...and this is the ONLY understanding that matters. bu$hit's record on....
_ _ _ _ _
The Economy
Federal deficit under Bush administration: $2.3 trillion projected through 2011
Federal surplus when Bush came into office: $5.6 trillion projected over 10 years
2004 deficit: $450 billion
Current U.S. debt to the penny: $7,298,671,067,464.27
"Our projected budget deficits are not manageable without significant changes ...We simply cannot grow our way out this problem." Says U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, a former Reagan Administration official, who is a non-partisan auditor appointed to a 15-year term.
Source: Congressional Budget Office
Wages
Americans' average income growth from 2000-2002: -5.7%
Americans' average income growth from 2000-2002 adjusted for inflation: -9.2%
2002 is the most recent year for which data is available. This is the first time Americans' overall income shrank for two consecutive years since the current tax system was put in place during World War II.
Source: Internal Revenue Service
Hourly wage growth for production, non-supervisory workers in 2003: 0.6% (the 80% of the workforce that are blue-collar workers in manufacturing or are non-managers in services)
CEO pay growth in 2003: 27%
Hourly wages fell for middle- and low-wage men and women (adjusted for inflation), making 2003 the worst year for wage growth over the 1998-2003 period. This happened in spite of the acceleration of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in late 2003. Meanwhile, the 27% climb in overall pay for CEOs exceeds the 11.5% rise in 2002 over 2001.
Since 1990, average CEO pay has risen a total of 279%.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Week
Ratio of CEO:to worker pay in 2003: 300 to 1
Ratio of CEO:to worker pay in 1982: 42 to 1
CEO to worker pay ratios in Mexico (45 to 1), Hong Kong (38 to 1), and Britain (25 to 1) are much less obscene.
Unfortunately, under George W's tax system, all those gabillions for executive pay are now treated by the IRS as a "reasonable business expense," so they are fully deductible from a corporation's taxable income—no matter how huge the sum.
Source: Business Week
Jobs
Number of jobs lost since Bush took office: 1.2 million
Number of jobs promised to come from Bush tax cuts: 5.5 million
Number of jobs created during Clinton administration: 21 million
Since the recession began 39 months ago in March 2001, the 0.9% contraction in the job market represents the greatest sustained job loss since the Great Depression.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Unemployment rate today: 5.6%
Unemployment rate when "recovery" in November 2001: 6%
Underemployment rate today: 9.6%
Underemployment rate when "recovery" began: 9.4%
Bush's "Jobs and Growth Plan" has yielded no change in the nation's unemployment rate for all the talk of a "recovery." Underemployment, meaning involuntary part-time work, discouraged workers, and other workers who have looked for work in the last year but are not counted as unemployed, has actually increased.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
DID YOU KNOW?
Of imports into the U.S., China accounts for:
95% of stuffed toys
88% of radios
83% of toys
70% of leather goods
67% of shoes
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
The War
2005 Defense budget: $447 billion
2001 Defense budget: $291 billion
2005 Intelligence budget passed by House of Representatives: approx. $40 billion(classified)
While the Bushites have poured buckets full of cash on defense contractors for high-tech weaponry, they have shortchanged our troops on the ground, failing to provide essential equipment such as body armor, working rifles, gloves, and flashlights.
Number of U.S. military killed in action under Bush in Iraq & Afghanistan: 1,041
Number of U.S. military killed in action in Iraq since Bush announces "major combat operations have ended": 797
Estimated number of civilians killed and wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan: 14,673
The Bushites promised that American "liberators" would be welcomed with flowers and sweets by jubilant Iraqis.
Number of U.S. military wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan through July according to Defense Department: 5,976
Number of U.S. military wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan through July according to United Press International:
11,700+
Source: Department of Defense, Iraqi Coalition Casualty Count, Iraq Body Count
Globaloney
Number of U.S. jobs lost due to NAFTA and WTO trade deals between 1994 and 2000: 3 million
Number of U.S. jobs lost in manufacturing sector alone under Bush Administration: 1.7 million
Manufacturing jobs lost in 2003: 582,000
Manufacturing jobs eliminated since 1997: 3.3 million
Increased imports spurred by the NAFTA and WTO trade deals eliminate U.S. jobs. Under Bush, 10% of total U.S.
industrial employment has vanished.
Sources:Economic Policy Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics
U.S. trade deficit in 2003: $549 billion
U.S. trade deficit in 1999: $271 billion
U.S. trade deficit in 2003 with China alone: $124 billion
Growth in the trade deficit reflects surging imports and the declining competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing
industries. This deficit is financed by borrowing money from other countries, which buy US Treasury securities.
Major debtors are Japan/$542b., China/$168b., Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
Number of states shifting from higher-paying to lower-paying jobs since November, 2001: 48 Exceptions, Nevada and Nebraska.
Nationwide, the fastest-growing job-creating industries—food & customer service, nursing, sales, computer support, security guard—pay 21% less annually than the fastest-growing jobs from just a few years ago.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Number of jobs lost in software- producing industries from 2000 to 2004: 128,000
Number of jobs gained in India in software- producing industries from 1999 to 2003: 150,000
India exports two-thirds of its software products to U.S.-based customers.
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Social Security
Year through which Social Security and Medicare are fully funded without any changes to system: 2042
Percentage of Social Security and Medicare benefits that will be funded after that, even without changes to program: 73%
In its push toward Social Security and Medicare privatization, the Bush administration has used a faulty "infinite horizon" model to predict the programs will face a multitrillion dollar shortfall.
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Taxes
Average tax break for top 1% of earners under Bush tax plan: $96,634
Average tax break for bottom 60% of earners under plan: $350
When the Bush administration sent its proposed 2004 budget to Congress in February 2003, it omitted a U.S. Treasury Department report that predicted huge deficits far beyond the administration's projections. The Treasury study also said tax increases were needed to close the astonishing deficit being projected.
Source: Citizens for Tax Justice
Healthcare
Number of people who have become uninsured since Bush took office: 3.8 million
Number of people who gained health insurance under Clinton administration: 2.3 million
Since Bush took office, family healthcare premiums have risen by more than $2,700 a year. The average cost for a family plan is now above $9,000. This increase, combined with the loss of so many jobs, has left a total of 43
million Americans uninsured.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Cost of Bush Medicare drug proposal: $534 billion
Cost of program originally announced by White House: $395 billion
Before Congress approved the bill, Richard Foster, who was chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, was prepared to reveal the higher cost estimates to Congress. Thomas Scully, who was Bush's Medicare
director at the time, told Foster he'd be fired if he did.
Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Number of retirees who will lose employer-paid drug coverage due to new Medicare bill: 2.7 million
Number of retirees whose employer- paid drug coverage will be cut by the new Medicare bill: 9 million
Number of Medicaid recipients forced to enroll in Medicare drug benefit, resulting in higher cost sharing and no coverage for some drugs: 6.4 million
These are the facts not revealed in the Bush administration's $22 million advertising campaign to sell this flawed plan to the public.
Source: Center for Economic and Policy Research
Average cost increase of the 10 most-used prescription drugs in 2003 alone: 8.7%
Additional profits that the pharmaceutical industry will realize from Bush Medicare initiative: $139 billion
Source: Citizens for Tax Justice
Education
Amount Bush administration underfunded No Child Left Behind Act in 2004: $9.4 billion
Amount Bush administration underfunded NCLB Act since it was passed in 2001: $26.4 billion
Sources: U.S. Department of Education
By failing to fully fund his NCLB, Bush left states to find the money for the federally required education programs designed to hold schools accountable for children's academic progress. So severe is the gap in funding that 21 states have passed or proposed measures to opt out of or seek changes in the Act, including Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Arizona, Minnesota, Idaho, Connecticut, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Amount Bush Administration provided to groups promoting voucher programs from 2001 to 2003: $75 million
Amount Bush Administration provided for voucher program for District of Columbia schools in 2004: $14 million
Amount Bush Administration provided for DC school district: $13 million
The $14 million voucher program in DC will enable 1,700 students to attend private schools, while the $13 million is all the other 65,000 students in the city's public schools get.
Source: People for the American Way report, Funding a Movement
Civil Liberties
Number of states that have passed resolutions to protect residents from the USA PATRIOT Act's erosion of civil liberties: 4
Number of cities and counties that have passed similar resolutions: 338
Rather than submit to Bush & Ashcroft's Orwellian intrusion into our lives, citizens all across the country, from Des Moines, Iowa, to Lexington, Kentucky, are taking action to protect the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
Source: Bill of Rights Defense Committee
The Enviroment
Anti-Environment Actions of Bush administration in last six months alone:
July:
• Court nixes Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to send nuclear waste to an earthquake zone at YuccaMountain
• EPA allows power plant and factory repairs costing up to 20% to be called "maintenance," so they don't have to comform to new, courtmandated pollution controls
• EPA proposes giving pesticide approval authority to bureaucrats instead of biologists, adding a new risk to wildlife
• Forest Service proposes roadless rule rollback
June:
• General Accounting Office (GAO) criticizes Pentagon for perchlorate pollution
• Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holds largest federal lands auction in Utah history
• EPA resists further mercury studies
• EPA lifts ban on drilling in Gulf of Mexico. Bush administration slashes funding for global warming research
May:
• Army Corps of Engineers loosens clean water, stream protections for mountaintop removal mining
• Bush administration may roll back fuel standards
• Bush administration unveils controversial salmon plan
• Bush administration planning cuts in environmental funding
•Energy Department seeking to expand natural gas drilling on federal lands
April:
• Hatchery fish to be counted under Endangered Species Act
• Bush budget cuts lead poisoning prevention funding
• White House altered scientific findings on mercury threat
• U.S. strong-arms E.U. to back down on chemical safety requirements
• Mining whistleblower accuses Bush administration of cover-up
March:
• EPA letting Clean Water Act violators off the hook
• Forest Service eases rules to boost Northwest logging
• BLM okays energy exploration in sensitive Utah lands
• Budget cuts crippling national park system
• Forest Service hires PR firm to sell Sierra Nevada logging
February:
• National Park Service approves more drilling for Padre Island
• Bush cuts funding for endangered species
• Secret Pentagon report warns that global warming is a very real threat
• Private ranchers get rights to public lands
Source: Naturnal Resource Defense Council
Get those jobs outta here!
"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors when he released the Economic Report of the President. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."
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