Episode Three: Alice Meets Compassionate King
Bush
Alice decided no one was going to offer her
any tea, so she left. Soon she came to a beach. There she saw King Bush
standing with his top Republican Congressional leader, DeLay Walrus.
King Bush was beckoning the little oysters who
were falling through the safety net. They heard his clarion call and scrambled
to his side.
King Bush coaxed: “Just climb up the safety
net and walk with us. I declare a new day where people will no longer depend
upon the government. We’ll get the government out of your business. Without
interference all the unemployed will find themselves jobs making at least the
$5.15 minimum wage.”
Delay Walrus: “That’s right. Let private
industry set the rules.
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too. That
is, unless you’re wealthy. Then you can have the anti-government cake. But if
you mix your rhetoric with big tax contributions to King Bush and his
Republican Congressional friends, when the cake is all baked you can get a top
job in King Bush’s administration. And you can still get the biggest slice of
the government contracts. If you’re really clever, like Halliburton, you don’t
even have to compete for them.”
Compassionate King Bush: “But I feel so sorry
for the people who don’t have those special contacts with old buddies in the
White House.”
With sobs and tears he sorted the oysters into
piles of different sizes. His tears flowed hardest for the little children.
Alice was glad to see such compassion from
King Bush.
Reading her thoughts, Compassionate King Bush
continued: “I’m a Compassionate Conservative. That’s why I initiated a stronger
Federal role in education with my new policy, ‘Leave No Child Behind.’”
Compassionate King Bush drew himself up
proudly: “Isn’t that a catchy phrase?”
Alice: “Yes. Who thought it up?”
Compassionate King Bush: “We got it from the
Children’s Defense Fund.”
Alice: “My mother said that was a good
organization, that Hillary Clinton belonged to it.”
Compassionate King Bush: “Don’t talk to me
about her. Why, that woman thought every American should have health care.
Don’t people realize that only poor nations--Japan, Canada, England,
Sweden, Australia, Germany and Switzerland--can afford giving health care to
all their children? Don’t talk to me about Hillary and her wild ideas.”
Alice, feeling a little abashed, continued
timidly: “I wonder if the Children’s Defense Fund minds your using their
slogan. Even if they don’t, do they support your polices?”
Compassionate Bush: “Why, everyone who likes
little children must support education, so they must support ‘No Child Left
Behind.’”
Alice: “Do teachers like having someone from
Washington telling them what to do?”
Compassionate Bush: “Well, the best teachers
go to the richest suburbs so they have lots of money to spend on extra teachers
and fancy computers and learning tools, so the new rules are no problem for
them.”
Alice: “My teacher was complaining that you
didn’t give our school all the money you promised.”
Compassionate Bush, indignantly: “That’s
liberal propaganda. Just because I have a good idea, everyone expects me to
fund it too.”
Compassionate Bush looked very grumpy.
Alice, quickly, not wanting to offend him:
“Well, I know you’re doing other things for school children.”
Compassionate Bush: “Yes. I want to give
vouchers to children so that they can get out of the bad public schools and go
to good ones or to religious schools.”
Alice: “Will this help all children?”
Compassionate Bush: “It will help all children
whose parents now pay for private schools. Twelve percent of children now go to
private schools. I think the public schools should help pay their bills. Why,
with vouchers more children can transfer out of the bad public schools into
good religious schools.”
Alice: “The TV said that in Saudi Arabia a lot
of children go to schools run by the Islamic clerics. Will our schools be like
those?”
Compassionate Bush: “Certainly not. These will
be good Christian schools. Of course, I believe in religious freedom. But
that’s not the point. Vouchers could help 12 percent of the school children of
America.”
Alice was very proud of her ability to
subtract in her head: “If 12 percent of the children go to private schools,
then 88 percent must go to public schools. What are you doing for them?”
Compassionate Bush: “Well, I’m making sure
that they take a lot of tests.”
Alice: “Do the school boards like the idea?”
Compassionate Bush, angrily: “The real problem
is the teachers.”
Alice: “My teacher told us that your Secretary
of Education, Rod Paige, said that teachers belonged to a terrorist
organization, the National Education Association.”
Compassionate Bush, quickly: “I didn’t say
that.”
Alice: “If you don’t like what Secretary Paige
said, could you fire him? Can’t you fire him or Ashcroft or any of your top
people?”
Compassionate Bush: “It’s not that easy,
little girl. You wouldn’t want me to be disloyal to my supporters, would you? I
owe allegiance to my supporters on the far right. But I can assure you, they’re
all for supporting the family.”
Alice was about to ask King Bush more about
his supporters, but suddenly she saw something very strange so she left King
Bush and went to investigate.
Fact Sheet: What Alice Didn’t Know about
Compassionate King Bush
He didn’t put his money where his mouth was.
He never provided the money promised to the
schools to carry out his ‘No Child Left Behind’ requirements. His budget
request for 2005 was $5 billion less than the amount called for in the
legislation.
King Bush claims that he is increasing funding
for education in 2005. That is true, but after the election the amount budgeted
is slated to be lowered. By 2009 King Bush’s budgets for education will be $660
million below the amount provided in 2004.
Moreover, because of Federal budget cuts in many
programs administered by the States and the downturn in the economy during the
Bush years, many states have balanced their budgets by cutting educational
funds, leaving many local school districts with less money than before. They
have had to either cut school budgets and programs or raise property taxes.
Fantasy Four:
Cat: “Of course. Just because you can’t see my
body doesn’t mean I’m not here.”
Cat, proudly: “I’m King Bush’s special cat. I
can come and go on command. See?”
The cat’s whiskers began to twitch. Then the
rest of his body slowly appeared.
Cat, proudly: “It certainly is. And I can do
it in reverse. When King Bush assumed his throne, I embodied a surplus of over
$2 billion, and you can watch how quickly I faded away.”
The cat disappeared quickly.
Cat: “Well...If I embody the deficit, I can
not only come back quickly, I can swell up to many, many times my current size.
This year I’ll probably swell up to about $5 billion.”
Cat: “You’ve heard of the phrase ‘bust the
bank,’ haven’t you?”
Cat: “Not if Compassionate King Bush gets
reelected and has his way. He’ll cut the social programs.”
Cat: “This year he wants to cut child care for
the former Welfare Moms who got jobs, medical services to veterans, and Head
Start.”
Suddenly Compassionate King Bush himself
reappears.
Compassionate King Bush: “No. But I gave major
tax cuts to people who make big bucks. You know, the
kind who can afford to give $25,000 to my campaign. That’s how I can easily
raise a million dollars at a fund raiser.”
Compassionate King Bush: “It spurs the
economy. I’m going to buy millions of dollars in TV ads for the campaign.”
Drawing himself up proudly, he continued: “By June, I
had already spent $77 million on TV ads.”
Compassionate King Bush: “They can buy
expensive second homes to spur the housing industry. It helps the building
industry in
Compassionate King Bush: “Really good skiers
need first class outfits. Italian ones are hot this year. And rich people help
the airline industry if they use American carriers when they fly to
Compassionate King Bush: “That’s the place
where firms like Halliburton can incorporate their businesses to avoid
Compassionate King Bush: “Little girl, you
just don’t understand. We were talking before about personal income taxes. But
American businesses have to pay taxes too.”
Compassionate King Bush: “Certainly. I gave
many big special tax write-offs to business to help create jobs.”
Compassionate King Bush: “I don’t know. You
certainly don’t want the government to interfere with private industry by
monitoring the results, do you? In some cases they probably used the money to
build companies overseas where the wages are lower. That will enable them to
sell their products cheaper and help American consumers. Or they may use the
money to pay higher salaries to their Boards of Directors and CEOs so they can
attract the best people.”
Fact Sheet: What
In 1998, midway through President Clinton’s
second term, the Federal budget reported its first surplus in 21 years. When he
left office, the government had a budget surplus of $236 billion.
President Bush reversed the trend of providing
a budget surplus each year. Instead he created a deficit of $375 billion for
fiscal year 2003, which is expected to grow to between $477 and $521 billion
for fiscal year 2004.
Bush’s figures for future budgets generally do
not include the cost of the war in
Fact Sheet: What
Under Bush, corporate after-tax profits have
risen to an all-time high while compensation for working people has reached a
40 year low.
§ The
thrust of President Bush’s proposals is to shift the national tax burden to
those earning wages and away from people who inherit money, people who own
stocks and bonds, and from corporations.
§ Under
the current Bush tax system, a working couple with an income of $50,000 a year
will pay $8,439 in taxes on that income. If they didn’t work, but instead
received all their income from dividends and capital gains, their tax would be
only $1,770.
§ If
their income was only $20,000, the working couple would pay $2,073 in taxes and
the non-working couple would pay $270.
§ This
is cleverly concealed in Form 1040, which is all most people see, with a reference
to instructions which refer to a Qualified Dividends worksheet. It finally
reveals, after some intricate calculations, how little tax you pay on qualified
dividends. It turns out that qualified dividends are all dividends except those
from
§ Bush’s
tax cuts do nothing to reduce payroll taxes. Many Americans pay more in payroll
taxes than in income taxes. Payroll taxes pay for Social Security and Medicare.
Without their Social Security checks, one-half of Americans currently over 65
years old would be poor.
§ The
tax cuts do nothing to reduce property taxes. Indeed, the President’s cuts in
domestic programs--and especially those in his budget plans for after the
election--shift more costs to state and local governments. State taxes, local
property taxes and sales taxes are likely to increase to cover these additional
expenses.
§ Everybody
pays property taxes, not just homeowners. Landlords consider property taxes
when setting rents. Renters, however, do not get tax breaks enjoyed by
homeowners. Thus, increases in property taxes hurt lower income wage earners
most, since they are the most likely to be renters.
§ The
estate tax, which President Bush calls a “death tax,” is only paid by people
who have assets worth more than two million dollars.
The rhetoric about saving the family farm or business is misleading since most would be exempt. Bush’s proposal largely benefits corporations, including large corporate farms.
Episode Seven: Alice Talks to Compassionate
King Bush Again
Alice continued on her way to the beach where
Compassionate King Bush and DeLay Walrus were collecting the oysters still
struggling in the safety net. Compassionate King George was weeping.
Compassionate Bush: “I feel your pain so much
that I’m issuing new regulations to insure that a few of you will get overtime
pay when you work longer than 40 hours a week.”
Alice smiled: “That’s a very good thing. Do
the new regulations do anything else?”
Compassionate Bush: “Why, they eliminate the
potential of overtime pay for six million workers. But some workers making
less than $23,660 who didn’t get overtime before will now be eligible. And they
really need it, so it’s a good thing.”
Alice: “Who are the six million people?”
Compassionate Bush, brushing her aside:
“Mostly women. The regulations don’t say that, and, of course, I’m all for
supporting Working Moms, but most of the people who will be affected will be
women.”
Alice: “Why women?”
Compassionate Bush: “Because they hold the
service jobs like nurses, secretaries, pharmacy clerks, bank tellers, school
social workers, and people working in nursing homes or after-school programs.
But it’s not my fault they didn’t get better jobs.”
Alice: “Will people making higher salaries be
affected?”
Compassionate Bush: “Of course. Don’t you
think I want to be fair? Why, employers now may not have to pay overtime to
many workers making between $23,660 and $100,000.”
Alice: “My father is a member of the union.
Will the unions like it?”
Compassionate Bush: “Of course not. But unions
want people to be paid a living wage and get health benefits and pensions. Why,
those are fighting words to a Texas Cowboy.”
Alice: “Have unions been successful?”
Compassionate Bush: “They used to be. But
they’re losing ground rapidly. Why, union jobs pay about 20 percent more than
nonunion ones, and unions negotiate hard for health benefits. Last year there
were strikes by grocery workers in both California and Wisconsin--all because
the workers wanted to have health coverage for their children.”
Alice: “Will the new regulations affect the
unions?”
Compassionate Bush: “Not right away. Most of
them have contracts which will last for several years. But when the old
contracts have to be renegotiated, the owners will insist on dropping the time
and a half for overtime.”
Alice: “Maybe that will be good. Then my
parents could work shorter hours and spend more time playing with me.”
Compassionate Bush: “I’m certainly big on
family values. But the employers can’t let the workers work fewer hours. The
workers will work the same hours. They just won’t get paid for their extra work
any more.”
Alice: “Is that fair?”
Compassionate Bush: “Little girl, I spend a
lot of time out in the country talking to people. I host a fund-raising dinner
every week. And my dinners are so popular that even at a cost of at least
$1,000-a-plate, hundreds of people come. Why, people even come to my $2,000-dollar-a-plate dinners.” He smiled
proudly. “I can raise a million dollars a night at those. And everyone at my
dinners tells me that this policy is absolutely necessary if we are to compete
in the Global Economy and protect American workers.”
Alice was a little confused. She wanted a cup
of tea. So she decided to return to the tea party even though the creatures
there hadn’t been very friendly.
Fact Sheet: What Alice Didn’t Know about King
Bush’s Proposed New Overtime Regulations
§ Six million workers making over $23,660 annually could lose their eligibility for overtime pay.
§ Bush’s
Wage and Hour Administrator, Tammy D. McCutchen, said that the new rules “will
not adversely affect the well-being of families.”
§ But
workers now receiving overtime pay depend upon it for 25 percent of their
livelihood. They could loose an average of $161 a week.
§ Rather
than hiring new workers, firms would be able to increase productivity by
requiring their present workers to work longer hours. While millions of workers
now receive time-and-a-half pay for any hours they put in beyond the 40-hour
work week, under the new rules employers may not have to pay them anything for
extra work.
§ The
decisions about whether an employee is entitled to overtime pay or not will
mostly be left up to the employers. They can stop paying an employee overtime
by reclassifying the job.
§ The
old rules exempted people from overtime pay only if they were managers or had
considerable professional training related to the job, such as a degree in
pharmacy. The new rules Bush wants would permit denying overtime pay on the
basis of almost any education beyond high school. This would include training
provided during military service or on-the-job training.
§ The
new rules would eliminate the requirement that a worker had to perform
non-exempt tasks 50 per cent of the time to be exempt. If the new rules are
enacted, an assistant manager at a fast food chain who spends most of his time
flipping hamburgers could be denied overtime if he is in charge of a few other
workers. Anyone who is a “team leader” could be exempt even if they have no
supervisory responsibilities for their team members.
§ The
proposed rules specifically exempt all people working in the financial services
industry, computer networkers, internet and database administrators from being
eligible for any overtime pay.
§ Local
governments may be tempted to cut costs by requiring policemen and fire
fighters to work longer hours because many of them would no longer have to be
paid overtime. This could reduce their effectiveness due to fatigue.
§ Nurses
are already complaining about being forced to work overtime. Experienced nurses
are leaving the profession because of poor working conditions.
§ According
to the Institute of Medicine, 100,000 preventable deaths in hospitals occur
each year, partly due to overworked staff--that’s 273 Americans a day dying
unnecessarily. The number is likely to increase when the new regulations add to
the stress and fatigue of nurses and other hospital staff.
§ Other
workers likely to lose their overtime pay include:
v Newspaper
reporters
v Chefs
v Physician
assistants
v Sales
engineers
v Supervisors
in retail stores
v Managers
in lodging establishments
§ Both
houses of Congress voted to stop Bush from issuing these regulations but Bush’s
Republican leadership overruled them in a parliamentary maneuver. In May 2004,
the Senate passed a measure that would increase the overtime for workers making
less than $23,660 but prevent other workers from losing their overtime
eligibility. As of May 20, 2004, the Republican leadership in the House had refused
to let the House even vote on this measure.
§ Even if the current Congress manages to stop these rules now, it is likely that issuing them would become a top priority in a new Bush administration.
Episode Nine: The Cat Comes Back
Cat: “That’s because I’ve been busy making
things disappear for King Bush.”
Cat, somewhat grumpily: “Well, first I had to disappear his estimates on the cost of the prescription drug
benefits for the elderly.”
Cat, angrily: “The problem was that King Bush
told the Congress that it would only cost $400 billion, and some idiot released
the fact that it’s going to cost over $500 billion. Even worse, a few misguided
Congressmen thought that King Bush knew this at the time. They even claimed
that someone in his administration threatened to fire an analyst if he gave the
true costs to Congress.”
Cat: “You bet it would have. Even at the $400
billion cost we had to have the longest House roll call in the history of the
nation so we could postpone the vote until we could get opponents to switch
their votes.”
Cat: “We would have lost.”
Cat: “Little girl. You can’t expect him to
know everything. You don’t think he’s responsible for those government
bureaucrats, do you? Keeping them in line is Humpty Dumpty
Rove’s job.”
Cat: “Certainly not. It’s not King Bush’s
fault that his staff gave out wrong numbers. Just like he’s not responsible for
telling everybody that Saddam and al Qaeda were
closely connected.”
Cat, smirking: “Of course. It’s not true, but
that doesn’t matter. Besides, King Bush never said exactly that. His Secretary
of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Mad Hatter Rummy spread that
disinformation.
“And certainly you don’t expect King Bush to
be responsible for the words of his top staff, do you? That would be like
making him responsible for the mistake of the CIA and FBI in not sharing
information that might have prevented 9-11. Everybody knows their mistakes were
Cat: “Yes, but you can hardly have expected
him to be on top of national security in that short a time. As I said, the
failures of our intelligence community were all
The Cat disappeared.
Fact Sheet: What Alice Didn’t Know About
“Cherry-picking”
The new Medicare law is designed to help
private firms offer health benefits more cheaply than traditional Medicare. The
private plans will be able to keep their costs down because the law permits
them to “cherry-pick.”
§ Cherry-picking
is the term insurance companies use when they only accept people NOT LIKELY TO
NEED MEDICAL CARE into their plans. When people say that they can’t get health
insurance, it’s often because they have a disease, such as cancer, which will
require extensive medical treatment. That’s one reason unions have been
fighting hard to keep health benefits. Many of their members might not be able
to get health coverage if they lose the company plan.
§ An
insurance company might accept someone only with the condition that the company
does not have to pay for any treatment for a “preexisting” illness.
§ For
example, a friend of
“You mean that if I am
in an automobile accident and have a ruptured disc, you won’t cover it?” he
asked.
“That’s right. We’ll
consider it a preexisting condition.”
“What if someone
stabs me in the ribs with a knife?”
“We won’t cover it.
We will not cover anything related to your back because of the preexisting
condition.”
As you can see, the insurance companies do not
refuse to cover only the preexisting condition; they also refuse to cover the
part of the body which houses that condition.
§ In
another case, an insurance company refused to cover any part of a woman’s
reproductive system because she had what her doctor said amounted to a pimple
on her cervix.
“What if I get
breast cancer?”
“Not covered.”
“Well, I want to
make sure I’m doing everything necessary to protect my health. Is this
condition on my cervix something that I should be concerned about? What harm
can it potentially do to me?”
“I don’t know. I’m
not a doctor.”
But the person who was not a doctor was
empowered to deny health insurance coverage to the woman.
In the above case, the woman’s doctor wrote to
the insurance company, and the woman obtained the coverage.
Fact Sheet: What
The new law encourages the privatization of
Medicare.
§ Although
nothing in the law would take away that right, the way the law is structured to
work could make traditional Medicare so expensive that many older people will
be forced to join a private Health Maintenance Organization.
§ The
private companies will not have to accept all the seniors. They can
“cherry-pick,” accepting only the healthiest. This will leave Medicare with the
oldest and sickest individuals and, therefore, leave Medicare with the most
expensive bills.
§ The
law does provide some prescription drug coverage, but it will not cover over 75
percent of the drug costs of the elderly. It provides no coverage for any drug
bills between $2,250 and $3,600 a year, now being referred to as “the donut
hole.” People who fall in the “donut hole” may be able to obtain better
coverage by leaving traditional Medicare and switching to a private plan.
§ The
legislation lets seniors sign up for a drug discount card once a year. Currently
they can choose from among more than 70 plans. Before selecting a plan, they
can see if it offers the lowest price for the drugs they presently use and
whether they can purchase them at a convenient drugstore.
§ The
company administering the plan, however, can change its prices and list of
medicines covered weekly, while the senior citizen has to wait for a year to
switch plans.
§ Additionally,
the price and drug listing information recently provided by insurance companies
is already outdated, so selecting a plan is like buying a pig in a poke--there
is no way really to know what you are buying.
§ Furthermore,
if you become ill with a different disease or your doctor wants to try a
different medicine, the drugs you need may not be covered at all. And, in disputes
about whether the company will pay for certain drugs, the new Medicare law
specifically forbids doctors to contact the insurance company on behalf
of their patients.
§ The
law also PROHIBITS the government from bargaining with the drug companies for
lower prices. It also prohibits purchasing drugs from
§ There
is nothing in the legislation to stop drug prices from soaring. But the law
contains a cost containment provision which limits the amount of Medicare
increases which can be paid for from general revenues (like income taxes). If
costs become too high, Medicare fees and co-payments will be increased,
coverage will be limited and/or payroll taxes will be increased.
§ The
bill also provides for a health savings account program which will provide tax
benefits to younger people who can afford to use the program. But it may cause
employers to reduce the health insurance they now provide and greatly increase
costs. Health savings accounts are structured in a way which will encourage
young, healthy individuals to opt out of comprehensive plans, leaving
employers’ plans with older individuals and people with health problems.
§ The
§ The government already pays private managed care programs 19 percent more than it pays for the same services under the traditional fee-for-service Medicare which most seniors have preferred. Under the new law, the private firms will be given $46 billion in additional subsidies.
Episode Ten: Alice Sees Humpty Dumpty Rove
Again
Alice realized that she still hadn’t gotten
her tea so she started walking back to the tea party. On the way she came
across Humpty Dumpty Rove sitting in a pristine grove of very old redwood
trees.
Alice: “Hello again. Those are beautiful trees
surrounding you.”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Yes, aren’t they? And
they are just the length that the Japanese want for their industries.”
Alice: “I don’t understand. Aren’t you in a
National Park? I thought it was illegal to cut down virgin trees in a National
Park.”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Those trees belong to the
American people. The loggers are Americans so they have a right to cut the
trees. And trees are a renewable resource anyhow.”
Alice: “But how long will it take to grow the
trees back?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Not more than five or six
hundred years.”
Alice thought about how long five or six
hundred years was. She remembered her history lessons.
Alice: “Oh, those trees started growing about
when Columbus started sailing west.”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Yes. And remember, little
girl, that people had weird ideas about the environment even then. They thought
the world was flat. That’s as silly as believing in global warming.”
Alice: “What’s that?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “It’s that ridiculous
theory that by burning coal and oil to keep our economy strong and create jobs,
we’re destroying the ozone layer around the earth.”
Alice: “What would happen if we did that?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “The sun would shine
through more brightly, the ice caps in the polar regions would melt, and the
American cities on the east and west coasts and near the Gulf of Mexico would
be flooded.”
Alice: “Where would the people living there
go?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove, casually: “Oh, I suppose they
could move to the mountains. So it’s a good thing if we build roads into the
wilderness and clear cut the land so it will be ready for them to build their
houses.”
Alice: “How many people live near the ocean?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Oh, only 50 percent of
Americans. But that includes both the Atlanta and Pacific coasts.”
Alice: “Will they all fit in the National
Parks?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “It’s never really going
to happen. It’s just liberal propaganda put out by the scientists and nations
who have been hoodwinked by the environmentalists for political reasons.”
Alice: “Do many scientists believe it?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Hundreds, maybe
thousands.”
Alice: “Are they good scientists?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “They have a Nobel Prize
or two.”
Alice: “Do all scientists believe this?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Not the ones King Bush
appointed as consultants to EPA. And there is now not even a section on global
warming in the EPA reports. The staff took it out.”
Alice: “What about scientists in other nations?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Most of them believe this
silly notion even though King Bush’s scientists told them it’s just nonsense.
They still liked the Kyoto agreement.”
Alice: “What’s that?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “It’s a silly plan concocted
by wild-eyed liberals like Clinton to have nations pledge to cut their use of
fossil fuel.”
Alice: “Would that be a bad thing?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “It would be a bad thing
for the oil industry.”
Alice: “Did the U.S. sign the Kyoto
agreement?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “No, that was one of the
first things King Bush did. He killed it dead. He and March Hare Cheney are
loyal people. They certainly didn’t want to disappoint their friends in the oil
industry.”
Alice: “Will the other nations meet their
pledges anyway?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “No, most of them will use
the excuse that if the U.S. isn’t going to, they don’t have to either. Besides,
it probably wouldn’t be too effective without our participation.”
Alice: “Why?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “Because we’re responsible
for 25 percent of the world’s pollution even though we only have five percent
of the world’s population.”
Alice: “But what if global warming is real?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “I don’t believe it. We’re
still able to breathe, aren’t we?”
Alice: “But what if it really turns out to be
true?”
Humpty Dumpty Rove: “That will be well after
the November election.”
Fact Sheet: What Alice Didn’t Know about King
Bush’s Record on the Environment
During the 2000 campaign, candidate Bush promised
to decrease carbon dioxide levels even lower than the amount proposed by his
opponent, Vice President Al Gore. Bush dropped his pledge within two months of
taking office.
§ Bush
has opposed extensive and effective efforts to control greenhouse gases on the
basis that the scientific evidence is inconclusive. The groups providing that
evidence include the National Academy of Scientists and the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, both concerned about the changes.
§ Pollution
from coal power plants kills some 30,000 Americans a year. Bush’s “Clear Skies
Initiative” actually increases the amounts of pollution allowed under
the Clean Air Act. The increased levels of sulfur dioxide will increase acid
rain which causes respiratory diseases.
§ Bush’s
new proposals permit increases in mercury pollution. Mercury can cause brain,
lung and kidney damage and reproductive problems.
§ Bush
stopped the Environmental Pollution Agency from proceeding with lawsuits
against polluters filed under the Clinton administration and cut the EPA
enforcement staff.
§ After
9-11, the initial press releases of EPA warned New Yorkers about potential
health problems from the lead, mercury, asbestos and fiberglass released into
the air near ground zero. According to the EPA Inspector General (the EPA
internal law enforcement officer), the White House instructed EPA to change
their message to reduce people’s fears. The new message assured New Yorkers
that “there was no significant threat to human health,” even though there was
no evidence to back up that statement.
§ Bush
believes that environmental controls should be voluntary, despite the fact that
industry and business have fought almost every environmental regulation. In the
2000 campaign, as proof of his concern about the environment, Bush cited his
Texas law urging the oil and gas industry to pledge voluntary reductions in
pollution. The law, written with influence from the oil and gas industry, has
not been effective. Only 10 percent of the 700 polluting plants even signed a
voluntary pledge.
§ In
a second administration, Bush might revive some harmful proposals which he
withdrew due to public outcry.
§ For
example, during the early days of his administration, Bush tried to let
industry dump additional arsenic into the drinking water. He withdrew his
proposal only after public protest.
§ Bush
also wanted to weaken the requirement that states test children on Medicaid for
lead poisoning. Lead poisoning causes brain damage leading to learning
disabilities and behavioral problems. The effects can be lessened with
medication if children are tested at an early age. A high proportion of
children in public housing and children living in older housing are at risk
because lead paint has not been removed from their buildings.
Fact Sheet: What Alice Didn’t Know about the
Health Effects of Pollution
The elderly, children and unborn children
suffer the most. Even under existing mercury regulations, an estimated 600,000
children a year are born with brain and other physical damage due to mercury in
the water. Although fish have valuable nutrients, in 2001 Massachusetts issued
warnings telling pregnant women not to eat the fish from ANY of its lakes.
§ The
new Bush proposals increase the total amounts of mercury that will be permitted
to be released. As important, they permit polluters at one location to continue
polluting as long as they “buy” credits from a plant elsewhere that is
polluting less than the allowed amount. This does not reduce the total
pollution, and it permits concentrated amounts of mercury to be dumped into a
local site.
§ Mercury
also can harm adults. Although fishing is a big part of Wisconsin’s economy due
to the tourism industry, Wisconsin has warned sports fishermen not to eat more
than one of the fish they catch in a week.
An increase in air pollution will increase asthma. Asthma kills people. It also keeps them from enjoying life since they cannot do such simple things as go outside and take a walk. Childhood asthma is one of the main reasons for children missing school, and it has been rising significantly.
Episode Twelve: Alice Meets a Caterpillar
Alice continued walking. Suddenly she smelled
smoke coming from the forest. “Oh,” she thought, “I’d better investigate. Maybe
someone’s left a campfire burning in the National Forest.”
She soon spied a large mushroom. A green and
yellow Caterpillar was sitting on the mushroom smoking a long curved pipe.
Alice: “Hello.”
The Caterpillar continued to smoke, glancing
at her with disdain, but saying nothing.
Alice tried again: “Hello?”
Caterpillar: “I saw you. Who do you think you
are, Helen Thomas?”
Alice: “Who is she?”
Caterpillar: “She was dean of the White House
Press Corps. From the time of Eisenhower all Presidents invited her to ask the
first question at press conferences. But she asked a question King Bush didn’t
like, so I asked the Red Queen to take her out. King Bush doesn’t like press
conferences anyway. Too many people ask questions that Humpty Dumpty Rove
hasn’t given him an answer for.”
Alice: “Who is Humpty Dumpty Rove again?”
She’d seen so many creatures since she fell
into Bushland that she’d forgotten who was who.
Caterpillar: “He’s my chief advisor. He was
following the tactics of Murray Chotiner, who taught Tricky Dick Nixon how to
get elected by falsely smearing Helen Gahagan Douglas as a Communist.”
Alice: “What’s a Communist?”
Caterpillar: “That’s who we had to fight
before we had the War on Terror.”
Alice: “Where did they live?”
Caterpillar: “All over. We had to topple
governments in many countries to contain them. That’s why Nixon had to get
elected to use his secret plan to win the war in Vietnam.”
Alice: “Did we win it?”
Caterpillar: “No, but a lot of people died
heroically in the attempt.”
Alice: “Did people get hurt, too?”
Caterpillar: “Certainly. Senator John Kerry
came home on a stretcher. And that Max Cleland who was running for reelection
to the Senate in Georgia lost both his legs and one of his arms.”
Alice: “Did he win his reelection Senate
race?”
Caterpillar: “No, Humpty Dumpty Rove fixed
him. Not his arms and legs of course, but his campaign. We ran TV ads showing
what a coward he was.”
Alice, shocked: “What?”
Caterpillar, angrily: “That’s right. A coward.
He voted against some provisions King Bush wanted in the Homeland Security
bill. That’s why the Republican candidate’s TV ads showed Cleland with a
picture of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Anyone who opposes ANY part of
King Bush’s plan to win the War on Terror is a coward.”
Alice pondered this for a moment. Something
didn’t make sense, but the Caterpillar seemed so kingly she didn’t dare risking
asking any more such questions. She was afraid that he’d turn her over to the
Red Queen, like Helen Thomas or Max Cleland.
So instead she asked: “Why are you sitting on
a mushroom?”
Caterpillar: “It’s my policy stance as King
Bush’s Press Secretary.”
Alice: “I don’t understand.”
Caterpillar: “Mushrooms are round.”
Alice: “Why does that makes them a good perch
for you? And what’s a policy stance?”
Caterpillar: “A policy stance is where I say
King Bush stands on a policy. Because the mushroom is round, I can slide around
to the other side and no one will notice.”
Alice: “Why would you shift your policy? Does
King Bush check to see what the American people want?”
Caterpillar, drawing himself up proudly:
“Certainly not. Unlike that other President--the one that we impeached for
lying about an affair--he never reads the polls or the newspapers. He never
even looks at the TV news shows. He has Karl Rove for that. And Vice King
Cheney keeps him informed. The CIA and FBI let him know what’s going on, too.”
Alice: “Do they tell him when to shift his
position?”
Caterpillar smiling with a silly giggle:
“Little girl, King Bush NEVER shifts his position. He’s very clever at his
press conferences.
“When he talked to the NCAA championship
teams, he said that he’s like Lukas Dora, a native of the Czech Republic. King
Bush said, ‘They tell me he talks a lot on the ice. He’s a talkative guy. But
he uses unique English to confuse the opponents. Kind of sounds like the
strategy I use at the press conferences.’
“So my job is not too hard. When the press
questions me, I simply slide around to the other side of the mushroom until I
find a statement that will convince the public that he didn’t really say what
they thought he said.”
Alice: “How does that work?”
Caterpillar: “Well, he never actually said
that Saddam had nuclear weapons nearly ready to bomb America. He just implied
it and let Secretary of State Powell convince the U.N. and Vice King Cheney
convince the press. But King Bush certainly never lied to the public.”
Alice: “But when my mother asks me a question
and I only tell her the part I want her to hear, she accuses me of lying.”
Caterpillar: “But you’re a little girl. You’re
not the leader of the greatest nation on earth, the symbol of Democracy
fighting a War on Terror...”
The Caterpillar turned his back on Alice and
continued smoking his pipe.
Fact Sheet: What Alice Didn’t Know about King
Bush’s Flip-flopping on Issues.
The previous President had been impeached for lying
about his sexual behavior. He tried to wiggle out of it by claiming his
activities with Monica shouldn’t really be classified that way, claiming “it
all depends upon what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
§ Bush
is trying to wiggle out of the fact that he and his close advisors at least
misled the American people and the world about the war on Iraq. His rationale
for the invasion of Iraq has shifted over time. Before the war, however, his
major arguments rested on the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
and the connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.
§ The
President and his Vice President are quibbling over the meaning of what
constitutes a meaningful relationship. The staff report of the 9-11 Commission
concluded that there was “no collaborative relationship” between Saddam and al
Qaeda in connection with 9-11. The President continues to insist that “there
was a relationship” and that there were “numerous contacts.” The Republican
head of the 9-11 Commission agrees that there were contacts, but points out
that Iraq did not provide the assistance requested by Osama bin Laden.
§ Bush Claims:
Saddam and bin Laden had close ties.
§ Bush’s evidence:
An al Qaeda operative had medical treatment in
Iraq.
Several hundred extremists were operating in
one area of Iraq.
§ Facts:
Osama bin Laden did not support Saddam before
the 9-11 attacks.
The area the extremists were in was not under
Saddam’s control.
§ Bush Claim:
In his January 2003 State of the Union
message, Bush cited documents detailing alleged Iraqi efforts to procure
uranium from Niger.
§ Fact
The CIA had determined that the documents were
forgeries and had informed Bush’s staff of this months before the speech.
§ Bush Claim:
Iraq had missiles that were an urgent threat
to Americans.
§ Fact:
No such missiles have been found. Even those
Saddam might have been working on would only have had a range of several
hundred miles.
§ Bush Claim:
Saddam had trailers which were “mobile labs,”
proving that he was hiding a biological weapons program.
§ Fact:
The Defense Intelligence Agency’s engineering
experts concluded that the trailers were used to produce hydrogen to fill
weather balloons.
(So it seems that most of the reasons we went to war in Iraq may have been hot air!)
Note: The bipartisan National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, created to investigate the 9/11
attacks, has determined after months of hearings and examining classified
documents that there were no effective links between Saddam Hussein and al
Qaeda. No weapons of mass destruction have been found.
What Alice Didn’t Know about Using Negative
Ads and Misleading Interviews to Distort the Truth
Senator Max Cleland supported creation of a
Department of Homeland Security when King Bush was still opposing it. He voted
for one version of the bill creating the Department but opposed several
provisions in Bush’s plan related to labor protections for the civil servants
who would be staffing the new department.
§ By
late May, Bush had already spent $77 million on ads.
§ The
wording of one of Bush’s ads could leave viewers the false impression that
Kerry opposes wiretapping of suspected terrorists.
§ Despite
the fact the 9-11 Commission has determined that Iraq was not involved in the
9-11 terrorist attacks, and there were no relevant links between Saddam Hussein
and al Qaeda, Vice President Cheney continues to assert that such links might
be possible.
The Administration recently has insisted that it never said that Iraq was an “imminent” threat. But the President said that Iraq is a “unique and urgent threat.” When arguing for war, the President said that action was urgent because of “the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”