Has President Bush Kept His Promise to Keep His Promises?
June 29, 2005
"A promise made will be a promise kept, should I be fortunate enough to
become your president."
- George W. Bush, October 10, 2000
AmeriCorps
Bush Promise: "I think the reauthorization of these important federal initiatives should
proceed. And one of the things is funding, of course. And I've asked for $290 million in
new funding for these programs for the year 2003. And I've also - and it's to help meet
these goals. 25,000 additional new AmeriCorps members, 25,000 more than we have
now today all across the country. 100,000 new Senior Corps members." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, April 9, 2002)
Promise Broken: "The president promised to expand AmeriCorps by 50 percent, from
50,000 volunteers to 75,000 volunteers. But in 2003, he signed legislation that cut
AmeriCorps's operating budget by 30 percent. This year, the national service program
has half as many members as it did in 2001." (The Chronicle of Philanthropy, January
22, 2004)
Promise Broken: "When I heard last week that President Bush and Congress were
slashing AmeriCorps by 80 percent, my first reaction was to feel suckered. After his
2002 State of the Union Message, I wrote a column praising the president for promising
to expand the program (which he placed under USA Freedom Corps) by 50 percent and
attacking critics who made light of Bush's commitment. I actually believed that community service was important to this man, and that he saw it as a patriotic response to
9-11. Then I brought myself up short...what if I was snookered?" (Jonathan Alter,
Newsweek, June 30, 2003)
Aid to Afghanistan
Bush Promise: "I can promise, too, that America will join the world in helping the
people of Afghanistan rebuild their country." (Federal News Service, November 10,
2001)
Promise Broken: "The low level of funding for the reconstruction of Afghanistan remains astonishing." (Center for International Cooperation, April 12, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Afghanistan has little money for reconstruction of any kind; the
funds that nations and philanthropies promised soon after the fall of the Taliban in large
part failed to materialize." (Arthur Levine, President, Teachers College of Columbia University, The Washington Post, April 4, 2004)
Promise Broken: "President Bush's former ambassador to Afghanistan James Dobbins
called reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan `the least resourced, large-scale American
reconstruction program ever.'" (Al Jazeera, March 1, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Of course, the people see that nothing has been done...this is a
problem for the government of Afghanistan. If the U.S. would help rebuild Afghanistan,
then the organizers [of the anti-American protest in Kabul] wouldn't have so many
people joining them." (Quote by Deputy Interior Minister Hilaluddin Hilal, The Washington Post, May 7, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "Our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al
Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever." (White House Web Site, November
24, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Nearly two years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, remnants of the Islamic extremist group are regrouping and attacking U.S. troops." (Los Angeles Times, November 12, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The overlooked war continues with no end in sight. Narcotics trafficking is at an all-time high. If U.S. forces were to leave, the Taliban - or something
like it - would regain power. The U.S. is lost in Afghanistan, bound to this wild country
and unable to leave...The situation in Afghanistan, as laid out to me, looks nothing like a
country alleged to be progressing toward representative democracy under American
tutelage." (Robert Novak, May 31, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "We're helping Afghanistan to claim its democratic future, and we're
helping that nation to establish public order and safety...We will stay the course to help
that country develop..." (White House Web site, October 11, 2002)
Promise Broken: "This effort may fail. It will not fail because of a lack of desire, a lack
of commitment by millions of Afghans, or a lack of bravery... Instead, it may fail because
the administration has been unwilling to recognize the magnitude of the threats which
we face and to direct sufficient political, military and financial resources to overcome
them." (Testimony by Mark L. Schneider, Sr. Vice President, International Crisis Group,
to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on "Afghanistan - Continuing Challenges,"
May 12, 2004)
Armed Forces
Bush Promise: "I understand how hard it is to commit troops. Never wanted to commit
troops...But a president must always be willing to use troops. It must -- as a last resort. I was hopeful diplomacy would work in Iraq." (First Presidential Debate, September 30, 2004)
Promise Broken: "There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now
seen as inevitable...It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided." (British "Downing Street" Memo from Matthew Rycroft to David Manning, RE: IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, July 23,
2002)
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Bush Promise: "I want to make sure the housing is the best possible for our military
families." (White House Web Site, January 3, 2003)
Promise Broken: "A month before the war started, the White House proposed cutting
$1.5 billion for military housing. Progressive lawmakers countered with an amendment
to restore $1 billion in housing funds and pay for it by reducing new tax cuts Bush was
proposing for 200,000 Americans who make more than $1 million a year. Instead of
getting $88,000 in tax cuts, the poor millionaires would get only $83,000. But the
House, with White House backing, voted the proposal down." (Chicago Tribune, June
10, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "I want to make sure we rebuild our military to keep the peace. I worry
about morale in today's military. The warning signs are clear. It's time to have a new
commander in chief who will rebuild the military, to pay our men and women more, and
make sure they're housed better, and have a focused mission for our military." (Federal
Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, October 11, 2000)
Promise Broken: "In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled
Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military.
But talk is cheap - and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime
treatment the troops are getting lately. For example, the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are
wasteful and unnecessary - including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity
paid to families of troops who die on active duty...As Bush and Republican leaders in
Congress preach the mantra of tax cuts, they can't seem to find time to make progress
on minor tax provisions that would be a boon to military homeowners, reservists who
travel long distances for training and parents deployed to combat zones, among
others...While Bush's proposed 2004 defense budget would continue higher targeted
raises for some ranks, he also proposed capping raises for E-1s, E-2s and O-1s at 2
percent, well below the average raise of 4.1 percent... All of which brings us to the latest
indignity - Bush's $9.2 billion military construction request for 2004, which was set a full
$1.5 billion below this year's budget on the expectation that Congress, as has become
tradition in recent years, would add funding as it drafted the construction appropriations
bill. But Bush's tax cuts have left little elbow room in the 2004 federal budget that is taking shape, and the squeeze is on across the board." (Armytimes.com, July 2, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "Our troops continue to face serious danger, and this government is
giving them every means of protecting themselves and every means necessary to gain
victory." (White House Web Site, May 10, 2004)
Bush Promise: "Any time we put our troops into harm's way, you must have the best
training, the best equipment, the best possible pay." (White House Web Site, October 9,
2003)
Promise Broken: "American soldiers who defeated the Iraqi regime 15 months ago received virtually none of the critical spare parts they needed to keep their tanks and
Bradley fighting vehicles running. They ran chronically short of food, water and ammunition. Their radios often failed them. Their medics had to forage for medical supplies, artillery gunners had to cannibalize parts from captured Iraqi guns and intelligence units provided little useful information about the enemy. These revelations come
not from embedded reporters or congressional committees but from the Army itself. In
the first internal assessment of the war in Iraq, an exhaustive Army study has concluded that American forces prevailed despite supply and logistical failures, poor intelligence, communication breakdowns and futile attempts at psychological warfare." (Los
Angeles Times, July 3, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Many soldiers who are there say the Pentagon is failing to protect
them with the best technology America has to offer...That has translated into a lack of
armor...A breakdown of the casualty figures suggests that many U.S. deaths and
wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur. According to an unofficial study by a defense consultant that is now circulating through the Army, there have been 142 casualties by land mines or improvised explosive devices, while 48 others died in rocket-propelled-grenade attacks. Almost all those soldiers were killed while in unprotected
vehicles, which means that perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might
be alive if they had had stronger armor around them, the study suggested." (Newsweek,
May 3, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "I want to make sure that our soldiers have the best possible pay."
(White House Web Site, January 3, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat
zones." (Army Times, June 30, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "It must be in the national interests, must be in our vital interests
whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand
why we're going. The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well-defined." (Federal Document Clearing
House Political Transcripts, October 17, 2000)
Promise Broken: "The U.S. military is overstretched by deployments in Iraq and elsewhere, forcing the Pentagon to keep thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform
long beyond their release dates with potentially dangerous effects on morale, experts
say." (Reuters, January 9, 2004)
Assault Weapons Ban
Bush Promise: "It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society."
(President Bush, The Washington Post, May 10, 2004)
Bush Promise: "The President supports the reauthorization of the current assault
weapons." (Ari Fleischer, White House Press Briefing, May 14, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Now, Bush has apparently decided assault weapons aren't so bad
after all. The 1994 ban is set to expire in mid-September, and the administration hasn't
lifted a finger to push for its extension...House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told reporters that the president didn't even ask Congress for an extension, because he knew that
`the votes [were] not there.' But one wonders if the votes might not have magically appeared had the White House-which cynically still claims to favor the extension-decided
that keeping the president's campaign pledge was a real priority." (The New Republic,
July 26, 2004)
Promise Broken: "The president has promised to sign the bill renewing the assault
weapons ban if Congress passes it and places it on his desk. He makes that promise
with a characteristic smirk, no doubt confident that the right-wing House majority leader
Tom DeLay will keep the renewal from ever coming to a vote. It would take one phone
call from the president to DeLay to get the assault weapons bill on the floor. If it came
to the floor, it would pass overwhelmingly. But Bush has not made that phone call. He
wants the support of the extremists on top of the NRA. But he doesn't want to offend
the vast majority of Americans who can't imagine that the White House wouldn't push to
renew the ban. So the president goes AWOL, and refuses to make the phone call."
(Chicago Sun Times, April 20, 2004)
Bipartisanship
Bush Promise: "It doesn't have to be the way it is in Washington. We need a uniter,
not a divider, somebody who will bring us together and lead this nation to a better tomorrow." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, November 4, 2000)
Promise Broken: "Four years ago, George W. Bush promised America he was `a uniter, not a divider.' Today, the nation is more divided in more ways than it has been since
the turbulent 1960s. The president has failed, or refused, to pursue consensus on
America's problems and instigated solutions that have produced results ranging from
mixed to disastrous." (Detroit Free Press, October 5, 2004)
Promise Broken: "[O]ne of Bush's biggest failures . . . [is] . . . his inability to fulfill his
promise of four years ago to be a `uniter, not a divider.' Bush now admits privately that
he `overestimated his ability to bring all sides together.'" (U.S. News & World Report,
September 6, 2004)
Promise Broken: "I wish President Bush could find a way to reach out across party
lines and be a unifier. He campaigned in 2000 as a leader who would heal America's
partisan wounds. But in office he has too often done the opposite. No matter how much
he invokes the unifying theme of the war on terrorism, he governs as an exclusionary
conservative." (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, May 21, 2004)
Promise Broken: "George W. Bush campaigned in the 2000 presidential contest as `a
uniter, not a divider.' At the halfway point of his current term, however, partisan polarization in Congress is now intense. The president's State of the Union Address made
no mention of bipartisanship." (Omaha World-Herald, February 17, 2003)
Promise Broken: "President Bush didn't waste any time prying open the fissure lines
between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. Before members of the 108th
Congress could even settle into their offices, the White House served up its first controversies, with promises of more to come. As if spoiling for combat, and within hours of
the GOP's taking control of the Senate, Mr. Bush resubmitted the nominations of U.S.
District Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr. of Mississippi and Texas Supreme Court Justice
Priscilla R. Owen to positions on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, even
though both judges were rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in party-line
votes last year. In times such as these, the president should be the prime mover for bipartisanship. Instead, it is Mr. Bush who has launched the first attack in an ill-timed and
uncalled-for partisan war." (The Washington Post, January 9, 2003)
Promise Broken: "[T]he president has behaved more like a divider than a uniter, attempting to drive a wedge between the coalition of Republicans and Democrats." (Daily
News Leader, March 25, 2001)
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Bush Promise: "And at the end of the day it will require leadership - a president who
will set a new tone in Washington. A president who will reach across partisan lines and
bridge political differences. That's what I intend to do." (Federal Document Clearing
House Political Transcripts, June 2, 2000)
Promise Broken: "Having run on a promise to heal Washington's partisan wounds,
Bush has become a deeply polarizing figure." (E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post, January 14, 2003)
Promise Broken: "It's easy to forget now that George W. Bush campaigned on the
promise that he would be a president who would heal the nation's wounds - who would
not govern in the bitterly partisan pattern...He has chosen to govern from a narrow,
right-wing base, rather than from the inclusive center." (David Ignatius, The Washington
Post, April 4, 2001)
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Bush Promise: "What we're trying to do is to change the tone in Washington, D.C.
We're trying to get rid of all the needless politics and focus on the people's business,
focus on results, and not the ugly process that sometimes takes on. We're making
good progress. We really are." (White House Web Site, November 13, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Bush's approach to leadership has invited Americans to take sides."
(Time magazine, November 23, 2003)
Budget Deficits
Bush Promise: "And after we fund important priorities in the ongoing operations of our
Government, I believe we ought to pay down national debt. And so my budget pays
down a record $2 trillion in debt over the next 10 years." (Remarks at American College
of Cardiology Convention, Federal News Service, March 21, 2001)
Bush Promise: "Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national
debt. I listened, and I agree. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now...
My plan pays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt." (Federal Document
Clearing House Political Transcripts, February 27, 2001)
Bush Promise: "The tax relief package that I talked about in the campaign, was
phased-in based upon projections so that we wouldn't run a deficit." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, January 2, 2001)
Promise Broken: "The federal budget deficit reached a record $374 billion in the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30, pushed higher by surging defense spending and falling tax
receipts, the Treasury Department confirmed yesterday. The numbers matched those
released Oct. 9 by the Congressional Budget Office." (The Washington Post, October
21, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "We can cut the deficit in half over the next five years." (President's
State of the Union Address, Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts,
January 20, 2004)
Promise Broken: "The Administration will print a budget that, on paper, has figures for
the fifth year (2009) that show the deficit being cut in half. But that will be possible only
because, as has been the case with previous Bush Administration budgets, it omits major, costly items that the Administration favors and intends to request in subsequent
budgets." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, January 21, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to
pass them on to future Presidents or future generations." (White House Web Site, October 16, 2003)
Promise Broken: "When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this
month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003." (Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "Our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short term..." (White
House Web Site, January 29, 2002)
Promise Broken: "The federal deficit will hit a record $477 billion this year and get
worse if lawmakers cut taxes or increase spending, the Congressional Budget Office
projected Monday." (CNN, January 26, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "And we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits,
even if the economy softens." (Public Papers of the President, March 27, 2001)
Promise Broken: "President George W. Bush has now presided over the biggest gusher of red ink in the nation's history, from a surplus of $127 billion when he entered office
for fiscal 2001 to a 2004 deficit projection of $521 billion." (Business Week Online, February 3, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "George W. Bush made scores of promises in 16 months as a presidential candidate, including `pay down the national debt to the lowest level since the
Great Depression as a percent of the gross domestic product.'" (The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 21, 2001)
Promise Broken: "The budget surplus that Bush inherited has turned into an annual
deficit, and the total federal debt has increased from $5.7 trillion in Sept. 2000 to $7 trillion this month. The debt is 65 percent of GDP now, up from 57.6 percent when he took
office." (Miami Herald, January 18, 2004)
Child Welfare
Bush Promise: "To encourage states to help families in crisis, Governor Bush will provide states an additional $1 billion over five years for preventative services to keep children in, or return them to, their homes whenever safely possible." (Bush-Cheney 2000
Web site)
Promise Broken: "In exchange for flexibility [to spend federal money on preventative
services], states must accept a cap on the foster-care funding they receive, based on
the amount of money they have spent in the past. The problem is that, historically,
spending levels have simply been too low to meet the complex needs of individual children and families." (Philadelphia Inquirer, March 24, 2004)
Classified Information
Bush Promise: "We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's
interest." (White House Web Site, October 9, 2001)
Promise Broken: "Bob Woodward said President Bush gave two reporters 90 minutes,
often speaking candidly about classified information." (Providence Journal, April 10,
2002)
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Bush Promise: "And therefore, I felt it was important to send a clear signal to Congress
that classified information must be held dear, that there's a responsibility that if you receive a briefing of classified information, you have a responsibility." (White House Web
Site, October 9, 2001)
Promise Broken: "White House aides said President Bush has no plans to ask his staff
members whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer who
is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, one of the most visible critics of
Bush's handling of intelligence about Iraq." (The Washington Post, September 28,
2003)
Corporate Responsibility
Bush Promise: "America is ushering in a responsibility era...and this new culture must
include a renewed sense of corporate responsibility. If you lead a corporation, you have
a responsibility to serve your shareholders, to be honest with your employees." (White
House Web Site, March 7, 2002)
Promise Broken: "After Enron and other corporate scandals rose corporate governance to the forefront of the national policy debate `O'Neill and Greenspan devised a
plan to make CEOs accountable.' But, O'Neill reports, `Bush went with a more modest
plan because the `corporate crowd' complained loudly and Bush could not buck that
constituency.'" (Time magazine, January 11, 2004)
Economy
Bush Promise: "I will send you a budget that holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation, makes tax relief permanent, and stays on track to cut the deficit in
half by 2009...The budget I submit to the United States Congress will work on reducing
our deficit in half by over a five-year period of time, and at the same time, funding much
needed priorities." (President Bush, State of the Union Address, February 2, 2005)
Promise Broken: "Those figures assume, however, that Bush will secure all of his proposed spending cuts, that he will need no more emergency war spending and that there
will be no changes to the alternative minimum tax, which Bush and other politicians
want to rewrite to keep it from affecting more middle-class families in coming years.
The AMT originally was designed to make sure wealthy people couldn't avoid paying
some taxes. `With a fix to the AMT, deficits in a decade would likely reach $650 billion
to $700 billion, said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).'" (The Washington Post, February 14, 2005)
"If Congress were to pass Bush's Social Security plan and permanently extend his tax
cuts, the budget deficit would bottom out at $251 billion in 2008, then climb steadily to
$335 billion by 2015, according to an analysis by The Washington Post and the House
Budget Committee's Democratic staff." (The Washington Post, February 14, 2005)
Education
Bush Promise: "The administration widely touted a $1.7 billion increase in discretionary funding for the Education Department in its 2005 budget..." (The Washington Post,
May 27, 2004)
Promise Broken: "[T]he 2006 guidance would pare [the $1.7 billion increase] back by
$1.5 billion." (The Washington Post, May 27, 2004)
Education: Community Colleges - Job Retraining
Bush Promise: "We've got a plan called the Jobs for the 21st Century, and an integral
part of that is to make sure the Workforce Investment Act actually gets money to people
who are looking for work." (Public Papers of the President, May 4, 2004)
Promise Broken: "But the White House is not providing new money for the program.
Instead, it appears to be raiding $300 million from a separate program in the U.S. Department of Education that already funds community colleges and technical schools.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education's main program for adult training, Perkins
grants, would drop by 24 percent under Bush's budget. Minnesota community college
and technical school officials say they fear they will be losing money from one pot merely to compete for it from another." (Minneapolis StarTribune, May 2, 2004)
Education: Elementary and Secondary - No Child Left Behind
Bush Promise: "Some say the No Child Left Behind Act doesn't provide enough money
to meet our goals. ...People say, well, it's an unfunded mandate to put accountability
systems in place. No, the accountability systems are largely funded by the federal government." (White House Web Site, May 11, 2004)
Promise Broken: "This year alone, the Bush administration shortchanges American
schools [by] $9.4 billion under No Child Left Behind." (New York Times, March 14,
2004)
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Bush Promise: "The federal government will not micromanage how schools are run.
We believe strongly - we believe strongly the best path to education reform is to trust
the local people." (White House Web Site, January 8, 2002)
Promise Broken: "The Republican controlled Virginia House of Delegates testified to
the way the law has struck states. They drafted a resolution noting that the No Child
Left Behind Bill `represents the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of
education in the history of the United States.' The House passed a resolution calling on
Congress to exempt states like Virginia from the program's requirements in a 98-1
vote." (The Washington Post, January 23, 2004)
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Bush Promise: "We've got one thing in mind: an education system that's responsive to
the children, an education system that educates every child, an education system that
I'm confident can exist...And in this great land called America, no child will be left behind." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, January 23, 2001)
Promise Broken: "President Bush has proposed his budget for the next fiscal year.
The president wants to spend $12.3 billion on Title I, which the administration proudly
proclaims is $1 billion more than last year. But that is $6.2 billion less than what the `No
Child Left Behind' legislation that Bush signed authorizes. Even the administration's
modest increase is offset by reductions totaling $1.5 billion in 45 other programs - many
of which help the same poor children that Title I funds target. Gone are $300 million in
vocational training, and $400 million for after-school programs. Also blue-lined are
drop-out prevention, rural education and school principal-training programs. What this
means is that the nation's struggling students may be no better off than they were before - despite the administration's lofty rhetoric." (The San Francisco Chronicle, February 2, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "We funded public education, increased the funding of public education. It's the biggest increase of any Department in my budget." (Public Papers of the
President, March 26, 2001) "Bush stated he would `boost discretionary spending at the
Education Department by 11.5 percent, the biggest increase for any Cabinet agency.'"
(The Bulletin's Frontrunner, April 10, 2001)
Promise Broken: "Last year, Congress allocated a total of $42.1 billion for education,
including an advance appropriation of $2.1 billion for 2002. In calculating the 11.5 percent increase, White House officials leave out the $2.1 billion since the money is not in
this year's budget, which they calculate at $39.9 billion...[T]he $2.1 billion is not money
that President Bush requested. It is money that Congress appropriated last year." (New
York Times, April 14, 2001)
Education: After School Programs
Bush Promise: "After-school programs keep kids safe, help working families, and improve academic achievements...They engage students in service and ensure that youth
have access to anti-substance abuse programs. For America's working parents, they
provide the confidence that their children are well cared for after the school day ends."
(Letter to Afterschool Alliance, October 4, 2002)
Promise Broken: "Excellent points. President Bush made them in a letter he wrote on
Oct. 4, 2002, to a group called the Afterschool Alliance. So why, exactly, has the president proposed to cut federal spending on after-school care by 40 percent? Under
Bush's budget, federal spending on 21st Century Community Learning Centers would
drop from $1 billion this year to $600 million next year...Moreover, the federal government is pulling away from a problem at exactly the moment when giant budget deficits
are forcing states to do less themselves." (E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post, March 7,
2003)
Education: Higher Education - Pell Grants
Bush Promise: "We have [been] increasing Pell grants..." (White House Web Site,
February 23, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Federal education officials recently amended how they calculate
families' eligibility for Pell Grants, the backbone of federal financial aid to needy college
students...The revision will bump up the share families are expected to pay, according
to the American Council on Education, which represents about half the nation's colleges
and universities. The move has angered some members of Congress, sparking a
movement aimed at barring the Department of Education from using the new tax tables
to calculate Pell Grant eligibility. The change could save $270 million. But it will eliminate 84,000 students from the Pell program - and will reduce Pell awards to another
1.5 million students, the council says... [I]n the 2004-2005 school year, about half of
the current Pell recipients will get smaller grants or no grant at all." (The Cincinnati Enquirer, October 10, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The largest federal grant program, the Pell Grant, is not increasing
its maximum award." (The Washington Post, July 22, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "George W. Bush will fully fund the Pell grant program for first-year
students by increasing the maximum grant amount by more than 50 percent, to $5,100."
(Bush-Cheney 2000 Web Site)
Promise Broken: President Bush has frozen the maximum Pell Grant at $4,050 in his
Fiscal Year 2005 education budget. The maximum Pell grant under President Bush's
most recent budget would pay just 34 percent of the average public-college cost, down
from 42 percent in 2001, and 50 percent in 1975. (The President's Fiscal Year 2005
Budget Proposal)
Promise Broken: "Last May, in a bureaucratic move that caught colleges and legislators off guard, the Department of Education revised the formula by which billions of dollars in financial aid are distributed every year...Drawing from the department's own figures, the Congressional Research Service reported that the new formula would
effectively bar about 84,000 students from receiving Pell grants, the federal government's largest scholarship program. Beyond that, government scholarships would be
reduced by about $270 million, because hundreds of thousands of other students would
probably receive smaller awards." (New York Times, November 21, 2003).
Promise Broken: "U.S. Department of Education budget officials have estimated that
84,000 college students will lose their eligibility for federal financial aid for the
2004-2005 school year under a new formula the department is using to determine a
student's financial need. ...[T]he changes would reduce the Pell Grant program, the nation's primary vehicle for awarding scholarships to low-income students, by $270 million
for 2004-2005." (Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2003)
Energy: Foreign Oil Dependency
Bush Promise: "...We will make our country less dependent on foreign sources of energy." (President Bush, President Bush's Acceptance Speech to the Republican National Convention, September 2, 2004)
Promise Broken: According to a chart released by the Department of Energy, America
has become increasingly dependent on foreign oil since Bush became President. The
Bush Administration's own chart shows that the oil we consume from imported sources
has increased from 58.2 percent in 2000 to 63.1 percent today. (Department of Energy,
Energy Information Administration, "Overview of US Petroleum Trade," May 2005)
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Bush Promise: "What I've laid out for the Congress to consider is a comprehensive energy strategy that recognizes we need to be better conservers of energy, that recognizes that we can find more energy at home in environmentally friendly ways." (President Bush at press conference, April 28, 2005)
Promise Broken: "The President's failure to propose any meaningful solutions, while
claiming to `do the right thing for America' makes it hard not to conclude that the Administration's main goal is not energy independence, but rather improving its standing [in]
the polls." (Business Week, April 28, 2005)
Environment: Clean Air and Clean Water
Bush Promise: "We're taking important action to conserve North America's wetlands,
which will help keep our water clean and help provide habitat for hundreds of species of
wildlife. Through this legislation, the federal government will continue its partnership
with landowners, conservation groups, and states to save and improve millions of acres
of wetlands." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, December 2,
2002)
Promise Broken: "Bush administration officials have drafted a rule that would significantly narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, stripping many wetlands and streams
of federal pollution controls and making them available to being filled for commercial development...State and federal officials have estimated that up to 20 million acres of wetlands could lose protection under a new rule like the one in the draft." (Los Angeles
Times, November 6, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "I'm for clean air and clean water, and have a record in Texas to prove
it." (Houston Chronicle, June 19, 1999)
Promise Broken: "The Bush Administration confirmed yesterday that it will close pending investigations of 70 power plants suspected of violating the Clean Air Act and will
consider dropping 13 other cases against utilities that were referred to the Justice Department for action, following the Environmental Protection Agency's decision in August
to ease enforcement rules." (The Washington Post, November 6, 2003)
Environment: Global Warming
Bush Promise: "With the help of Congress, environmental groups and industry, we will
require all power plants to meet clean air standards in order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time." (Governor George W. Bush, Campaign
Speech, September 29, 2000)
Promise Broken: "I do not believe...that the government should impose on power
plants mandatory emissions for carbon dioxide." (President Bush in letter to Senator
Chuck Hagel, March 13, 2001)
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Bush Promise: "My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change. We recognize our responsibility and will meet it at home, in our hemisphere and in the world." (CNN, June 11, 2001)
Promise Broken: "The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to publish a draft
report next week on the state of the environment, but after editing by the White House,
a long section describing risks from rising global temperatures has been whittled to a
few non-committal paragraphs...It is a second time in a year that the White House has
sought to play down global warming in official documents." (New York Times, June 19,
2003)
Environment: Land and Water Conservation
Bush Promise: "Governor Bush has a plan to encourage reinvestment in America's
natural resources. He supports fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund to
$900 million a year..." (Governor George W. Bush, Campaign Paper, September 13,
2000)
Promise Broken: "The [President's] budget is also at odds with two campaign pledges
that Mr. Bush probably wishes he had never made. One was to fully finance the Land
and Water Conservation Fund, the government's main tool for creating and preserving
parks, forests and wildlife refuges. The administration claims to have provided the entire $900 million authorized by Congress; strip away the accounting gimmicks, and the
figure is $314 million." (New York Times, February 11, 2004)
Environment: Regulatory Oversight
Bush Promise: "[George W. Bush] will also ensure that the federal government, which
is the country's largest polluter, complies with all environmental laws." (Bush-Cheney
2000 Web site)
Promise Broken: "The Defense Department is once again asking Congress to exempt
military training ranges from environmental laws." (Government Executive Magazine,
April 6, 2004)
Bush Promise: "Expanding the aims of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, I will ask
Congress to provide $100 million to support the exchange of debt relief for the protection of tropical forests." (Governor George W. Bush, August 25, 2000, quoted in Boston
Globe, April 10, 2001)
Promise Broken: "[I]n the new federal budget, Bush has arranged for just $13 million
for the program. Even that sum isn't new funding; instead, it is diverted from the
Agency for International Development." (Boston Globe, April 10, 2001)
Foreign Policy: Nation Building
Bush Promise: "I don't think it's the role of the United States to walk into a country and
say, `We do it this way, so should you'...I think one way for us to end up being viewed as
the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying, `We do it this way, so should
you'... I think the United States must be humble and must be proud and confident of our
values...If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but
strong, they'll welcome us." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Documents,
October 11, 2000)
Promise Broken: "Candidate George W. Bush proclaimed that America must be
`humble in how we treat nations that are figuring out how to chart their own course.' But
that was then. September 11 opened up a door through which such rhetoric might be
unceremoniously tossed. Its replacement: a decade-in-the-making, neoconservative
national security strategy..." (Eric Alterman, The Nation, January 27, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Bush, during the campaign of 2000, spoke about the need for modesty in foreign affairs. How far from this we are now can be seen in the new National
Security Strategy of the United States of America...In sum, the Bush doctrine proclaims
the emancipation of a colossus from international constraints (including from the restraints that the United States itself enshrined in networks of international and regional
organizations after World War II)." (Stanley Hoffman, American Prospect, January 13,
2003)
-------
Bush Promise: "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road."
(Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, October 3, 2000)
Promise Broken: "Nation-building has become a defining feature of the Bush Administration's foreign policy." (Boston Globe, March 2, 2004)
Foreign Policy: Relations with Allies
Bush Promise: "Never again should an American president spend nine days in China,
and not even bother to stop in Tokyo or Seoul or Manila." (Campaign Speech at the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, November 19, 1999)
Promise Broken: "The glaring omission in President George Bush's journey to Asia is
a stop in South Korea, which speaks volumes to the sorry state into which relations between Washington and Seoul have plunged." (Jakarta Post, October 19, 2003)
Gas Prices
Bush Promise: "What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices increase] is he
ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your
spigots...And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower
the price." (Governor Bush, New Hampshire Primary Debate, CNN.com, January 26,
2000)
Promise Broken: "[Secretary of Energy] Abraham said the administration would not
publicly call on OPEC to roll back production cuts scheduled on April 1. `We've made
clear we're not going to beg for oil,' said Abraham." (Washington Times, March 24,
2004)
Global AIDS
Bush Promise: "I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean. This nation can lead the world in sparing
innocent people from a plague of nature." (President's State of the Union Address, Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, January 29, 2002)
Promise Broken: "The purpose of today's hearing is to receive testimony from and ask
questions of Ambassador Randall Tobias, the newly appointed Global AIDS Coordinator, on the comprehensive five-year global strategy to fight AIDS, as required by Public
Law 108-25, the `United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003.' By relegating non-focus countries to USAID, does this mean business
as usual in the remaining 60 or so countries? Does this mean there will be no treatment programs in countries in Europe, Asia or South America - continents with countries (with the exception of Guyana) not represented on the President's list of 15 countries? What about other countries in Africa not on the list, such as Zimbabwe, with its
34 percent prevalence rate? In sum, I am disappointed with this document. It does not
meet the requirements of Section 101 of Public Law 108-25. It is neither global nor
comprehensive." (Congressman Henry Hyde, House Committee on International Relations Hearing, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Transcripts, March 4,
2004)
Promise Broken: "The President has repeatedly tried to stop the Congress from delivering treatment and prevention services faster and to a broader range of countries. The
White House sent at least three letters to the Congress in 2003 which insisted that the
amount of funding the President requested, while a billion dollars less than what Congress had authorized, was perfectly adequate."
"Instead of acting quickly, it took the President six months from the State of the Union
Address to nominate a coordinator to oversee his initiative, and numerous staff positions in the coordinator's office remain unfilled. Appeals to the President to jumpstart
the program via emergency spending were ignored. Instead, White House spokespersons issued red herrings about countries' lack of capacity to absorb more funding, even
as assessments from UNAIDS and others showed AIDS programs could effectively use
more funding."
"[T]he President is poised to request much less for 2005 than what Congress has authorized. His budget for 2005 for global AIDS, TB and malaria programs is reportedly
$2.7 billion, with $200 million for the Global Fund. A broad range of religious and humanitarian groups have said a minimal US contribution to global AIDS, TB and malaria
efforts would be $5.4 billion. But, under the President's approach the amount will not
reach the fully authorized level of $3 billion until 2006."
"His proposed funding for the Global Fund in 2005 represents a 63 percent cut in funding levels approved by Congress for 2004 ($550 million)." (Global AIDS Alliance Press
Release, January 14, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Although initially the administration strongly implied that it would
spend $3 billion per year over five years for the AIDS initiative, the White House's 2004
budget request inexplicably asked Congress for only $1.9 billion. And that request is
even more disappointing upon closer examination. When he rolled out the initiative in
January, Bush had promised it would include $1 billion for the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, widely celebrated as one of the most effective AIDS
programs in Africa. But Bush's budget proposes a mere $200 million donation to the
fund. That's $150 million less than the administration gave last year when it didn't have
a shiny new AIDS program to sell." (The New Republic, July 21, 2003)
Gun Safety
Bush Promise: "I don't think we ought to be selling guns to people who shouldn't have
them. That's why I support instant background checks at gun shows. One of the reasons we have an instant background check is so that we instantly know whether or not
someone should have a gun or not." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, October 11, 2000) "I think we ought to raise the age at which a juvenile can
carry a handgun from 18 to 21." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, October 11, 2000)
Promise Broken: "[Mr. Ashcroft] is, of course, a fierce advocate of gun owners' rights.
He works for a president who took office with the National Rifle Association cheering
and waving, even though Mr. Bush claimed to want background checks at gun shows,
factory installed child safety locks and an older age for gun ownership. They knew
where his heart (and their money) was. Since the election, Mr. Ashcroft and his boss
have had it both ways. They claim to follow a sensible, moderate policy on guns, but
they do nothing about issues like background checks, trigger locks and ownership age."
(Courier-Journal (Louisville), August 11, 2002)
Health Care: Children's Hospitals
Bush Promise: "There's a lot of talk about budgets right now and I'm here [at Egleston
Children's Hospital] to talk about the budget. My job as the president is to submit a
budget to the Congress and to set priorities, and one of the priorities that we've talked
about is making sure the health care systems are funded...The point I want to make in
this haven of love, a place of deep concern about children's health, is that we can fund
priorities." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, March 1, 2001)
Promise Broken: "Shortly after assuming office, on March 1, 2001, Bush visited the
Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta and extolled the facility as `a place full of love.'
Yet the president's proposed budget for next year [2004] cuts federal grants to children's hospitals by 30 percent, amounting to $86 million." (Scripps Howard News Service, February 28, 2003)
Health Care: Health Insurance
Bush Promise: "Our second goal is high quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans." (President's State of the Union Address, Federal Document Clearing House
Political Transcripts, January 29, 2003)
Bush Promise: "A priority in my budget will be to make sure that health care system in
America is strong, for the elderly, for the uninsured, and for all of us concerned about
health." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, February 8, 2001)
Bush Promise: "I'll have as a goal the idea of making sure people have got affordable
health care and insurance policies to make sure they're able to pay for them." (ABC's
This Week, January 23, 2000)
Promise Broken: "In the past four years, Americans have spent an ever-growing portion of their paychecks on health care and for the most part gotten less for their money,
forcing millions into the ranks of the uninsured or personal bankruptcy, according to
government figures and several independent assessments." (The Washington Post,
September 28, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums rose 11.2 percent
this year, registering the fourth consecutive double-digit annual increase and pushing
the cost of family coverage under the most common type of plan past $10,000 according to a new nationwide survey." (The Washington Post, September 10, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Rising costs for health coverage and a continuing fall-off in the
number of workers in employer-sponsored health plans are among the reasons that a
greater number of people did not have health insurance last year, experts say. The increase in uninsured people last year, as reported by the United States Census Bureau
yesterday, was 1.4 million, to a record 45 million." (New York Times, August 27, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Projections by the Congressional Budget Office, the Treasury Department, academics and the campaign's Web site suggest that under the best circumstances, Bush's plans for health care would extend coverage to no more than 6 million
people over the next decade and possibly as few as 2 million." (The Washington Post,
August 22, 2004)
Promise Broken: "President Bush offered a skimpy menu of warmed-over health care
proposals in his State of the Union address this week, evidently hoping to convince voters that he is doing something about the millions of Americans who have joined the
ranks of the uninsured during his administration. Even if some of his ideas were
adopted, they would be unlikely to have much impact on expanding health coverage for
the uninsured or on slowing the rise in medical costs." (New York Times, January 22,
2004)
Health Care: Medicare
Bush Promise: "I wanted to get something done. I think our seniors deserve a modern
medical system. And in 2006, our seniors will get prescription drug coverage." (Second
Presidential Debate, October 8, 2004)
Promise Broken: "The Medicare prescription drug benefit available next year will cost
senior citizens an average of $722 annually. But retirees with chronic conditions such
as diabetes and heart disease can expect to pay about double that amount and will face
gaps in their coverage for as long as five months, according to projections being published today." (The Washington Post, April 19, 2005)
Health Care: Mental Health Parity
Bush Promise: "...[I]nsurance plans too often place greater restrictions on the treatment of mental illness than on the treatment of other medical illnesses. As a result,
some Americans are unable to get effective medical treatments that would allow them
to function well in their daily lives...Senator Domenici and I share this commitment:
health plans should not be allowed to apply unfair treatment limitations or financial requirements on mental health benefits." (White House Web Site, April 29, 2002)
Promise Broken: "[President Bush] cited unfair limits on treatment as one major obstacle to effective care and pledged to seek legislation by year's end to require that insurance plans treat mental illnesses in the same way they treat other medical ailments.
Now time is getting short and the calendar is crowded, but Congress still should approve a parity bill, and Mr. Bush, recalling his pledge, should help make it happen." (The
Washington Post, September 9, 2002)
Health Care: Protecting Patients' Rights
Bush Promise: "If I'm the president...people will be able to take their HMO insurance
company to court. That's what I've done in Texas and that's the kind of leadership style
I'll bring to Washington." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, October 17, 2000)
Promise Broken: "Today, legislation for a federal patients' bill of rights is moribund in
Congress. And the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme
Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in 2000." (The Washington Post, April 5, 2004)
Promise Broken: "To let two Texas consumers, Juan Davila and Ruby R. Calad, sue
their managed-care companies for wrongful denials of medical benefits `would be to
completely undermine' federal law regulating employee benefits, Assistant Solicitor
General James A. Feldman said at oral argument March 23. Moreover, the administration's brief attacked the policy rationale for Texas's law, which is similar to statutes on
the books in nine other states." (The Washington Post, April 5, 2004)
Heating Costs
Bush Promise: "First and foremost, we got to make sure we fully fund LIHEAP [Low-Income Heating Energy Assistance Program], which is a way to help low-income folks,
particularly here in the East, to pay for their high fuel bills." (Federal Document Clearing
House Political Transcripts, October 3, 2000)
Promise Broken: "This is not a good winter for President Bush to waffle on his campaign promise to protect the government's home heating program for low-income
households. His budget allotted just $1.4 billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP - 18 percent less than was spent last year." (Boston
Globe, January 15, 2003)
Homeland Security
Bush Promise: "Our first priority must always be the security of our nation, and that will
be reflected in the budget I send to Congress...America is no longer protected by vast
oceans. We are protected from attack only by vigorous action abroad and increased
vigilance at home...We'll increase funding to help states and communities train and
equip our heroic police and firefighters." (Federal Document Clearing House Political
Transcripts, January 29, 2002)
Promise Broken: "President Bush's new budget would cut by one-third the money that
thousands of fire departments rely on to keep their communities safe. The nation's firefighters are outraged by the White House plan, which would take $250 million away
from grants that help rural agencies buy fire trucks, protective clothing, breathing apparatus, water tanks and other equipment." (Copley News Service, February 6, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Nearly two years after 9/11, the United States is drastically underfunding local emergency responders and remains dangerously unprepared to handle a
catastrophic attack on American soil, particularly one involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-impact conventional weapons. If the nation does not take
immediate steps to better identify and address the urgent needs of emergency responders, the next terrorist incident could be even more devastating than 9/11." (Independent
Task Force on Emergency Responders Report, June 29, 2003)
Promise Broken: "With deficit-stricken states unable to assist municipalities with
homeland defense, many large police and fire departments say they have been forced
to postpone the purchase of protective suits, biochemical detectors and communications equipment that would be used to respond to a terrorist attack. And a recent National League of Cities survey of 322 cities finds that 25 percent are cutting the ranks of
their police forces or plan to shortly for economic reasons." (AFL-CIO, America@work
magazine, April 2003)
Iraq and the War on Terrorism
Bush Promise: "I view the hunt for al Qaeda as part of the war on terror. And it requires all assets, intelligence assets and military assets, to chase them down and bring
them to justice." (White House Web Site, February 23, 2004)
Promise Broken: "In 2002, troops from the 5th Special Forces Group who specialize in
the Middle East were pulled out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for their next assignment: Iraq...The CIA, meanwhile, was stretched badly in its capacity to collect, translate and analyze information coming from Afghanistan. When the
White House raised a new priority, it took specialists away from the Afghanistan effort to
ensure Iraq was covered." (USA Today, March 29, 2004)
-------
Bush Promise: "The use of force against Iraq will directly advance the war on terror,
and will be consistent with continuing efforts against international terrorists residing and
operating elsewhere in the world...The necessary preparations for and conduct of military operations in Iraq have not diminished the resolve, capability, or activities of the
United States to pursue international terrorists [or] to protect our homeland." (Certification by President Bush to Congress in Compliance with Public Law 107-243, March 18,
2003)
Promise Broken: "Of particular concern has been the conflation of al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a single, undifferentiated terrorist threat. This was a strategic
error of the first order because it ignored critical differences between the two in character, threat level, and susceptibility to U.S. deterrence and military action. The result has
been an unnecessary preventive war of choice against a deterred Iraq that has created
a new front in the Middle East for Islamic terrorism and diverted attention and resources
away from securing the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable
al-Qaeda. The war against Iraq was not integral to the [Global War on Terrorism]
GWOT, but rather a detour from it. ("Bounding the Global War on Terrorism," Army War
College, December 2003)
-------
Bush Promise: "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties." (White
House Web site, September 17, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11,
2001...has been endorsed by all 10 of the bipartisan panel's members. It features many
of the findings that emerged from public hearings and staff investigations, including the
conclusion that al Qaeda and Iraq did not form a close working relationship, commission officials said." (The Washington Post, July 18, 2004)
Promise Broken: "[A] former top weapons inspector said yesterday he and other investigators have not found evidence of a Hussein-Al Qaeda link. `At various times Al Qaeda people came through Baghdad and in some cases resided there,' said David Kay,
former head of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group, which searched for Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction and links to terrorism. `But we simply did not find any evidence of extensive
links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all.'" (The Boston Globe, June 16,
2004)
Promise Broken: "Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence
has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaeda, and several key
parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular
police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." (Knight
Ridder, March 2, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies."
(National Journal, August 9, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Declassified documents undercut Bush administration claims before
the war that Hussein had links to al Qaeda." (Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2003)
-------
Bush Promise: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda." (White House Web site, May 1, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The occupation of Iraq has helped al-Qaeda recruit more members,
according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies." (BBC, May
25, 2004)
Iraq: Politicizing the War
Bush Promise: "The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me, as I look back, was
it was a political war. We had politicians making military decisions. And it's lessons that
any president must learn, and that is to the set the goal and the objective and allow the
military to come up with the plans to achieve that objective. And those are essential
lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War." (Meet the Press, February 8, 2004)
Promise Broken: "After the media showed images of the contractors' dismembered
bodies suspended from a bridge over the Euphrates River, the U.S.-led coalition began
planning a way to end anti-American insurgent activity in Falluja. `We felt like we had a
method that we wanted to apply to Falluja and thought we ought to let the situation
settle before we appeared to be attacking out of revenge,' [Lt. Gen. James] Conway
said...A three-day pounding of the city in April by the Marines was ordered to stop by
Conway's superior, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was then commander of all U.S.
forces in Iraq, paving the way for the creation of the Falluja Brigade, made up of former
Iraqi soldiers from the city. Conway questioned the decision Sunday. `When you order
elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand what the
consequences of that will be and not vacillate in the middle of something like that,' he
said. `Once you commit, you have to stay committed.'" (Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, 1st
Marine Expeditionary Force, CNN, September 14, 2004)
Iraq: Post-Invasion
Bush Promise: "The United States is committed to helping Iraq recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not require sustained aid. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq is a country rich
with an educated populace, abundant and valuable natural resources like oil and natural gas, and a modern infrastructure system." (White House Web Site, Office of Management and Budget, March 27, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Here we are a year later and U.S. appropriations for Iraq are more
than $100 billion, with no end in sight." (The Washington Post, April 17, 2004)
Jobs
Bush Promise: "When America works, America prospers, so my economic security
plan can be summed up in one word: Jobs." (White House Web Site, January 29, 2002)
Promise Broken: "Even with the rosy March numbers, the U.S. economy has lost
about 1.9 million jobs since Bush took office." (Detroit Free Press, April 3, 2004)
-------
Bush Promise: "There are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas.
And we need to act in this country. We need to act to make sure there are more jobs at
home, and people are more likely to retain a job." (White House Web Site, February 12,
2004)
Promise Broken: "A new report signed by President Bush said `the movement of U.S.
factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation
that will enrich the U.S. economy.'" (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, February 10, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Bush supports the shift of jobs overseas." (Los Angeles Times headline, February 10, 2004)
Medicare: Prescription Drugs
Bush Promise: "And just like you, the members of Congress, and your staffs and other
federal employees, all seniors should have the choice of a health care plan that provides prescription drugs." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, January 28, 2003)
Promise Broken: "President Bush often tells audiences that when it comes to health
care and prescription drugs, what's good enough for Congress is good enough for
America's senior citizens...But the reality is that the two Medicare drug bills passed by
the House and Senate do not come close to providing the level of coverage given to 8.5
million federal workers, including lawmakers, White House staff and the president. Both
measures would require senior citizens to buy an auxiliary prescription plan, whereas all
188 health plans offered to federal employees include drug coverage." (The Washington
Post, July 6, 2003)
-------
Bush Promise: "In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush hailed the
passage of the Medicare bill that will give seniors `the modern medicine they deserve'
and touted the new drug-discount card that the Administration says will save them 10%
to 25% on pharmaceuticals." (Time magazine, February 2, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Drugmakers raised prescription prices by nearly triple the rate of
inflation in the first three months of this year - just before Medicare began its pharmacy
discount card program - negating much of the savings the government promised to seniors, according to an AARP survey. Prices rose by 3.4 percent among the top 200
brand-name drugs while inflation in general was 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2004,
the study said." (The Washington Post, July 1, 2004)
-------
Bush Promise: "If there's a Medicare reform bill signed by me, corporations have no
intention to what they call dump retirees into a system they don't want to be dumped
into." (White House Web Site, October 29, 2003)
Promise Broken: "New government estimates suggest that employers will reduce or
eliminate prescription drug benefits for 3.8 million retirees when Medicare offers such
coverage in 2006. That represents one-third of all the retirees with employer-sponsored drug coverage, according to documents from the Department of Health and Human Services." (The Washington Post, July 14, 2004)
-------
Bush Promise: "Some older Americans spend much of their Social Security checks
just on their medications. Some cut down on the dosage to make a bottle of pills last
longer. Elderly Americans should not have to live with those kinds of fears and hard
choices. This new law will ease the burden on seniors and will give them the extra help
they need." (White House Web site, December 8, 2003)
Promise Broken: "With a new Medicare drug benefit set to begin in 2006, Americans
65 and older can expect to spend a large and growing share of their Social Security
checks on Medicare premiums and expenses, previously undisclosed federal data
show. Information the Bush administration excluded from its 2004 report on the Medicare program shows that a typical 65-year-old can expect to spend 37% of his or her
Social Security income on Medicare premiums, co-payments and out-of-pocket expenses in 2006. The share is projected to grow to almost 40% in 2011 and nearly 50%
by 2021." (USA Today, September 14, 2004)
National Guard and Reserves
Bush Promise: "In the war, America depends on our military to meet the dangers
abroad and keep our country safe. The American people appreciate this sacrifice. And
our government owes you more than gratitude. We must always make sure that America's soldiers are well-equipped and well-trained for this war on terror." (Federal News
Service, February 17, 2004)
Promise Broken: "It's disgraceful that Pentagon leadership is slow-rolling implementation of the new statutory requirement to provide fee-based TRICARE coverage for Selected Reserve members who have no health coverage through a civilian employer...Its
time for Pentagon leaders to stop dragging their feet, start supporting the troops, and
get busy delivering this much-needed coverage." (Military Officers Association of America, Legislative Update, February 27, 2004)
Promise Broken: "If the entire Army National Guard went to war tomorrow, one soldier
in five would go into combat without a rifle... At a time when the nation has turned to its
soldiers as never before, the National Guard isn't being the equipment and training it
needs to go to war. Yet, Pentagon planners are counting on the National Guard to supply 56 percent of the Army's combat power. The Army National Guard lacks $11 billion
of the $40 billion in equipment it needs to wage war and is short of everything from
Humvees to digital radios to alarms that detect chemical weapons." (The Times-Picayune, November 30, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The Bush administration announced its formal opposition to a proposal to give National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon's health-insurance system, jeopardizing the plan's future and angering supporters. A recent
General Accounting Office report estimated that one of every five Guard members has
no health insurance." (Gannett News Service, October 23, 2003)
National Parks
Bush Promise: "A significant commitment must be made to alleviate the $4.9 billion
major maintenance and resource protection backlog to restore our national parks and
ensure a positive legacy of protecting our cultural, natural and recreational resources
for Americans today and in the future. Therefore, as President, Governor Bush will:
Eliminate Within Five Years the National Park Service's $4.9 Billion Major Maintenance
and Resource Protection Backlog." (Governor Bush, Campaign Paper, September 13,
2000)
Promise Broken: "Currently, the agency estimates deferred maintenance backlog at
over $5 billion." (General Accounting Office, Testimony before Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, July 8, 2003)
National Security
Bush Promise: "Today, the United States is joined by more than 90 nations in a global
coalition against terrorism, sharing intelligence, cutting off terrorist finance and pursuing
the terrorists where they plot and train." (Radio Address of the President to the Nation,
November 23, 2002)
Promise Broken: "The Bush administration has scuttled a plan to increase by 50 percent the number of criminal financial investigators working to disrupt the finances of Al
Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations to save $12 million, a Congressional
hearing was told on Tuesday."
"The Internal Revenue Service had asked for 80 more criminal investigators beginning
in October to join the 160 it has already assigned to penetrate the shadowy networks
that terrorist groups use to finance plots like the Sept. 11 attacks and the recent train
bombings in Madrid. But the Bush administration did not include them in the president's
proposed budget for the 2005 fiscal year." (New York Times, March 31, 2004)
Promise Broken: "In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White
House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the
FBI, an internal administration budget document shows. The document, dated Oct. 12,
2001, shows that the FBI requested $1.5 billion in additional funds to enhance its counterterrorism efforts with the creation of 2,024 positions. But the White House Office of
Management and Budget cut that request to $531 million. Attorney General John D.
Ashcroft, working within the White House limits, cut the FBI's request for items such as
computer networking and foreign language intercepts by half, cut a cyber-security request by three quarters and eliminated entirely a request for `collaborative capabilities.'"
(The Washington Post, March 22, 2004)
9/11 Commission
Bush Promise: "This investigation should carefully examine all the evidence and follow
all the facts wherever they lead. We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson
of September the 11th." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, November 27, 2002)
Promise Broken: "You either say you didn't have warning prior to 9/11 and you let us
see the documents, or you shouldn't claim that. To say there's nothing in the PDB's that
gave the president warning and then put together an agreement that only allows one or
two commissioners to see the PDB's is not defensible." (9/11 Commissioner Timothy
Roemer, The Washington Post, February 11, 2004)
Promise Broken: "The chairman of the federal commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terror attacks says that the White House is continuing to withhold several
highly classified intelligence documents from the panel and that he is prepared to subpoena the documents if they are not turned over within weeks. [Thomas] Kean said,
`Any document that has to do with this investigation cannot be beyond our reach. I will
not stand for it. That means we will use every tool at our command to get hold of every
document. Anything that has to do with 9/11, we have to see it - anything. There are a
lot of theories about 9/11, and as long as there is any document out there that bears on
any of those theories, we're going to leave questions unanswered. And we cannot
leave questions unanswered.'" (New York Times, October 26, 2003)
Promise Broken: "We've put in requests for instance to NORAD to find out about strategic air defenses and passenger flights and all of that. We've - I've had those requests in for a long time, and the papers just haven't been coming back to us. So
we've got staff on the commission waiting to report to the American people, waiting to
do their job, and we simply can't do it until we get those documents. They've been very,
very slow coming in, but if they don't come in soon, we're going to have a lot of trouble
doing our job on the date we've been given to do it." (Thomas Kean, NBC News Transcripts, July 9, 2003)
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Programs
Bush Promise: "The next president must press for an accurate inventory of all this [nuclear] material. I'll ask the Congress to increase substantially our assistance to Russia
in dismantling as many of their weapons as possible, as quickly as possible." (Bush-Cheney 2000 Web site)
Promise Broken: "[A]lthough the President called for expanding the Nunn-Lugar programs which have proven so effective in securing and eliminating nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons in the former Soviet Union, the administration's budget for the coming fiscal year actually cuts funding for Nunn-Lugar programs by ten percent. Similarly,
the President called for enhancing the International Atomic Energy Agency's capabilities
to detect cheating and respond to treaty violations, but he did not provide any increase
in the U.S. contribution to the IAEA." (Testimony of Joseph Cirincione, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace before the House International Relations Committee,
March 30, 2004)
Promise Broken: "[I]n his fiscal year 2005 budget request to Congress...Bush did not
substantially increase funding for [nuclear threat reduction] programs and actually proposed cuts to the Department of Defense component as well as suggested spending
shifts in programs in the Departments of Energy and State." (Arms Control Association,
March 2004)
Privacy Rights
Bush Promise: "I'm a privacy-rights person. The marketplace can function without
sacrificing the privacy of individuals." (Business Week, June 5, 2000)
Promise Broken: "In a sharp departure from its past insistence on the sanctity of medical records, the Bush Administration has set forth a new, more limited view of privacy
rights as it tries to force hospitals and clinics to turn over records of hundreds and perhaps thousands of abortions." (New York Times, March 6, 2004)
Promise Broken: "The Bush administration on Friday officially eliminated many protections for the privacy of medical records by issuing final rules that allow doctors and hospitals to distribute patients' health information without the patients' written approval."
(Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2002)
Science: Politicizing Scientific Analysis
Bush Promise: "We understand how important science is. And we understand it's important to be the leading nation when it comes to research, and we'll continue to stay
there...And so the budget I submit to the United States Congress will work on...funding
much needed priorities." (President Bush, President Participates in Conversation on
Health Care, January 26, 2005)
Promise Broken: "President Bush yesterday (February 7) sent to Congress a $28.8
billion budget request for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year (FY)
2006... If enacted, it would be the first time since 1964 that NIH received an annual increase of less than 1%." (The Scientist, February 8, 2005)
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Bush Promise: "I think we ought to have high standards set by agencies that rely upon
science, not by what may feel good or what sounds good." (Federal Document Clearing
House Political Transcripts, January 15, 2000)
Promise Broken: "60 leading scientists-including Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors and university chairs and presidents-issued a
statement calling for regulatory and legislative action to restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking. According to the scientists, the Bush administration has, among other abuses, suppressed and distorted scientific analysis from federal agencies, and taken actions that have undermined the quality of scientific advisory panels." (Union of
Concerned Scientists, February 18, 2004)
Social Security
Bush Promise: "For those seniors who are worried about the debate on Social Security, you have nothing to worry about; nothing will change. But your children and your
grandchildren do have something to worry about. And so I look forward to working with
the Congress to come up with a long-term solution to fix Social Security." (President
Bush, President Participates in Conversation on Health Care, January 26, 2005)
Promise Broken: "Mr. Greenspan agreed with Democratic lawmakers that private accounts would do nothing in themselves to solve Social Security's long-run financial
shortfall or to increase national savings, which he said was the crucial underlying problem...Mr. Greenspan also warned that financial markets might not agree with White
House claims that borrowing to pay for `transition costs' of private accounts would have
no effect on the United States' long-run indebtedness." (The New York Times, February
17, 2005)
Promise Broken: "A report by the Institute for America's Future found that `using figures from the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration
among others, on a worker earning the average annual Florida salary of $32,426 in
today's dollars...the report found that when that worker retired in 2080, his Social Security benefit under the Bush plan would be $177,725 less than what the current system
would provide whether or not the worker chose a personal account. And that worker
still would end up with $48,960 less than Social Security today would provide even if he
chose a personal account that yielded a healthy 6.8 percent return.'" (Fort Lauderdale
Sun-Sentinel, June 1, 2005)
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Bush Promise: "Last night I made the case that our nation can achieve the following
priorities: One, set aside all payroll taxes that are designed for Social Security to be
spent only on Social Security. That is $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years will be set
aside to be spent only - only - on Social Security." (Federal Document Clearing House
Political Transcripts, February 28, 2001)
Promise Broken: "As president, Bush prodded the Republican Congress to wade into
a sea of budgetary red ink by cutting taxes $1.35 trillion in 2001 and another $350 billion in a bill he signed last week. Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist predicted the latest tax cuts eventually will add up to $800 billion. Upwards of $1 trillion of the tax cuts
comes from the Social Security funds that Bush promised to protect." (ClevelandPlain
Dealer, June 1, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Bush has not lived up to his assertions. CBO estimates that rather
than putting surplus cash into Social Security, the Administration will use Social Security
payroll taxes to plug shortfalls elsewhere in the budget in this fiscal year and in 2003
and 2004." (The National Journal, September 1, 2001)
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Bush Promise: "We're going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding the Social Security surplus." (White House Web Site, March 3,
2001)
Promise Broken: "The president's new budget uses Social Security surpluses to pay
for other programs every year through 2013, ultimately diverting more than $1.4 trillion
in Social Security funds to other purposes." (The New York Times, February 6, 2002)
States' Rights
Bush Promise: "On the issue of gay marriage, President Bush stated, `Those are going
to be up for cities and states to make those decisions. I just don't believe in gay marriage.'" (CNN.com, May 2, 2000)
Promise Broken: "President Bush called for a [federal] constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage...saying states should not have the right to bestow marital
rights on gay partners." (Sacramento Bee, February 25, 2004)
Stem Cell Research
Bush Promise: "I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life-and-death decision has already
been made. Leading scientists tell me research on these 60 lines has great promise
that could lead to breakthrough therapies and cures." (Federal Document Clearing
House Political Transcripts, August 9, 2001)
Promise Broken: "The president has ordered that stem cell research can continue but
scientists receiving federal funds can use only cell lines that were available on August
9, 2001...[National Institutes of Health Director Elias] Zerhouni says in his paper that
many of those cell lines were in the early stages of development and were not to the
point where they could be distributed for use. To overcome this, he reports, the NIH
provided grants to bring the cell lines to the point where they can be used. As a consequence of this support, the number of cell lines available for widespread distribution has
grown from a single cell line in the spring of 2002 to 11 cell lines at present."
(CBSNEWS.com, May 9, 2003)
Tax Relief: 2001 Tax Act
Bush Promise: "Tax relief is central to my plan to encourage economic growth and we
can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens."
(White House Web Site, March 27, 2001)
Promise Broken: "As former Nixon-era Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson just
observed in The New York Times, when Mr. Bush took office, the 10-year budget projection showed a $5.6 trillion surplus...The first Bush tax cut, coupled with continued
spending growth and post-Sept. 11 costs, brought the projected surplus down to $1 trillion. `Unfazed by this turnaround,' Mr. Peterson noted, `the Bush administration proposed a second tax cut package in 2003 in the face of huge new fiscal demands, including a war in Iraq and an urgent homeland security agenda.' Now the 10-year fiscal
projection is for a $4 trillion deficit." (Baltimore Sun, June 12, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "My [tax relief] plan...offers relief for everyone who pays income
taxes...[W]e will return $1,600 to the typical American family with two children...The second effect of my plan is to substantially reduce the tax barriers that bar too many Americans from the middle class." (Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts,
February 8, 2001)
Promise Broken: "According to an analysis of the [Bush tax] plan by Citizens for Tax
Justice...taxpayers in the lowest 60 percent of the income scale get 12.7 percent of the
Bush tax cuts. Their average annual tax deduction would be $256." (David Corn, The
Nation, September 25, 2003 citing a Citizen's for Tax Justice study, February 2001)
Promise Broken: "Truly average taxpayers - those in the middle of the income range -
would receive $265." (Tax Policy Center of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, February 13, 2001)
Tax Relief: 2003 Tax Act
Bush Promise: "Tax relief is for everyone who pays income taxes. 92 million Americans, this year, will keep an average of almost $1,000 more of their money." (President
Bush, State of the Union Address, Federal Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, January 28, 2003)
Promise Broken: "According to a study by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax
Policy Center, 8.1 million low- and middle-income taxpayers who pay billions in income
taxes each year will receive no tax reduction under the new tax law." (Investment News,
June 16, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "The President's plan helps working Americans by focusing tax relief
directly at moderate-income families and those with children. A married couple with
two children and income of $40,000 will see their taxes reduced by $1,133 (from $1,178
to $45) in 2003." (President Bush's Agenda for Tax Relief,April 29, 2003)
Promise Broken: "The President has given numerous speeches implying that most
people stand to gain $1,000 or more from his latest tax bill, but that's not true. In fact,
over the next two years, the median tax reduction will be only about $120." (Citizens for
Tax Justice, May 30, 2003)
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Bush Promise: "The 2003 tax cut will give 23 million small business owners an average tax cut of $2,042." (White House Web Site, January 18, 2003)
Promise Broken: "Nearly four out of every five tax filers (79%) with small business income would receive less than the average amount the President cited, with more than
half of all small business owners receiving $500 or less." (Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, January 21, 2003)
Tax Cuts
Bush Promise: "I twice led the Congress to pass historic tax relief for the American
people. We wanted tax relief to be as broad and as fair as possible, so we reduced
taxes on everyone who pays taxes." (White House Web Site, October 9, 2003)
Promise Broken: "A new AP poll finds that almost half of all Americans `said their overall tax burden - including federal, state and local taxes - had gone up over the past
three years' - almost four times the 13 percent who said their overall taxes had gone
down." (Associated Press, April 13, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Despite three tax cuts in as many years, only 19 percent [of Americans surveyed in a CBS News/New York Times poll] said Bush's policies made their
taxes go down. Forty-seven percent noticed no effect, while 29 percent perceived that
their taxes have gone up." (The Washington Post, October 7, 2003)
2004 Campaign and Terrorism
Bush Promise: "I have no ambition whatsoever to use [the war on terror or 9/11] as a
political issue." (Washington Times, January 24, 2002)
Promise Broken: "A White House aide told [Pakistani Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq] last spring that `it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT [High Value Target] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July' - the first
three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston." (The New Republic, July
7, 2004)
Promise Broken: "An internal White House document outlining President Bush's re-election agenda starts with `War on terrorism (Con't)' and homeland security." (AP, December 29, 2002)
Promise Broken: "President Bush's top political adviser said today that Republicans
will make the president's handling of the war on terrorism the centerpiece of their strategy to win back the Senate and keep control of the House in this year's midterm elections. `We can go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party
to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby
protecting America,' Karl Rove said at the Republican National Committee meeting."
(The Washington Post, January 19, 2002)
Veterans
Bush Promise: "Veterans are getting very good health care under my administration,
and they will continue to do so during the next four years." (Third Presidential Debate,
October 13, 2004)
Promise Broken: "A medical system that only treats the sickest of the sick and the
poorest of the poor is not sustainable and would be undesirable. In the end, it would
seriously erode the quality of care for today's veterans and tomorrow's...With an inadequate appropriation in the President's budget for next year, the situation is likely to get
even worse...This budget proposal is bad news for the nation's veterans, made even
more distressing in light of the war in Iraq and military operations if Afghanistan and
elsewhere." (Disabled American Veterans National Commander James Sursely, press
release, February 8, 2005)
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Bush Promise: "We've reduced the backlog of disability claims by about a third. We
will reduce it even further." (Remarks by the President of the American Legion, August
31, 2004)
Promise Broken: "While VA made progress in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 in reducing
the size and age of its inventory of pending claims, it has lost some ground since the
end of fiscal year 2003. For example, pending claims increased by about one-third
from the end of fiscal year 2003 to the end of March 2005." (GAO, May 26, 2005)
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Bush Promise: "[When I am President, we] will not have our veterans standing in line
waiting for benefits that they've been promised." (Federal Document Clearing House
Political Transcripts, September 7, 2000)
Promise Broken: "In August 2002, Bush refused to release a bundle of emergency
spending that included $275 million for the Department of VA to reduce backlogs at the
nation's VA Medical Centers. According to Richard Santos, national commander of the
American Legion, `more than 300,000 veterans new to the VA system are on waiting
lists - some for more than one year long - for the initial medical exams they need in order to qualify for prescription drug benefits.' Santos complained, `we feel we've been let
down. A verbal promise in front of 6,000 people is something you have to keep.'" (Associated Press, August 14, 2002)
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Bush Promise: "America's veterans honored their commitment to our country through
their military service. I will honor our commitment to them with a billion dollar increase
to ensure better access to quality care and faster decisions on benefit claims." (Federal
Document Clearing House Political Transcripts, February 27, 2001)
Promise Broken: "The president ignored veterans in the State of the Union Address
and with today's release of his 2005 budget, it is further evident that veterans are no
longer a priority with this administration." (VFW Release, February 2, 2004)
Promise Broken: "This deplorable budget will do nothing to alleviate the many thousands of veterans who are waiting six months or more for basic health care appointments with the VA. Instead, the budget seeks to drive veterans from the system by realigning funding, charging enrollment fees for access, and more than doubling the
prescription drug copayment. This is inexcusable... The funding package is a disgrace
and a sham."(Edward S. Banas, Sr., VFW Commander-in-Chief, February 2, 2004)
Promise Broken: "The Presidential Task Force `To Improve Health Care Delivery For
Our Nation's Veterans' final report showed that over the last couple of years the resources per patient has steadily declined... As of January 2003, nearly a quarter-million
veterans were on a waiting list of six months or more for a first appointment or an initial
follow-up clearly indicating that VA lacks either sufficient capacity or resources to provide the necessary care." (President's Task Forces To Improve Health Care Delivery
For Our Nation's Veterans Final Report, May 2003)
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Bush Promise: "Secretary Principi is conducting a top-to-bottom review of the claims
processing. Currently, there are about 600,000 pending applications, of which 53,000
have been pending over a year. That's not right. I have given Secretary Principi the
clearest of clear mandates. He must bring those claims to a speedy and fair resolution.
We must move as quickly as possible on the backlog, and we will." (Address to VFW
Annual Convention, August 20, 2001)
Promise Broken: "Total claims pending before the Veterans' Benefit Administration:
471,284." (Veterans' Benefit Administration, "Monday Morning Report," June 7-June
12, 2004)
Promise Broken: "Chief among [the Veterans Benefits Association] VBA's mission is
processing veterans' compensation and pension claims. The job is essential to VA's
mission. The reduction of the claims backlog and the timely processing of those claims
have been well-stated goals of this administration. While there have been significant
accomplishments, VBA has not fully met these goals. Instead, the number of backlogged claims is creeping upwards. This persistent and increasing backlog prevents
disabled veterans from receiving timely decisions for the compensation and pensions
they frequently need to offset economic hardships related to their disability." (Edward S.
Banas, Sr., Commander in Chief, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Testimony before House
Veterans' Affairs Committee, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony, March 10, 2004)
