1997 Kyoto global warming agreement

Cut $200 million of workforce training for dislocated workers

Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat on their property;

Cut a program to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare to work

Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though it still pays for Viagra)

Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing

Cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million

Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List

Rescinded the rule that mandated increased energy-saving efficiency regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps

Repealed workplace ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety

Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, the waste gas that contributes to global warming

Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counseling with other independent funds

Closed the White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach

Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling

Proposed to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments

Gutted the White House AIDS Office

Renegotiated the free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate workers' rights and safeguards for the environment

Announced the federal government will no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in recommendations for the federal judiciary Appointments

Taken steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality

Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program

Held up federal funding for stem cell research projects

Ensured convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can

Refused to fund continued cleanup of a uranium-slag heap in Utah

Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit

Proposed a $2 trillion tax cut, of which 43 percent will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans

Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills

Cut $15.7 million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse and neglect

Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children

Proposed to reverse regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building

Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program which taught school children about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and citizenship

Canceled 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype high mileage cars

Sought the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII

Earmarked $4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents

Reduced by 40 percent the Low Income Home Assistance Program for low-income individuals who need assistance paying energy bills

Proposed to ease permit process, including environmental considerations, for refinery, nuclear and hydroelectric dam construction

Proposed to give government the authority to take private property through eminent domain for power lines

Proposed that $1.2 billion in funding for alternative renewable energy come from selling oil and gas lease tracts in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve

Planned to serve genetically engineered foods at all official government functions.

mesue
04-28-2005, 10:47 PM
BTW a bit of humor I saw Bush making a speech about our dependency on oil and he said we needed to get away from FOSSIL FUEL so he is proposing more money for future fuel from coal, here is a definition of coal. http://lsa.colorado.edu/essence/texts/coal.htm
Coal is a fossil fuel created from the remains of plants that lived and died about 100 to 400 million years ago when parts of the earth were covered with huge swampy forests. Coal is classified as a nonrenewable energy source because it takes millions of years to form.
Then he said we needed more nuclear plants and to look into more technology and here is where it really gets funny, at that very moment CNN lost the satellite signal to Bush, too funny, the irony of it all. I was already laughing so hard my stomach hurt from the fossil fuel thing but then when he said we needed to depend more on technology and disappeared off the screen. I thought I was going to need oxygen to recover.

llbriteyes
04-29-2005, 05:21 AM
Well, glad you asked. Most of you know my husband lost his job due to outsourcing (thanks George). When he left, he got a pittance severance "package" that included ONE MONTH of health insurance... long gone, and a small severance pay that they taxed at 25%. The kicker is, when they closed the plant, all their savings accounts, 401K's, etc., were disbursed to the employees. The 401K should have been rolled over. We could have rolled it over once we got it, but they had already taken out taxes on it. Because we stuck it into a savings account instead of rolling it over, he was not eligible for unemployment funds, even though it was a mass layoff. How's that for fair?

So now we have a tiny savings account to live on until he finds another decent job. If toilet cleaning at McDonald's paid enough to live on, he'd do it.

Another offshoot is that I receive Medicare, due to disability. I had only part A (hospitalization) because I always had my husband's insurance to cover office visits and medication. Now that's done. Here's the kicker on that... I am not eligible to apply for Medicade part B until January of next year, so I have to pay out of pocket for office visits and medication. I appled for a state medication discount card, of which I was approved. Now I'm a drain on society. Go figure.

Thank you, George.

Linda

excuseme
04-29-2005, 05:31 AM
Bush's new budget proposal includes a 10 billion dollar cut to the Medicare, and 70 billion dollars in tax cuts for you know who...


Well, glad you asked. Most of you know my husband lost his job due to outsourcing (thanks George). When he left, he got a pittance severance "package" that included ONE MONTH of health insurance... long gone, and a small severance pay that they taxed at 25%. The kicker is, when they closed the plant, all their savings accounts, 401K's, etc., were disbursed to the employees. The 401K should have been rolled over. We could have rolled it over once we got it, but they had already taken out taxes on it. Because we stuck it into a savings account instead of rolling it over, he was not eligible for unemployment funds, even though it was a mass layoff. How's that for fair?

So now we have a tiny savings account to live on until he finds another decent job. If toilet cleaning at McDonald's paid enough to live on, he'd do it.

Another offshoot is that I receive Medicare, due to disability. I had only part A (hospitalization) because I always had my husband's insurance to cover office visits and medication. Now that's done. Here's the kicker on that... I am not eligible to apply for Medicade part B until January of next year, so I have to pay out of pocket for office visits and medication. I appled for a state medication discount card, of which I was approved. Now I'm a drain on society. Go figure.

Thank you, George.

Linda

llbriteyes
04-29-2005, 01:47 PM
Yeah, I know... Thanks George.

Linda


Bush's new budget proposal includes a 10 billion dollar cut to the Medicare, and 70 billion dollars in tax cuts for you know who...

gobs101
04-29-2005, 04:02 PM
Bush has cost me so much, the life of my precious son Army Sgt.Christopher.

nightrider127
04-29-2005, 04:55 PM
Bush has cost me so much, the life of my precious son Army Sgt.Christopher.


Gobs, I think of you a lot. You and your entire family will continue to be in my prayers. May you all feel the comfort of Gods love.

tigger4
04-29-2005, 06:55 PM
Bush has cost me so much, the life of my precious son Army Sgt.Christopher.


I am so very sorry for your loss.

It makes me feel guilty to even think I have lost anything because of Bush's policies, when you have lost the most precious thing a person can have. :(

jcw
04-29-2005, 07:54 PM
well he's given me lots of laughs ....just about every time he opens his mouth :D
so glad there can't be 4 more years

llbriteyes
05-01-2005, 04:47 AM
That's the worst cut of all. I am so sorry.

Linda



Bush has cost me so much, the life of my precious son Army Sgt.Christopher.

schsa
05-01-2005, 08:15 AM
Ok, I will give him credit for one thing. "No Child Left Behind". I can't say that it's a perfect program but at least he tried to do something right. And all those budget cuts went to finance his war.

llbriteyes
05-01-2005, 08:40 AM
My daughter, who is a junior in college to become a high school English teacher would disagree with you. She's rabid about it. I, however, don't know enough on this issue to comment.

Linda



Ok, I will give him credit for one thing. "No Child Left Behind". I can't say that it's a perfect program but at least he tried to do something right. And all those budget cuts went to finance his war.

cathych
05-01-2005, 02:58 PM
I really don't think that he gives a second thought to this war & how it has affected the common people. And, what of the people of Iraq? Innocent people over their every day are being affected by this war. This man will have a lot to answer for when he gets to the Pearly Gates.

mesue
05-01-2005, 05:15 PM
My daughter, who is a junior in college to become a high school English teacher would disagree with you. She's rabid about it. I, however, don't know enough on this issue to comment.

Linda

My daughter is an art teacher and is also against it too. And like you I don't know that much about it. I do agree with Bush that something needs to be done but apparently this no child left behind act is a joke. If anyone here is aware of why so many are against it please post it.

I posted my thoughts on this, first off to solve the issue of the bad school situation no one working for our government should be allowed to send their children to provate schools (IMO should be part of their contract, they want to take our money but then get too good to live in our world). They should have to send their precious babies to public school right along with our kids. If that Congressman or Senator gets something for his child's school then it should be split with every school in that district, that way no one school would be better than the other. There should be a smaller teacher to student ratio, one teacher per every so many kids. Right now we are giving people tax breaks in some states who send their children to private school, these tax breaks are probably taken out of your schools budget in the long run. So what we have is the elite getting a tax break to send their babies to a better school while the poor are forced to send theirs off to a school that is getting less money so less teachers, less everything. Then we wonder why the elite kids is so smart and getting better pay and our kid is trying to learn to read, face it the field will never be level with the system we got now, just like it was for many of us, and things are getting worse not better. Bush is right something needs to be done, but I am not sure this no child left behind is anything but a feel good sounding attempt to rob our kids of even more.

tigger4
05-02-2005, 05:53 AM
In theory the No Child Left Behind Act is a good thing. Too bad it didn't come with the funding needed to implement it.

My favorite cut of his as far as education was if Head Starts and Early Head Starts did not fill all available spaces in their sites by September they lost funding. We really scrambled last summer signing up all the parents we could. We paid past parents to recruit new parents. It is ridiculous. No school fills all of their available spaces by the beginning of the year, especially in military communities.

Jaidness
05-02-2005, 05:01 PM
ummm let's see....not a darn thing except teach me to be more vigilant in demanding the truth and seeking it out, and making my government accountable. He has taught me not to believe everything I see and hear on TV. He has taught me tolerance beyond what i have ever thought possible and actually HE didn't do those things... I did.

mesue
05-02-2005, 07:57 PM
In theory the No Child Left Behind Act is a good thing. Too bad it didn't come with the funding needed to implement it.

My favorite cut of his as far as education was if Head Starts and Early Head Starts did not fill all available spaces in their sites by September they lost funding. We really scrambled last summer signing up all the parents we could. We paid past parents to recruit new parents. It is ridiculous. No school fills all of their available spaces by the beginning of the year, especially in military communities.

So thats it he starts a program that is going to be time consuming and costly but does not provide extra funding for it thus taking away from other educational programs. I knew he had already cut funding for education over and over and figured this was some kind of feel good thing that sounded good but would end up creating more problems. So basically this is an attempt to put the blame on the teachers.
My daughter who is an art teacher actually went out and purchased art supplies out of her own pocket because the budget was so small. She also has such large classes that she said it was an issue just to get some children to behave so that others could learn and she could actually teach. Can you imagine being a teacher with approx. 50 students at one time, it is almost impossible to supervise them let alone to teach.

YankeeMary
05-06-2005, 03:39 AM
Bush has cost me so much, the life of my precious son Army Sgt.Christopher.
Dawn, many times my thought turn to you and your grief. I pray for you and yours. I did plant my seeds you sent in memory of Christopher. After we planted them we said a prayer for your family and a thank you to your fine son for his service to us all. He is our hero. HUGS!!!

tigger4
05-06-2005, 02:35 PM
So thats it he starts a program that is going to be time consuming and costly but does not provide extra funding for it thus taking away from other educational programs. I knew he had already cut funding for education over and over and figured this was some kind of feel good thing that sounded good but would end up creating more problems. So basically this is an attempt to put the blame on the teachers.
My daughter who is an art teacher actually went out and purchased art supplies out of her own pocket because the budget was so small. She also has such large classes that she said it was an issue just to get some children to behave so that others could learn and she could actually teach. Can you imagine being a teacher with approx. 50 students at one time, it is almost impossible to supervise them let alone to teach.


Now schools have to teach even more to the standards testing. In our state that means children in elementary are not taught art, health, social studies, history, and just this year started being taught science since it is now on the test.

If the schools do not achieve a certain "grade" on the tests they can lose funding.