From: stevec@orodruin.tivoli.com (steve the foolhardy)
Newsgroups: austin.politics,tx.politics
Subject: Re: Citizens against Government Waste
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:32:01 GMT
	<ldkjkkINN7l8@ghidrah.cs.utexas.edu>
Followup-To: austin.politics
Distribution: tx
Organization: TIVOLI Systems Inc
In-reply-to: kovsky@cs.utexas.edu's message of 13 Oct 92 04:20:36 GMT


As long as we're discussing government waste, here's a copy of a press
release that I received in the mail a few weeks back.

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		  Bush Spent $45 Billion on Drug War
		but Failed on Most Fronts, Report Says

WASHINGTON--Even though President George Bush is the biggest drug war
spender spender in history, most of his efforts have failed, according
to a report released today by the Drug Policy Foundation.

Foundation President Arnold S. Trebach charged, "Three years ago this
week, George Bush declared war on drugs in one of the most deceptive
speeches ever delivered from the Oval Office."

Trebach continued, "Now, in this campaign season, Mr. Bush is trying
to continue the deception, claiming victory in the drug war when
almost every initiative he as launched as met failure.  The truth is
his drug war hasn't made this country any safer, nor much closer to
drug-free."

Relying primarily on federal government data, the new Foundation
report, "The Bush Drug War Record," finds:

  -Bush spend more on drugs in four years than all other presidents
   since Nixon combined.  Bush's $45.2 billion drug war tops the $30
   billion spent since 1971.

  -Downward trends in drug use slowed despite Bush's aggressive
   policies.  Many drug usage levels were steady; crack use did not
   drop under Bush.

  -Violent crime and homicide increased.  As many as 5,000 to 6,000
   murders each year are drug-related, as homicide records are broken
   annually.

  -Drug production and trafficking increased.  Cocaine production
   *increased every year* under Bush, despite his $2.2 billion "Andean
   Strategy."

  -Criminal justice system in crisis.  At least 3.5 million drug
   arrests occurred under Bush, packing the courts and prisons and
   costing states billions.  The United States has the largest prison
   population in the free world.

President's Claim of Progress Disputed
--------------------------------------

President Bush recently claimed major progress in the drug war in his
Aug. 20 speech to the Republican National Convention.  He said,
"Today, cocaine use has fallen by 60 percent among young people."  The
Foundation report attacks this claim, noting that the statistic the
president used is highly misleading.

The 60 percent drop the president mentioned was a decline in
self-reported regular cocaine use by adolescents aged 12-17.  Between
1988 and 1991, government data show a decline from 1.1 percent of
the respondents to 0.4 percent saying they used cocaine at least once
a month.   The report says the figures really show "a decline from a
very small percentage to an extremely small percentage.  This fact is
obscured by talking about a decrease of '60 percent.'"

Drug Policy Foundation Vice President Kevin B. Zeese remarked, "It's
another case where the president thinks he can get away with a massive
deception.  In his initial drug war speech, President Bush told
viewers that the bag of crack he was using as a prop had been for sale
across the street from the White House.  The truth was he had the DEA
set up a sale by a high school kid who didn't even know where the
White House was.  That was the beginning to three years of drug war
deceptions."

Zeese added, "The president's convention speech was a perfect example
of his desire to focus on a couple of positive numbers and to ignore
the real state of his drug war.  He seems to think that putting on a
happy face will help him to avoid blame for wasting $45 billion."

Zeese continued, "President Bush is touring the country calling
everyone else a big spender.  But his drug war is the single biggest
example of throwing money at a problem that this country has seen.  He
has gotten very little bang for billions of taxpayer bucks."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

now there's a quick $40+ billion that we could knock off of the budget
deficit.  

steve




--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| steve cochran			|	stevec@orodruin.tivoli.com	|
| tivoli systems		|	(512) 794-9071			|
| 6034 west courtyard drive	|	(512) 794-0623 fax		|
| suite 210			|	(512) 469-9873 home		|
| austin, tx 78730		|					|
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He seems like an average type of man.  He's not like, smart.  I'm not
trying to bag on him or anything, but he has the same mentality I have,
and I'm in the eighth grade.
    -L.A. Eighth grader Vanessa Martinez on VP Dan Quayle
Xref: sparky austin.politics:190 tx.politics:5962 alt.politics.bush:8508 alt.politics.clinton:9512 sci.econ:8043