Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,alt.activism
Subject: ==> Bush Tells All: "I'm Not Sure I Get [It]"
Supersedes: <92290.024928U56503@uicvm.uic.edu>
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Friday, 16 Oct 1992 02:51:42 CDT
From: <U56503@uicvm.uic.edu>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information in the public interest which does not imply that it
is the opinion of UIC.  Contact 75300.3115@compuserve.com for
further information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 October 15, 1992


                          BUSH TELLS ALL:
              "I'm not sure I get [it]" -- George Bush

      In the most telling exchange of this election, George Bush
 looked into the face of trickle- down economics, and showed -- again
 -- that he just doesn't get it.  He doesn't understand the pain his
 policies have caused, and he doesn't have a clue what to do for the
 future.

      In contrast, Bill Clinton showed that he "gets it" perfectly --
 and that he cares about the things that Americans care about.  He
 talked in detail about his plan to bring hope and change to America,
 and to rebuild the country and get the economy moving again.

      Besides showing he's out of touch with the American people,
 George Bush showed he's out of touch with the truth.  Some
 highlights:

                          DEFICIT + TAXES

 RHETORIC: "I don't believe you can grow the deficit down by raising
 taxes...Give us a balanced budget amendment."

 REALITY: George Bush has never submitted a balanced budget.
 George Bush had the second largest tax increase of all time -- a net
 increase of $106.7 billion over five years.  [Wall Street Journal,
 8/12/92]

       By the Republican method of counting tax increases, George Bush
 has raised taxes 178 times in only three and a half years -- an
 average of 51 times a year.  [DSG, 9/16/92]

       Through 1991, Bush has requested $1.1 billion more than
 Congress has appropriated.  Reagan-Bush requested $17.3 billion more
 than Congress appropriated.  [U.S. House Committee on Appropriations]

       Under Bush, the deficit nearly doubled -- rising from $153
 billion to $290 billion by the end of this year, and the national
 debt rose 41 percent to $4 trillion -- both record-breaking
 increases.  The debt has quadrupled since Reagan-Bush took office.
 [U.S. Budget, 1992; CBO]

       The Clinton/Gore plan would cut the deficit in half over four
 years.  The plan includes  $104 billion in tax cuts for the
 middle-class and the working poor.  In addition, those making more
 than $200,000 each year pay their fair share and closing tax
 loopholes on foreign corporations.  [Putting People First]

                        BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

 RHETORIC:  "Give us a balanced budget."

 REALITY:  What courage.  The balanced budget amendment that Bush
 supports (H.J. Resolution 290) would not go until effect until 1998.
 [Bureau of National Affairs, 5/15/92]      Unlike George Bush, who
 has never submitted a balanced budget, Bill Clinton has submitted 12
 balanced budgets in a row.

                    CRIME AND FEDERAL AID TO POLICE

 RHETORIC: "We've got more money going out for local police than any
 previous administration."

 REALITY: Wrong.  In real dollars, the United States spent more money
 for local law enforcement every year from 1973-1976.  [Congressional
 Research Service, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1990,
 U.S. Budget FY 1992, 1993]

       George Bush tried to cut aid to local law enforcement by more
 than $100 million, or about 20 percent.  [New York Times, 3/14/91]
 This year, he tried to cut law enforcement aid to localities by $117
 million, or 16.5 percent.  [Senate Judiciary Committee]

       Under George Bush, violent crime has increased by 25.4 percent,
 to an all-time record.  [FBI, Uniform Crime Index, 9/92]

                               DRUGS

 RHETORIC: "The good news is, and I think it's true in Richmond,
 teenage use is down of cocaine, substantially, 60 percent in the last
 couple of years."

 REALITY: According to Richmond's city manager, drug arrests among
 teenagers are up, and violent crimes related to drug use are up.
 The 60 percent figure depends on a survey of high school seniors
 only, a self-reported measure of drug use that is often inaccurate.
 Even using survey figures, drug use was falling faster before Bush
 became President than since then.  A better measure, the Drug Abuse
 Warning Network, says that cocaine use was up 29 percent and heroin
 use was up nearly 10 percent.  [US Department of Health and Human
 Services]

                         THE WAFFLE HOUSE

 RHETORIC: "You can't turn the White House into the waffle house..."

 REALITY: A Bush sampler of flip-flops:

 *    After pledging "no new taxes," Bush signed the second largest
      tax hike in history -- the 1990 $106.7 billion tax hike.
      [Acceptance Speech, 8/18/88; Congressional Quarterly; Wall
      Street Journal, 8/12/92]

 *    After criticizing the trickle-down theory as "voodoo economics"
      and "economic madness," Bush became a convert.  He came to
      defend the program, saying "It's a very sensible program, which
      the best economists...in the country support." [Los Angeles
      Times, 4/11/80; Associated Press, 3/28/80; United Press
      International, 10/20/80]

 *    After strenously criticizing then-opponent Ronald Reagan for
      supporting a balanced budget amendment, Bush has made it a
      standard part of his current economic proposal.  [Washington
      Post, 1/27/79; Agenda for American Renewal]

 *    After proposing and signing the 1989 federal pay raise, Bush
      recently proposed a 5% pay cut for federal employees earning
      more than $75,000 annually.  [CQ 1990; Acceptance Speech,
      8/20/92]

 *    Although Bush once stated: "I happen to think it [Roe v.  Wade]
      was right" he later reversed his position, maintaining that "I
      think the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was wrong and
      should be overturned."  The Republican platform on which he is
      now running would outlaw abortion for any reason.  [Rolling
      Stone, 3/20/80; Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents,
      1/23/89]

                           TELL THE TRUTH

 RHETORIC: "My father was an honor, duty and country man, and he said,
 `Tell the truth.' And I've tried to do that in public life, all
 through it."

 REALITY: As President, George Bush has failed to tell the whole
 truth.  The Washington Post today called George Bush "the ultimate
 chameleon in hall of his years in national politics -- perhaps the
 greatest dodger of them all -- and not on trifling issues, either."
 (10/15/92)      Some examples:

 *    Iran-Contra: During the Iowa caucuses in 1988, Bush said, "I
      sensed that we were sending arms.  And I sensed that we were
      trying to get hostages out.  But not arms for hostages."
      (Associated Press, 1-8-88).  But on the Today Show (10-13-92),
      Katie Couric asked Bush, "You knew about the arms for hostages?"
      and Bush replied, "Yes, and I've said so all along."  Why won't
      Bush release his testimony to the Tower Commission and
      Iran-contra Investigators and come clean?

 *    Iraqgate: George Bush has not come clean with the American
      people about his strong support for Saddam Hussein before the
      Persian Gulf War.  Bush says the U.S. "did not enhance Saddam
      Hussein's nuclear, biological or chemical weapons capability."
      The truth is that Bush sent billions of dollars in U.S.
      taxpayer-subsidized loan guarantees to Saddam to build up his
      military machine.  (General Accounting Office Report, "Iraq's
      Participation in U.S. Agricultural Export Programs," November
      1990; Washington Post, July 22, 1992; Los Angeles Times,
      February 4, 1992 and February 13, 1992).  And now we learn his
      Administration has engaged in a cover-up of the scandal
      involving the loans to Iraq through the Atlanta branch of BNL.
      The U.S. District Judge, Marvin Shoob, in the BNL case said,
      "Certainly either the CIA or the Justice Department or both have
      misled me." (Los Angeles Times, 10/13/92).

                              EXPORTS

 RHETORIC: "We've had tough economic times -- but been saved by
 exports."

 REALITY: Just yesterday, the U.S.-Japan trade deficit reached an
 all-time record -- $4.84 billion for the month of September.
 According to Joseph Gorman, chairman of TRW and the  U.S-Japan
 Business Council, the U.S.-Japan trade deficit signifies that "We are
 losing our competitiveness at a fairly rapid rate, far more than most
 people believe." [New York Times, 10/15/92]

       The Council on Competitiveness, a private organization, has
 concluded: "Growing exports, however, have not been able to shield
 the U.S. economy from a second annual straight decline in living
 standards, the ultimate measure of U.S. performance." [Council on
 Competitiveness, Competitiveness Index, 1992]

       Under Reagan and Bush, the United States has been transformed
 from the world's largest creditor to the world's largest debtor.
 [Economic Report of the President, Table B-100; Survey of Current
 Business, June 1992, p. 49]

       In the second quarter of this year, the trade deficit soared by
 42 percent to $24.4 billion.  At this rate, the trade deficit will be
 more than $70 billion in 1992.  [Associated Press, 8/28/92]

                            SOCIAL SECURITY

 RHETORIC: "I don't want to tax or touch Social Security."

 REALITY:  On May 10, 1985, then Vice President Bush cut short a trip
 in order to cast the tie-breaking vote on the Senate floor to
 eliminate the 1986 cost-of-living adjustment for all Social Security
 beneficiaries.  [New York Times, 9/11/88]

                       DOWNSIZE THE GOVERNMENT

 RHETORIC: "I've proposed a 10 percent cut...downsize the government."

 REALITY: Under George Bush, federal employment has increased.  The
 government now employs more people than it did when he took office.
 Since FY 1989, the Executive branch has grown by 6 percent.  [U.S.
 Budgets, FY 1991 and FY 1993]

       The conservative Cato Institute called Bush "the largest
 spender to sit in the White House in the past 30 years" -- noting
 Bush "increased the domestic budget more in 4 years than Carter and
 Reagan combined did in 12 years." [Cato Institute,
 6/19/92]

                          ENTERPRISE ZONES

 RHETORIC: "Our enterprise zones that we hear a lot of lip service
 about in Congress would bring jobs into the inner city."

 REALITY: In May, 1992, Bush vetoed the Tax Fairness and Economic
 Growth Acceleration Act, including its enterprise zone provisions,
 because it raised taxes on the richest 1 percent of Americans.  Bush
 dropped enterprise zones, which are designed to spur investment in
 poor inner city areas from his economic recovery package to make room
 for a repeal of the luxury tax on yachts.  [Los Angeles Times,
 5/13/92; Business Week, 5/25/92]

       Is Bush going to veto the enterprise zone legislation now on
 his desk?  Bill Clinton wants to create 75-125 comprehensive
 enterprise zones that go beyond the Republican proposals by requiring
 businesses that take advantage of enterprise zones to make the hiring
 of local residents a top priority.

                           HIGHWAY BILL

 RHETORIC: "We passed the most furthest [sic] looking transportation
 bill in the history of this country since Eisenhower started the
 interstate highways -- $150 billion for improving the infrastructure.
 That happened when I was president."

 REALITY: The bill was passed, but George Bush has refused to allocate
 the funds that Congress has appropriated for it.  Bush's FY 1993
 budget underfunds the 1991 highway bill by $15 billion over the next
 five years.  [Review and Analysis of President Bush's 1993 Budget,
 Senate Budget Committee, 1/31/92]

                         COLLEGE EDUCATION

 RHETORIC: "Federal funding for education is up substantially -- Pell
 grants are up."

 REALITY: In his FY92 budget, Bush proposed cutting Pell grants for
 400,000 students from families with incomes over $20,000.  Later,
 Bush proposed cutting Pell Grants for students from families making
 over $10,000 per year.  [Chicago Tribune, 2/21/91; New York Times,
 5/27/91; U.S. House Budget Committee, 2/92]
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