Bush's credibility gap on Medicare law
Summer 2004
A key problem for the Bush Administration is the President's credibility gap on many issues. Workers and retirees can't trust the Bush Administration to keep its word.
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Medicare Prescription Drugs Law. To achieve a final law, President Bush pledged to Congress that the Medicare bill would cost federal government $395 billion over a ten-year period. However, Mr. Bush released his fiscal year 2004-05 budget early in February, stating the new prescription drug law will cost the government $534 billion, more than one-third in additional cost than initially admitted. Conservative critics accuse the Bush Administration of lying about the law's real cost to taxpayers. (By Ralph Z. Hallow, The Washington Times, published 18 February 2004.)
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Social Security. President Bush said Social Security Trust Fund would remain safe. Bush breached the Social Security Trust Fund and is on schedule to spend $1.65 trillion of it over the next ten years. Dr. A. W. Smith, Social Security expert, Indiana University, reported on February 21, 2004, that there is "not one penny left" in the Social Security Trust Fund, just IOUs. (Book, "The Looting of Social Security," published by Carol & Graph.)
- Income Taxes. President Bush said his income tax cuts would not cause deficits, even in a bad economy. In the midst of negotiating a steep tax cuts package, the U.S. government shelved a report that showed the U.S. faces future federal budget deficits of more than $44.2 trillion. The Bush Administration chose to keep the findings - commissioned by then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill - out of the 2004 annual budget report published in February. (Reported by London 's Financial Times, 29 May 03.)
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Education Reform (Title I). As part of the bipartisan education reform, Bush promised to spend more money on education. Bush's 2003 budget underfunds the "No Child Left Behind" Law by $7.8 billion and provides the smallest education funding increase in seven years. (As reported by the American Federation of Teachers, 12 January 04.)
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