Busybody in a thread I can't find asked me to provide an example of Bush lying when I claimed all politicians lied.
Here are a couple of lies and deceptions from George and his administration:
Quote/Claim:
[If elected], Governor Bush will work to…establish mandatory reduction targets for emissions of four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide. - Bush Environmental Plan, 9/29/00
Fact:
"I do not believe that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide." - President Bush, 3/13/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/26/2002
Quote/Claim:
“The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons…And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes.”
Fact:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991… Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/25/2002
Quote/Claim:
“You can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam.”
Fact:
“Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.” - National Journal, 8/9/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/24/2003
Quote/Claim:
"We've had differences and they're over, and we're going to work together." --On mending fences with Germany and France
Fact:
The Bush Administration announced it "will bar companies from France, Germany, Russia and other countries that opposed the war in Iraq from bidding on $18.6 billion in prime contracts for reconstruction of the country." - LA Times, 12/10/03
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/23/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.” --UN speech
Fact:
"CIA interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Saddam." - NY Times, 1/15/04 "Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." - Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04
Topic: War On Terror
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/23/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Iraq [is] the central front in the war on terror.” --UN speech
Fact:
Knight-Ridder reported that experts now say the "Iraq war is diverting resources from war on terror." Specifically, "a growing number of counter-terrorism experts are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al Qaeda." Republican and Democratic experts "are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al Qaeda." Similarly, the U.S. Army War College reported that the Iraq war "diverted attention and resources away from the security of the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable al Qaeda." - Knight-Ridder, 11/26/03; BBC, 1/13/04
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.”
Fact:
Declassified documents “undercut Bush administration claims before the war that Hussein had links to al Qaeda.” - LA Times, 7/19/03
Topic: Economy - Jobs
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/15/2003
Quote/Claim:
"[My] first goal is an economy that [will] employ every man and woman who seeks a job."
Fact:
More than 2 million jobs have been lost since President Bush took office, and he is expected to have a net record of job losses by the end of his term - the first President with such a dismal record since Herbert Hoover.
Topic: Economy - Jobs
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/15/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I'm sure the numbers are beginning to look better."
Fact:
"Data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the Bush administration fell 437,000 jobs short in August, losing 93,000 jobs, instead of creating the 344,000 it had projected for each month after July 2003." - EPI, 9/5/03
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/5/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Tax relief means new jobs for Americans."
Fact:
Since Bush's first tax cut in June, 2001 the economy has shed 2.75 million jobs. - CBPP
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/5/2001
Quote/Claim:
"The United States has no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico."
Fact:
More than three years into his tenure, Bush had spent a total of five days in Mexico and so neglected its affairs that even "Mexican President Vicente Fox...has been alienated." WP reported president's meeting with his onetime friend at a summit in Bangkok would be "their first in a year." - Washington Post, 10/17/03
Topic: Medicare
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/4/2003
Quote/Claim:
"We must fix the problem of frivolous lawsuits against our doctors and hospitals."
Fact:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found last year that "malpractice costs account for a very small fraction of total health care spending" and that even radical reform "would have a relatively small effect on total health plan premiums." - CBO, 9/25/02
Topic: Civil Liberties
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“We welcome Muslims in our country.”
Fact:
In August of 2002, the Justice Department promulgated a regulation that required men residing in the United States on temporary visas from 25 predominately Muslim countries to meet “special registration requirements.” Since that time, over 82,000 Muslim men have been photographed, fingerprinted and subjected to interrogation. - Registration and Monitoring of Certain Non-immigrants, 67 Fed. Reg. 155, 8/02 and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Assessing the New Normal 38, 9/03
Topic: Credibility
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Credibility comes when you say something is going to happen and then it does happen…You are not credible if you issue resolutions and then nothing happens.”
Fact:
Bush said about his first tax cut, “Tax relief will create new jobs” and the economy proceeded to shed almost 3 million jobs. He said about his second tax cut, “tax relief means new jobs for Americans” and the economy continued to shed jobs. He said about the war in Iraq in May, “major combat operations have ended” and yet more troops have died since that statement than during the war. - George W. Bush, 4/16/01, 9/5/03, 5/1/03
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“So I’ve proposed additional measures to keep the economy on the path to greater job creation…by making permanent the tax cuts that have helped our economy.”
Fact:
Since the first Bush tax cut took effect in June 2001, the U.S. economy has lost 2.75 million jobs – the unemployment rate has risen from 4.4% to 5.6%. Since the second Bush tax cut took effect in May 2003, the economy has shed 124,000 more jobs. - BLS
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership.”
Fact:
According to Amnesty International’s 2003 annual report, “The world has become more dangerous, and governments more repressive, since the effort to fight terrorism began after the 9/11, attacks on the United States.” For the U.S. specifically, “Since March, 353 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, including 229 in hostile fire.” - NY Times, 5/29/03; CNN, 10/28/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.”
Fact:
“White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that Mr. Sforza embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the “Mission Accomplished” banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” - NY Times, 5/16/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“[The decision to send more troops to Iraq] is a decision by John Abizaid. General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether or not he needs more troops.”
Fact:
"The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” - Unites States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I’ve asked the American people to foot the tab for $20 billion of reconstruction…Others are stepping up as well, 13 billion out of the Madrid Conference…The Iraqi oil revenues – excess Iraqi oil revenues, coupled with private investments, should make up the difference.”
Fact:
The World Bank and the UN estimate that $56 billion over four years is necessary to rebuild Iraq – leaving the total pledged by the U.S. and others (counting loans) $23 billion dollars short of what is required. The top civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, told Congress in September that “for the next two years, whatever revenue was reaped from oil production would not exceed the cost of Iraq's day-to-day operating expenses.” In 2005 he estimated “a surplus of only $4 million to $5 million.” - LA Times, 10/26/03; NY Times, 10/5/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
"General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether or not he needs more troops... And he told me he does [have enough troops]."
Fact:
Less than two weeks later, the Bush Administration announced its decision "to dispatch thousands of Marines to Iraq as part of a revised troop rotation that will swell the size of the US occupation by up to 50,000 troops." - Boston Globe, 11/6/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/27/2003
Quote/Claim:
"A free and secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact."
Fact:
According to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, "Majorities in seven of the eight foreign countries said the war in Iraq hurt or had no effect on the war on terrorism, and only in the United States did a majority believe that the ouster of Saddam Hussein will make the Middle East more democratic." - WP, 3/17/04
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/22/2003
Quote/Claim:
“You've got to have some patience in foreign policy.”
Fact:
“Barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq.” - CBS, 9/4/02
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/22/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I made it clear that a [diplomatic] process had gone on way before I made the decision to use military force.”
Fact:
According to Bush’s State Department Director of Policy and Planning Richard Haas, the decision to go to war had been made by July of 2002 – 8 months before the invasion. When asked whether there was a particular moment when he realized war in Iraq was definite, Haas said, “The moment was the first week of July (2002), when I had a meeting with Condi…She said, essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath.” - New Yorker, 3/31/03 Time reported in May (2002) that in late March of 2002 Vice President Dick Cheney told Senators “The question was no longer if the U.S. would attack Iraq...The only question was when." - Time, 5/6/02
Topic: Environment
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/18/2002
Quote/Claim:
"On October 18, 2002, our Nation marks the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act and begins the Observance of the Year of Clean Water. This landmark environmental legislation has been central to the important progress we have made as a Nation in improving the quality of our drinking water and the health of our waters, wetlands, and watersheds."
Fact:
Under Bush's new budget, funding would for clean water infrastructure drop from $2.6 billion to $1.8 billion. The programs slated for reductions include "sewage treatment plants plants, water purification facilities, and targeted pollution-prevention investments." - Joint Budget Analysis by Environmental Groups, 2/4/04
Topic: Economy - Deficit
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"If this were a spending contest, I would come in second. I readily admit I'm not going to grow the size of the federal government like [Gore] is."
Fact:
"The numbers are astonishing. Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor. And I've never known a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination that this Congress has." - John McCain (R-AZ), Fox News, 11/30/03 "Conservative Republican frustration over the failure of the Bush administration and the House Republican leadership to restrain federal spending has boiled over in recent days, producing a rare confrontation between GOP lawmakers and party leaders." - The Hill, 12/3/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Your question was deployment. It must be in the national interests, must be in our vital interests whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we're going."
Fact:
“The U.S. military is overstretched by deployments in Iraq and elsewhere, forcing the Pentagon to keep thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform long beyond their release dates with potentially dangerous effects on morale, experts say.” - Reuters, 1/9/04
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished."
Fact:
According to testimony from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 10/16/03 the Bush Administration had deployed 1 soldier for every 189 people in Iraq, and 1 soldier for every 1,913 people in Afghanistan. Both were dramatically worse ratios than Kosovo (1 per 48), Bosnia (1 per 58) and East Timor (1 per 86)--the deployments of the Clinton years which Bush maligned during his campaign.
Topic: Economy - Deficit
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/16/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to future Presidents or future generations."
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Topic: Afghanistan
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/11/2001
Quote/Claim:
"I think we should learn a lesson from the previous engagement in the Afghan area that we should not just simply leave after a military objective has been achieved."
Fact:
"Insecurity caused by terrorist activities, factional fights and drug related crime remain the major concern of Afghans today...Attacks against non-governmental organizations is contributing to the slowing of reconstruction...Individuals and communities suffer from abuses of their basic rights by local commanders and factional leaders...[There are] terrorist attacks from suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda." - U.N. Report, 11/11/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/11/2000
Quote/Claim:
"And so I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war."
Fact:
"In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy." - President Bush, 11/6/03
Topic: Uniting Not Dividing
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/11/2000
Quote/Claim:
"There's been too much finger pointing and too much name calling in Washington, D.C. I would like to unite this country to get an agenda done that will speak to the hopes and aspirations of the future."
Fact:
"Bush's approach to leadership has invited Americans to take sides." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Topic: Economy - Deficit
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to other Presidents and other generations.”
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Topic: Economy - Jobs
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Last month this economy exceeded expectations and added net new jobs.”
Fact:
The White House Council of Economic Advisors set expectations when President Bush proposed his economic stimulus package. The council said his economic policies would create 344,000 new jobs per month – not the paltry 57,000 jobs that were created. All told, Bush has overseen the loss of almost 3 million jobs – the worst record since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. - Economic Policy Institute
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I proposed and signed these [tax] measures to help individuals and help families.”
Fact:
The most recent CBS News/New York Times poll shows that “despite three tax cuts in as many years, only 19 percent [of Americans surveyed] said Bush's policies made their taxes go down. Forty-seven percent noticed no effect, while 29 percent perceived that their taxes have gone up.” - Washington Post, 10/7/03 “Almost half of all American taxpayers will get less than $100 this year and next from President Bush’s most recent tax plan. In 2005, three-quarters of taxpayers will get less than $100, and in 2006 and later years almost nine out of ten will get less than $100.” - Citizens for Tax Justice, 5/30/03
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I twice led the Congress to pass historic tax relief for the American people. We wanted tax relief to be as broad and as fair as possible, so we reduced taxes on everyone who pays taxes.”
Fact:
"A new AP poll finds that almost half of all Americans 'said their overall tax burden — including federal, state and local taxes — had gone up over the past three years' - almost four times the 13% who said their overall taxes had gone down." - AP, 4/13/04 “One million children living in military and veteran families are being denied child tax credit help” in President Bush's tax cut. “More than 260,000 of these children have parents on active military duty.” - Children's Defense Fund, 6/6/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
"It's a lot better than you probably think. Just ask people who have been there. They're stunned when they come back -- when they go to Iraq and the stories they tell are much different from the perceptions that you're being told life is like."
Fact:
"After I came back from Iraq, I thought things were not as good as the administration was painting.” - John McCain (R-AZ), NYT, 10/24/03
Topic: Military/Troops
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Your lives can be changed in a moment with the sudden call to duty. I want to thank you for your willingness to heed that important call, and I want to thank your families. I want to thank your sons, daughters, husbands and wives who share in your sacrifice, who are willing to sacrifice for our country and who stand behind you.”
Fact:
Less than 2 weeks after the President made these comments, “the Bush administration announced its formal opposition to a proposal to give National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon's health-insurance system, jeopardizing the plan's future and angering supporters. A recent General Accounting Office report estimated that one of every five Guard members has no health insurance.” - Gannett News Service, 10/23/03
Topic: Military/Troops
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Any time we put our troops into harm's way, you must have the best training, the best equipment, the best possible pay.”
Fact:
“The administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.” - Army Times, 6/30/03 “When Bush taunted gunmen in Iraq, many GIs must have nervously tugged at their obsolete flak jackets. For many GIs, Iraq appears to be a strictly BYOB war -- Bring Your Own Bulletproofs. The shortages [of protective gear] come down to money and priorities. Gen. Richard B. Myers confirmed last week that it would be December before there were enough plates for all of our people in Iraq.” - Op-Ed, Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 10/5/03
Topic: Classified Information
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2001
Quote/Claim:
"We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's interest."
Fact:
"Bob Woodward said President Bush gave two reporters 90 minutes, often speaking candidly about classified information." - Providence Journal, 4/10/02
Topic: Intimigate
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2001
Quote/Claim:
"And therefore, I felt it was important to send a clear signal to Congress that classified information must be held dear, that there's a responsibility that if you receive a briefing of classified information, you have a responsibility."
Fact:
White House aides said "President Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer who is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, one of the most visible critics of Bush's handling of intelligence about Iraq." - Washington Post, 9/28/03 "White House officials left open the possibility that the they might assert executive privilege on some materials or withhold all or parts of others to block a full investigation of the leak of classified information." - New York Times, 10/8/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
“The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.”
Fact:
“We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03 "The International Atomic Energy Agency's report that Iraq has not resumed its nuclear program has challenged one of the Bush administration's main arguments for taking military action to topple the Iraqi government." --NY Times, 1/28/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - the smoking gun - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
Fact:
"French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans." - British Intelligence Agent, Sunday herald, 6/1/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
"If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait?"
Fact:
Bush didn't care whether or not Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. When Diane Sawyer tried to make a distinction between stating as a "hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons," Bush snapped back "so what's the difference?" - ABC, 12/16/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
"Many people have asked how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear weapon. Well, we don't know exactly, and that's the problem."
Fact:
"French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans."" - British Intelligence Agent, Sunday herald, 6/1/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
“Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.”
Fact:
“We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/3/2003
Quote/Claim:
“The [Kay] report states Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum.”
Fact:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/02
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/3/2000
Quote/Claim:
"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road."
Fact:
"Nation-building has become a defining feature of the Bush Administration's foreign policy." - Boston Globe, 3/2/04
Topic: September 11th
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/27/2002
Quote/Claim:
"We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th."
Fact:
“President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11.” - CBS News, 5/23/02 “Despite mounting evidence that most of the nation's intelligence sleuths were clueless before the attacks, [President Bush] opposes outside scrutiny - a stance that puts him at odds with most Senate Democrats and some key Republican lawmakers.” - Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/2/02 The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, rebuffed once previously, asked again yesterday to interview the CIA analyst who wrote the Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing given to President Bush on al Qaeda's threat to the United States...The commission wants to interview the author of the article in the now-famous President's Daily Brief to determine her purpose in assembling the document and how much information she sought in doing so....The Bush administration in the past refused to allow the panel to interview CIA analysts responsible for assembling the briefs." - Washington Post, 4/13/04
Topic: Afghanistan
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/24/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever."
Fact:
"Nearly two years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, remnants of the Islamic extremist group are regrouping and attacking U.S. troops." - LA Times, 11/12/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/19/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The tradition of free speech exercised with enthusiasm is alive and well here in London. We have that at home too. They now have that right in Baghdad as well."
Fact:
"As criticism of his authority appeared in Iraqi media...Bremer placed controls on [Iraqi Media Network] content and clamped down on the independent media in Iraq , closing down some Iraqi-run newspapers and radio and television stations." - American Prospect, 10/1/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/19/1999
Quote/Claim:
"Never again should an American president spend nine days in China, and not even bother to stop in Tokyo or Seoul."
Fact:
"The glaring omission in President George Bush's journey to Asia is a stop in South Korea, which speaks volumes to the sorry state into which relations between Washington and Seoul have plunged." - Jakarta Post, 10/19/03
Topic: Medicare
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/13/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The budget I submitted earlier this year commits an additional $400 billion over 10 years to implement this vision of a stronger Medicare system. This is enough to meet our commitments to the seniors today and to future generations of Americans."
Fact:
"The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan...When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that...Bush administration officials insisted they acted legally in ordering the nation's top Medicare cost analyst to keep from lawmakers his estimate that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit might cost more than $100 billion [than what the White House promised]." - Knight Ridder, 3/11/04 and 4/2/04
Topic: Uniting Not Dividing
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/13/2003
Quote/Claim:
"What we're trying to do is to change the tone in Washington, D.C. We're trying to get rid of all the needless politics and focus on the people's business, focus on results, and not the ugly process that sometimes takes on. We're making good progress. We really are."
Fact:
" George Bush has cleaved the nation into two tenaciously opposed camps even more than his predecessors." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Topic: Economy - Growth
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/7/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The economy's growing, new jobs are being created. There's an opportunity, and I hope you seize it. There's a wonderful, wonderful future ahead for people who at this moment think the future is a little dark."
Fact:
Since President Bush's first tax cut in March 2001, the economy has shed more than 2 million jobs. He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to end his term with a net job loss record. Additionally, the White House Counsel of Economic Advisors pledged that the President's "jobs and growth" package would create 1,836,000 new jobs by the end of 2003 as part of its pledge to create 5.5 million new jobs by 2004. But the economy added 221,000 jobs since the last tax cut went into effect, meaning that as the President appeared on Meet The Press, the White House had fallen 1,615,000 jobs short of their mark. - EPI, 2/4/03; Jobwatch.org
Topic: Afghanistan
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/6/2003
Quote/Claim:
"With the steady leadership of President Karzai, the people of Afghanistan are building a modern and peaceful government."
Fact:
"ecurity in large areas of Afghanistan has so deteriorated that U.S. and U.N. officials fear that plans to hold presidential elections in June may be in jeopardy." The security situation threatens to undermine the goals of the 2001 Bonn agreement which placed the U.N. in charge of supervising Afghanistan's transition to a constitutional democracy. - LA Times, 12/3/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/6/2003
Quote/Claim:
“For too long, many people in (the Middle East) have been victims and subjects – they deserve to be active citizens.”
Fact:
Yielding to protests from the repressive dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04 At the time of the President's speech about Democracy in the Middle East, the Iraqi population had virtually no say in how their country was run. According to the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, two-thirds of the Governing Council – which was handpicked by the United States – no longer regularly attended meetings. According to members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the Coalition Authority refused to disclose how it was spending both Iraqi and American funds. Secrecy also surrounded the process of awarding contracts, and the Pentagon was running the Iraqi Media Network.
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/6/2003
Quote/Claim:
“As we watch and encourage reforms in the region, we are mindful that modernization is not the same as Westernization. Representative governments in the Middle East will reflect their own cultures. They will not, and should not, looks like us.”
Fact:
Yielding to protests from the repressive dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04 “The Coalition Provisional Authority continues to make a fundamental mistake in the way it interacts with the Iraqi people. The CPA seems to think that all wisdom is made in America.” - John McCain (D-AZ), Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, 11/5/03
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/4/2003
Quote/Claim:
“[Saddam Hussein] is no longer threatening people.”
Fact:
At the time of this statement, the New York Times reported, “Saddam Hussein may be playing a significant role in coordinating and directing attacks by his loyalists against American forces in Iraq, senior American officials said.” - NY Times, 10/31/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/2/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.”
Fact:
“White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that a White House advance staffer embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…The staffer and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the 'Mission Accomplished' banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” - NYT, 5/16/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 5/29/2003
Quote/Claim:
“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.”
Fact:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort. Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
I can find more if you can refute these few.
TWB
Here are a couple of lies and deceptions from George and his administration:
Quote/Claim:
[If elected], Governor Bush will work to…establish mandatory reduction targets for emissions of four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide. - Bush Environmental Plan, 9/29/00
Fact:
"I do not believe that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide." - President Bush, 3/13/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/26/2002
Quote/Claim:
“The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons…And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes.”
Fact:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991… Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/25/2002
Quote/Claim:
“You can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam.”
Fact:
“Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.” - National Journal, 8/9/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/24/2003
Quote/Claim:
"We've had differences and they're over, and we're going to work together." --On mending fences with Germany and France
Fact:
The Bush Administration announced it "will bar companies from France, Germany, Russia and other countries that opposed the war in Iraq from bidding on $18.6 billion in prime contracts for reconstruction of the country." - LA Times, 12/10/03
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/23/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.” --UN speech
Fact:
"CIA interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Saddam." - NY Times, 1/15/04 "Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league." - Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04
Topic: War On Terror
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/23/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Iraq [is] the central front in the war on terror.” --UN speech
Fact:
Knight-Ridder reported that experts now say the "Iraq war is diverting resources from war on terror." Specifically, "a growing number of counter-terrorism experts are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al Qaeda." Republican and Democratic experts "are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al Qaeda." Similarly, the U.S. Army War College reported that the Iraq war "diverted attention and resources away from the security of the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable al Qaeda." - Knight-Ridder, 11/26/03; BBC, 1/13/04
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.”
Fact:
Declassified documents “undercut Bush administration claims before the war that Hussein had links to al Qaeda.” - LA Times, 7/19/03
Topic: Economy - Jobs
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/15/2003
Quote/Claim:
"[My] first goal is an economy that [will] employ every man and woman who seeks a job."
Fact:
More than 2 million jobs have been lost since President Bush took office, and he is expected to have a net record of job losses by the end of his term - the first President with such a dismal record since Herbert Hoover.
Topic: Economy - Jobs
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/15/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I'm sure the numbers are beginning to look better."
Fact:
"Data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the Bush administration fell 437,000 jobs short in August, losing 93,000 jobs, instead of creating the 344,000 it had projected for each month after July 2003." - EPI, 9/5/03
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/5/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Tax relief means new jobs for Americans."
Fact:
Since Bush's first tax cut in June, 2001 the economy has shed 2.75 million jobs. - CBPP
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/5/2001
Quote/Claim:
"The United States has no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico."
Fact:
More than three years into his tenure, Bush had spent a total of five days in Mexico and so neglected its affairs that even "Mexican President Vicente Fox...has been alienated." WP reported president's meeting with his onetime friend at a summit in Bangkok would be "their first in a year." - Washington Post, 10/17/03
Topic: Medicare
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 9/4/2003
Quote/Claim:
"We must fix the problem of frivolous lawsuits against our doctors and hospitals."
Fact:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found last year that "malpractice costs account for a very small fraction of total health care spending" and that even radical reform "would have a relatively small effect on total health plan premiums." - CBO, 9/25/02
Topic: Civil Liberties
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“We welcome Muslims in our country.”
Fact:
In August of 2002, the Justice Department promulgated a regulation that required men residing in the United States on temporary visas from 25 predominately Muslim countries to meet “special registration requirements.” Since that time, over 82,000 Muslim men have been photographed, fingerprinted and subjected to interrogation. - Registration and Monitoring of Certain Non-immigrants, 67 Fed. Reg. 155, 8/02 and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Assessing the New Normal 38, 9/03
Topic: Credibility
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Credibility comes when you say something is going to happen and then it does happen…You are not credible if you issue resolutions and then nothing happens.”
Fact:
Bush said about his first tax cut, “Tax relief will create new jobs” and the economy proceeded to shed almost 3 million jobs. He said about his second tax cut, “tax relief means new jobs for Americans” and the economy continued to shed jobs. He said about the war in Iraq in May, “major combat operations have ended” and yet more troops have died since that statement than during the war. - George W. Bush, 4/16/01, 9/5/03, 5/1/03
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“So I’ve proposed additional measures to keep the economy on the path to greater job creation…by making permanent the tax cuts that have helped our economy.”
Fact:
Since the first Bush tax cut took effect in June 2001, the U.S. economy has lost 2.75 million jobs – the unemployment rate has risen from 4.4% to 5.6%. Since the second Bush tax cut took effect in May 2003, the economy has shed 124,000 more jobs. - BLS
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership.”
Fact:
According to Amnesty International’s 2003 annual report, “The world has become more dangerous, and governments more repressive, since the effort to fight terrorism began after the 9/11, attacks on the United States.” For the U.S. specifically, “Since March, 353 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, including 229 in hostile fire.” - NY Times, 5/29/03; CNN, 10/28/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.”
Fact:
“White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that Mr. Sforza embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the “Mission Accomplished” banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” - NY Times, 5/16/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“[The decision to send more troops to Iraq] is a decision by John Abizaid. General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether or not he needs more troops.”
Fact:
"The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” - Unites States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I’ve asked the American people to foot the tab for $20 billion of reconstruction…Others are stepping up as well, 13 billion out of the Madrid Conference…The Iraqi oil revenues – excess Iraqi oil revenues, coupled with private investments, should make up the difference.”
Fact:
The World Bank and the UN estimate that $56 billion over four years is necessary to rebuild Iraq – leaving the total pledged by the U.S. and others (counting loans) $23 billion dollars short of what is required. The top civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, told Congress in September that “for the next two years, whatever revenue was reaped from oil production would not exceed the cost of Iraq's day-to-day operating expenses.” In 2005 he estimated “a surplus of only $4 million to $5 million.” - LA Times, 10/26/03; NY Times, 10/5/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/28/2003
Quote/Claim:
"General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether or not he needs more troops... And he told me he does [have enough troops]."
Fact:
Less than two weeks later, the Bush Administration announced its decision "to dispatch thousands of Marines to Iraq as part of a revised troop rotation that will swell the size of the US occupation by up to 50,000 troops." - Boston Globe, 11/6/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/27/2003
Quote/Claim:
"A free and secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact."
Fact:
According to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, "Majorities in seven of the eight foreign countries said the war in Iraq hurt or had no effect on the war on terrorism, and only in the United States did a majority believe that the ouster of Saddam Hussein will make the Middle East more democratic." - WP, 3/17/04
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/22/2003
Quote/Claim:
“You've got to have some patience in foreign policy.”
Fact:
“Barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq.” - CBS, 9/4/02
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/22/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I made it clear that a [diplomatic] process had gone on way before I made the decision to use military force.”
Fact:
According to Bush’s State Department Director of Policy and Planning Richard Haas, the decision to go to war had been made by July of 2002 – 8 months before the invasion. When asked whether there was a particular moment when he realized war in Iraq was definite, Haas said, “The moment was the first week of July (2002), when I had a meeting with Condi…She said, essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath.” - New Yorker, 3/31/03 Time reported in May (2002) that in late March of 2002 Vice President Dick Cheney told Senators “The question was no longer if the U.S. would attack Iraq...The only question was when." - Time, 5/6/02
Topic: Environment
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/18/2002
Quote/Claim:
"On October 18, 2002, our Nation marks the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act and begins the Observance of the Year of Clean Water. This landmark environmental legislation has been central to the important progress we have made as a Nation in improving the quality of our drinking water and the health of our waters, wetlands, and watersheds."
Fact:
Under Bush's new budget, funding would for clean water infrastructure drop from $2.6 billion to $1.8 billion. The programs slated for reductions include "sewage treatment plants plants, water purification facilities, and targeted pollution-prevention investments." - Joint Budget Analysis by Environmental Groups, 2/4/04
Topic: Economy - Deficit
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"If this were a spending contest, I would come in second. I readily admit I'm not going to grow the size of the federal government like [Gore] is."
Fact:
"The numbers are astonishing. Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor. And I've never known a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination that this Congress has." - John McCain (R-AZ), Fox News, 11/30/03 "Conservative Republican frustration over the failure of the Bush administration and the House Republican leadership to restrain federal spending has boiled over in recent days, producing a rare confrontation between GOP lawmakers and party leaders." - The Hill, 12/3/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Your question was deployment. It must be in the national interests, must be in our vital interests whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we're going."
Fact:
“The U.S. military is overstretched by deployments in Iraq and elsewhere, forcing the Pentagon to keep thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform long beyond their release dates with potentially dangerous effects on morale, experts say.” - Reuters, 1/9/04
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/17/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished."
Fact:
According to testimony from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 10/16/03 the Bush Administration had deployed 1 soldier for every 189 people in Iraq, and 1 soldier for every 1,913 people in Afghanistan. Both were dramatically worse ratios than Kosovo (1 per 48), Bosnia (1 per 58) and East Timor (1 per 86)--the deployments of the Clinton years which Bush maligned during his campaign.
Topic: Economy - Deficit
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/16/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to future Presidents or future generations."
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Topic: Afghanistan
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/11/2001
Quote/Claim:
"I think we should learn a lesson from the previous engagement in the Afghan area that we should not just simply leave after a military objective has been achieved."
Fact:
"Insecurity caused by terrorist activities, factional fights and drug related crime remain the major concern of Afghans today...Attacks against non-governmental organizations is contributing to the slowing of reconstruction...Individuals and communities suffer from abuses of their basic rights by local commanders and factional leaders...[There are] terrorist attacks from suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda." - U.N. Report, 11/11/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/11/2000
Quote/Claim:
"And so I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war."
Fact:
"In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy." - President Bush, 11/6/03
Topic: Uniting Not Dividing
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/11/2000
Quote/Claim:
"There's been too much finger pointing and too much name calling in Washington, D.C. I would like to unite this country to get an agenda done that will speak to the hopes and aspirations of the future."
Fact:
"Bush's approach to leadership has invited Americans to take sides." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Topic: Economy - Deficit
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I came to this office to confront problems directly and forcefully, not to pass them on to other Presidents and other generations.”
Fact:
“When the Treasury Department tallies up final figures later this month, it is expected to show a federal budget deficit between $370 billion and $380 billion for 2003,” one of the biggest debts passed onto another generation in American history. - Wall Street Journal, 10/9/03
Topic: Economy - Jobs
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Last month this economy exceeded expectations and added net new jobs.”
Fact:
The White House Council of Economic Advisors set expectations when President Bush proposed his economic stimulus package. The council said his economic policies would create 344,000 new jobs per month – not the paltry 57,000 jobs that were created. All told, Bush has overseen the loss of almost 3 million jobs – the worst record since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. - Economic Policy Institute
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I proposed and signed these [tax] measures to help individuals and help families.”
Fact:
The most recent CBS News/New York Times poll shows that “despite three tax cuts in as many years, only 19 percent [of Americans surveyed] said Bush's policies made their taxes go down. Forty-seven percent noticed no effect, while 29 percent perceived that their taxes have gone up.” - Washington Post, 10/7/03 “Almost half of all American taxpayers will get less than $100 this year and next from President Bush’s most recent tax plan. In 2005, three-quarters of taxpayers will get less than $100, and in 2006 and later years almost nine out of ten will get less than $100.” - Citizens for Tax Justice, 5/30/03
Topic: Economy - Taxes
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“I twice led the Congress to pass historic tax relief for the American people. We wanted tax relief to be as broad and as fair as possible, so we reduced taxes on everyone who pays taxes.”
Fact:
"A new AP poll finds that almost half of all Americans 'said their overall tax burden — including federal, state and local taxes — had gone up over the past three years' - almost four times the 13% who said their overall taxes had gone down." - AP, 4/13/04 “One million children living in military and veteran families are being denied child tax credit help” in President Bush's tax cut. “More than 260,000 of these children have parents on active military duty.” - Children's Defense Fund, 6/6/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
"It's a lot better than you probably think. Just ask people who have been there. They're stunned when they come back -- when they go to Iraq and the stories they tell are much different from the perceptions that you're being told life is like."
Fact:
"After I came back from Iraq, I thought things were not as good as the administration was painting.” - John McCain (R-AZ), NYT, 10/24/03
Topic: Military/Troops
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Your lives can be changed in a moment with the sudden call to duty. I want to thank you for your willingness to heed that important call, and I want to thank your families. I want to thank your sons, daughters, husbands and wives who share in your sacrifice, who are willing to sacrifice for our country and who stand behind you.”
Fact:
Less than 2 weeks after the President made these comments, “the Bush administration announced its formal opposition to a proposal to give National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon's health-insurance system, jeopardizing the plan's future and angering supporters. A recent General Accounting Office report estimated that one of every five Guard members has no health insurance.” - Gannett News Service, 10/23/03
Topic: Military/Troops
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2003
Quote/Claim:
“Any time we put our troops into harm's way, you must have the best training, the best equipment, the best possible pay.”
Fact:
“The administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.” - Army Times, 6/30/03 “When Bush taunted gunmen in Iraq, many GIs must have nervously tugged at their obsolete flak jackets. For many GIs, Iraq appears to be a strictly BYOB war -- Bring Your Own Bulletproofs. The shortages [of protective gear] come down to money and priorities. Gen. Richard B. Myers confirmed last week that it would be December before there were enough plates for all of our people in Iraq.” - Op-Ed, Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 10/5/03
Topic: Classified Information
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2001
Quote/Claim:
"We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's interest."
Fact:
"Bob Woodward said President Bush gave two reporters 90 minutes, often speaking candidly about classified information." - Providence Journal, 4/10/02
Topic: Intimigate
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/9/2001
Quote/Claim:
"And therefore, I felt it was important to send a clear signal to Congress that classified information must be held dear, that there's a responsibility that if you receive a briefing of classified information, you have a responsibility."
Fact:
White House aides said "President Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer who is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, one of the most visible critics of Bush's handling of intelligence about Iraq." - Washington Post, 9/28/03 "White House officials left open the possibility that the they might assert executive privilege on some materials or withhold all or parts of others to block a full investigation of the leak of classified information." - New York Times, 10/8/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
“The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.”
Fact:
“We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03 "The International Atomic Energy Agency's report that Iraq has not resumed its nuclear program has challenged one of the Bush administration's main arguments for taking military action to topple the Iraqi government." --NY Times, 1/28/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - the smoking gun - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
Fact:
"French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans." - British Intelligence Agent, Sunday herald, 6/1/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
"If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait?"
Fact:
Bush didn't care whether or not Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. When Diane Sawyer tried to make a distinction between stating as a "hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons," Bush snapped back "so what's the difference?" - ABC, 12/16/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
"Many people have asked how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear weapon. Well, we don't know exactly, and that's the problem."
Fact:
"French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans."" - British Intelligence Agent, Sunday herald, 6/1/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/7/2002
Quote/Claim:
“Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program…Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.”
Fact:
“We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/3/2003
Quote/Claim:
“The [Kay] report states Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum.”
Fact:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/02
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 10/3/2000
Quote/Claim:
"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road."
Fact:
"Nation-building has become a defining feature of the Bush Administration's foreign policy." - Boston Globe, 3/2/04
Topic: September 11th
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/27/2002
Quote/Claim:
"We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th."
Fact:
“President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11.” - CBS News, 5/23/02 “Despite mounting evidence that most of the nation's intelligence sleuths were clueless before the attacks, [President Bush] opposes outside scrutiny - a stance that puts him at odds with most Senate Democrats and some key Republican lawmakers.” - Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/2/02 The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, rebuffed once previously, asked again yesterday to interview the CIA analyst who wrote the Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing given to President Bush on al Qaeda's threat to the United States...The commission wants to interview the author of the article in the now-famous President's Daily Brief to determine her purpose in assembling the document and how much information she sought in doing so....The Bush administration in the past refused to allow the panel to interview CIA analysts responsible for assembling the briefs." - Washington Post, 4/13/04
Topic: Afghanistan
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/24/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever."
Fact:
"Nearly two years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, remnants of the Islamic extremist group are regrouping and attacking U.S. troops." - LA Times, 11/12/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/19/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The tradition of free speech exercised with enthusiasm is alive and well here in London. We have that at home too. They now have that right in Baghdad as well."
Fact:
"As criticism of his authority appeared in Iraqi media...Bremer placed controls on [Iraqi Media Network] content and clamped down on the independent media in Iraq , closing down some Iraqi-run newspapers and radio and television stations." - American Prospect, 10/1/03
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/19/1999
Quote/Claim:
"Never again should an American president spend nine days in China, and not even bother to stop in Tokyo or Seoul."
Fact:
"The glaring omission in President George Bush's journey to Asia is a stop in South Korea, which speaks volumes to the sorry state into which relations between Washington and Seoul have plunged." - Jakarta Post, 10/19/03
Topic: Medicare
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/13/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The budget I submitted earlier this year commits an additional $400 billion over 10 years to implement this vision of a stronger Medicare system. This is enough to meet our commitments to the seniors today and to future generations of Americans."
Fact:
"The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan...When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that...Bush administration officials insisted they acted legally in ordering the nation's top Medicare cost analyst to keep from lawmakers his estimate that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit might cost more than $100 billion [than what the White House promised]." - Knight Ridder, 3/11/04 and 4/2/04
Topic: Uniting Not Dividing
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/13/2003
Quote/Claim:
"What we're trying to do is to change the tone in Washington, D.C. We're trying to get rid of all the needless politics and focus on the people's business, focus on results, and not the ugly process that sometimes takes on. We're making good progress. We really are."
Fact:
" George Bush has cleaved the nation into two tenaciously opposed camps even more than his predecessors." - Time Magazine, 11/23/03
Topic: Economy - Growth
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/7/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The economy's growing, new jobs are being created. There's an opportunity, and I hope you seize it. There's a wonderful, wonderful future ahead for people who at this moment think the future is a little dark."
Fact:
Since President Bush's first tax cut in March 2001, the economy has shed more than 2 million jobs. He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to end his term with a net job loss record. Additionally, the White House Counsel of Economic Advisors pledged that the President's "jobs and growth" package would create 1,836,000 new jobs by the end of 2003 as part of its pledge to create 5.5 million new jobs by 2004. But the economy added 221,000 jobs since the last tax cut went into effect, meaning that as the President appeared on Meet The Press, the White House had fallen 1,615,000 jobs short of their mark. - EPI, 2/4/03; Jobwatch.org
Topic: Afghanistan
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/6/2003
Quote/Claim:
"With the steady leadership of President Karzai, the people of Afghanistan are building a modern and peaceful government."
Fact:
"
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/6/2003
Quote/Claim:
“For too long, many people in (the Middle East) have been victims and subjects – they deserve to be active citizens.”
Fact:
Yielding to protests from the repressive dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04 At the time of the President's speech about Democracy in the Middle East, the Iraqi population had virtually no say in how their country was run. According to the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, two-thirds of the Governing Council – which was handpicked by the United States – no longer regularly attended meetings. According to members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the Coalition Authority refused to disclose how it was spending both Iraqi and American funds. Secrecy also surrounded the process of awarding contracts, and the Pentagon was running the Iraqi Media Network.
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/6/2003
Quote/Claim:
“As we watch and encourage reforms in the region, we are mindful that modernization is not the same as Westernization. Representative governments in the Middle East will reflect their own cultures. They will not, and should not, looks like us.”
Fact:
Yielding to protests from the repressive dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Bush Admnistration "set aside plan to issue sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in Middle East." - NY Times, 3/12/04 “The Coalition Provisional Authority continues to make a fundamental mistake in the way it interacts with the Iraqi people. The CPA seems to think that all wisdom is made in America.” - John McCain (D-AZ), Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, 11/5/03
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/4/2003
Quote/Claim:
“[Saddam Hussein] is no longer threatening people.”
Fact:
At the time of this statement, the New York Times reported, “Saddam Hussein may be playing a significant role in coordinating and directing attacks by his loyalists against American forces in Iraq, senior American officials said.” - NY Times, 10/31/03
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 11/2/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.”
Fact:
“White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that a White House advance staffer embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…The staffer and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the 'Mission Accomplished' banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” - NYT, 5/16/03
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Bush, George - President
Date: 5/29/2003
Quote/Claim:
“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.”
Fact:
“We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort. Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
I can find more if you can refute these few.
TWB
