From: kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.risc.net (Michael P. Deignan)
Subject: Re: ==> Rhetoric Vs. Reality--The First Debate
Organization: The Rhode Island Internet Systems Cooperative Network
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 11:19:41 GMT

<U56503@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:

> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> October 11, 1992

By whom? Looks like a Clinton campaign release.


> RHETORIC: His economic program is more of the same. He's proposed the
> same trickle-down economics of the past -- a 1 percent tax break and
> a capital gains tax break which will give millionaires $108,000 and
> people making $20-30,000 only $111. [Citizens for Tax Justice, based
> on Department of Treasury figures.]

Have you bothered to include the number of people who purchased houses
many years ago and today are unable to sell them because they would get
socked with taxes? Nah, thought not.


> RHETORIC: After George Bush visited Japan last year, Prime Minister
> Miyazawa said he felt dojo -- "sympathy" or "compassion" -- for the
> United States of America. 

How many people are swimming to Japan every year in an attempt to 
participate in their economic system?


> Under the
> Republicans, U.S. productivity has grown at roughly 1 percent,
> compared to 2.8 percent for Japan.

Of course, this does not mean that U.S. productivity would have grown
any faster under Democrats.


> Since 1980, the United States has been transformed from the world's
> largest creditor to the world's largest debtor.

This implies a change of status, which is false. The U.S. is still the
world's largest creditor nation.


> The Commerce Department says the United States is losing to Japan
> in developing 10 out of 12 critical technologies and gaining in none.

Of course, if we had an incentive for people to invest in America, like
a capital gains tax cut.... Nah....


> RHETORIC: Under George Bush, the misery index has increased from 9.4
> to 10.4 percent in September.

What was the peak misery index under Carter? 

> In the same time period, Arkansas'
> index declined by almost one-fifth.

So? I wasn't aware that Arkansas had national monetary and fiscal
policymaking powers.


> RHETORIC: "I think it's wrong to demonstrate against your own
> country. I just find it impossible to understand how an American can
> demonstrate against his own country"

RHETORIC: Your entire posting.


> RHETORIC: President Bush didn't always feel this way. During the
> Vietnam War he supported people's right to demonstrate against the
> U.S.

I also believe that Bush added a statement to the effect of "on foreign
soil" or "in a foreign country", which you so conveniently forgot to
include. Or, should I say, Clinton's writers forgot to include.


> RHETORIC: This charge is based on the false assumption that the only
> increase in revenue comes from raising the individual income tax
> rate. In fact, the Clinton plan raises billions from other sources,
> including $58 billion from closing corporate tax loopholes.

Yup. Tax-and-spend. And Clinton says Bush "stands for more of the same".


> RHETORIC: On taxes. George "Read My Lips" Bush gave us the second
> biggest tax increase in American history. 

I must have missed it when the democratically-controlled Congress assumed
blameless status? Did the original 1990 budget that Bush submitted have a
tax increase in it? Or, was the tax increase added by Congress?


> He has consistently raised
> taxes on the middle class.

And, unfortunately, you have to in order to raise tax revenue.


[Yet more RHETORIC deleted]


> RHETORIC: Let's hope it's something different than the record. Under
> George Bush, the number of new business incorporations has declined
> at a 3.3 percent annual rate, the first decline since 1945

Yeah, and wait until you see them fall more when the Clinton tax-tax-tax
administration gets in.


> Under George Bush, the
> number of personal bankruptcies filed exceeds net new jobs created by
> a 2.4-1 margin.

Ohhh... What a unique concept. Comparing two unrelated and meaningless
statistics and attempting to draw a conclusion.



> RHETORIC: The day after Bush addressed the Republican National
> Convention, the Dow Jones Industrial average sank 50.79 points, to a
> four-month low of 3,254.10. It was the second biggest drop for the
> average in 1992. 

What was the index when Bush took office? What is it today?


> RHETORIC: George Bush has twice vetoed the Family and Medical Leave
> Act, which would allow parents to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave to
> care for sick relatives or newborns.

Government-mandated interference in the U.S. free-market system.... Yup,
just the prescription for new businesses...


> In January of this year,
> Bush proposed a tax exemption of $500 per child but he reneged on his
> proposal one month later. 

A $500 exemption per child is really useless.



> RHETORIC: In his Midsession Review, George Bush named selected options
> that would cut $2 billion in child support enforcement funds.

Is it the responsibility of the federal government to enforce locally
awarded child support payments?


> Ironically, the Republicans have yet to
> return the $400,000 contribution from Michael Kojima -- who sat with
> Bush at a May Republican fundraiser -- although he owed $100,000 in
> child support. 

Which was later returned when it was determined who he was. In fact, I
believe he was arrested too, thanks to a picture taken of him at a
fundraiser.


> RHETORIC: Three years after George Bush declared "this scourge will
> stop" and after $30 billion expended, more than 3 million Americans
> use cocaine or heroin or both every week. That's a record high.

So? If people want to use drugs, let them.


> Under George Bush, there are fewer
> agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency than there are members of U.S.
> Army military bands.

Maybe this is a clue that the US should take a position of legalization.

Hey, I've got an idea. Mention to Clinton when you talk to the campaign
folks there for your next posting that if we legalized drugs, we could
tax them. They'll like to hear that word... Tax.


> RHETORIC: Bush vetoed the Civil Rights Acts of 1990, only the second
> time a President has vetoed a civil rights act this century.

Yeah, nasty thing, those quota bills.


> RHETORIC: Although Bush claims to have allocated $4.3 billion to AIDS
> research in 1992, he includes Medicare/Medicaid funds being spent for
> AIDS treatment in this figure. In fact, only $2 billion will be spent
> on AIDS research -- less than half of Bush's claim. 

What is the per capita spending on AIDS compared to other diseases like
Cancer and heart disease?


> RHETORIC: ...
> In a 1980 debate, George
> Bush said that Social Security "has become largely a welfare program
> or a side benefit to it." [Associated Press, 2/23/80]

And you think that it hasn't?

Sorry, I forgot. You don't think. You regurgitate Clinton faxes.


> RHETORIC: Apparently, Mr. Bush hasn't read the Clinton health care
> plan. "Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms should be made
> available in every state, which can effectively and humanely address
> and resolve these legal challenges." 

Funny, I seem to see concrete proposals on what to mandate to insurance
companies. How did Slick forget to mention what he wants to do to lawyers?
Did he forget? Did he get tired? Did he get an endorsement from the
American Trial Lawyer's Association?

MD
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