The George W. Bush Administration Accomplishments.
Compiled by Jill Fredericks

• No Child Left Behind Act was created, instituted and underfunded. With the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush and the Republican Congressional leadership have insisted on a funding level that is $9.4 billion short of the amount that the President promised when he signed the Act. Illinois school boards have agreed to seek a major reform of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on grounds that the law is based on inconsistent standards and unrealistic requirements.
  (source: http://www.iasb-illinois.org/files/nb1203.htm)

• Premiums for Medicare coverage will jump by 17.4 percent next year. Most of the increase can be attributed to the Medicare legislation signed by President Bush. Medicare trustees disclosed that at the rate the system is going, it will be unable to pay its bills as of 2019.
  (source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0409200193sep20,1,3251398.story)

• $127 billion U.S budget surplus in 2001, $422 billion U.S budget deficit (thats $422 billion less than zero) in the fiscal year 2004
  (source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/budget.deficit.ap/index.html)
• The number of jobs lost since Bush took office in January 2001 is 1.2 million, according to Labor Department statistics.
  (source: http://money.cnn.com/2004/07/02/news/economy/jobless_june/
  source: http://www.house.gov/appropriations_democrats/statejobsformatted.pdf
  source: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2004/April/03/LNtop1.htm also the Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• According to the Dept of Labor, before Bush took office the 1999 midwest unemployment rate was 3.6%. In 3 years, 2003 midwest unemployment was rate 5.9%
  (source: http://stats.bls.gov/lau/table12full99.pdf/) -selected midwest region, all periods, 12 month percent change
• For the bottom 20 percent of wage earners, the combined Bush tax cuts averaged $250 each. The middle 20 percent received $1,090, while the top 1 percent garnered $78,460. Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to middle-class families.
  (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9092-2004Sep9.html
  source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5689001/
• The Labor Department revised overtime pay rules threatening the overtime pay of 6 million workers.
  ( source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-context22sep22,1,2227392.story)
• The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year. There are currently 17.6% of American children living below the poverty level. The poverty level for a family of four is considered a yearly income of less than $18,810.
  (source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/08/26/census.poverty.ap/index.html)
• One of four working American families earns wages so low they struggle to survive financially. In Illinois, 18% of all jobs are in occupations where the median wage is less than the federal poverty threshold.
  (source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0410120162oct12,1,5904821.story?coll=chi-business-hed

• 9-11, World Trade Center destroyed: 3,962 lives are lost including 197 policemen and firemen.
  (source: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/11/18/rec.athome.facts/)
• Allowed Assault Weapons ban to Lapse. It is now legal to manufacture and to sell semiautomatic assault weapons to the citizens. Gov. Rod Blagojevich called on legislators to pass a state-level ban on assault weapons.
  (source: http://www.stateline.org/stateline/?pa=story&sa=showStoryInfo&print=1&id=398073)

Civil Liberties (your constitutional rights)

• USA Patriot Act - restricts rights and even access to legal consul. Cities across the country have been quietly staging a revolt against the USA Patriot Act. Resolutions have been passed in 356 communities in 42 states including four state-wide resolutions. These communities represent approximately 53.9 million people who oppose sections of the Act.
  (source: http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12126&c=207.
  source: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/usapatriot020701.html &
  source: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/alaska_patriot030523.html
  source: http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=11294&c=207)
• Allows mega-media corporations to own radio/tv/newpaper dominating a market. 12 media mega companies, along with four key influencers, are driving the worldwide markets for digital media and entertainment. This severely limit citizens daily access to fair and impartial news while allowing a few giant media companies control of nearly all of what the public sees, hears and reads. Sinclair's television group, reaching approximately 1/4 of all U.S. households, ordered all 62 of its stations to air a documentary (during prime-time without commercials) that accuses Sen. John Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War.
  ( source:http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/11/news/newsmakers/sinclair_kerry/index.htm?cnn=yes
  source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/2003news/06032003/world/32003.htm &
  source: http://www.onlinepublishingnews.com/htm/n20030214.715458.htm)
• Required supporters to sign an "oath of loyalty" before receiving tickets to republican rally.
  (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31019-2004Jul31.html)

• Bush administration officials sought extensive advice from utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries, and incorporated their recommendations, often word for word, into the energy plan.
  ( source: http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/taskforce/tfinx.asp)
• Environmental Protection Agency has dropped sixty-two environmental standards enacted by previous Administrations to protect the public health. The largest regulatory weakening of clean air protections in the 30-year history of the Clean Air Act. The Bush administration remains determined to weaken the Clean Air Act with loopholes that threaten irreparable harm to Americans' health and could allow pollution increases more than 17,000 facilities across the nation.
  (source: http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/2004_07.asp
  source: http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-doc.cfm?doc_name=tp-108-2-193)
• Clear Skies Initiative, which will override the Clean Air Act, allows power plants to emit far greater quantities of sulfur, mercury and nitrogen pollution than they are currently able to. Court blocks Bush administration's Clean Air Act changes.
  (source: http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/2003_12.asp
  source: http://www.sfsu.edu/~holistic/document/Down/Environment/envrecord.htm
  source: http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-doc.cfm?doc_name=tp-108-2-193
  source: http://www.sfsu.edu/~holistic/document/Down/Environment/envrecord.htm">)
• The Administration suppressed an EPA finding that mercury was poisoning millions of Americans — especially children.
  (source: http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-doc.cfm?doc_name=tp-108-2-193)
• The Bush administration plans to eliminate the "Roadless Area Conservation Rule." If successful, this move would allow unbridled development on millions of acres in pristine forests across the country in places where no roads have been built and where, as a result, no logging or other development has occurred.
  (source: http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/qroadless.asp)
• Senior EPA officials resign in protest to Bush administration policies
  (source: http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/2003_12.asp#)
• White House Environmental Office Recommendations Could Shut Out Public from Environmental Review Process
  (source: http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/030924.asp)
• Bush pulled out of the Kyoto treaty (world treaty) on global warming, which would require the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases substantially by 2012. Bush prefers an approach that forces developing nations to shoulder more of the responsibility for cutting air pollution.
  (source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80756&page=1
  source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=155742
  source: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/18/kyoto.climate/)

• Began a war without United Nations (the world) approval. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the U.S.-led Iraq invasion was "illegal."
  (source http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/21/bush.un.ap/index.html)
• No exit strategy plan from Iraq, although I spent hours searching, I could not find a reputable site stating any kind of withdrawl plan.
  (no source found for any exit strategy)
• Reasons Bush gave for the necessity of war were Weapons of Mass Destruction(number of WMD found = 0) and the capture and/or death of Osama bin Laden (neither occured).
  (no source required)
• Torture found at Abu Ghraib, number of high level US officals held accountable = 0. (Source: all papers)
• The Pentagon has reported 1,152 dead and 7,532 wounded from Iraq and some 10,000 innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed. Nearly 20,245 service members medically evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly cited by newspapers
  (source http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000630846
  source http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
  source http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4055356)
• Current bills in House and Senate HR163 and SN86 allow for reinstatement of the draft for all (male and female) citizens 18 -26 years old.
  (source: http://congress.org/congressorg/issues/bills/?billtype=H.R.&billnumb=163&congress=108
  source: http://thomas.loc.gov/ must enter Bill "SN89"

• United States was voted out of two key U.N. organizations, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. International Drug Control Board
  (source: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/05/10/us.un.big.picture.relations/)

• Former President Jimmy Carter say conditions for a fair election in Florida still don't exist.
  (source:http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/27/carter.florida.ap/index.html)
• Pentagon blocks access to governmental website that assist Americans living overseas in voting. Service providers known to have been blocked include Yahoo Broadband in Japan, Wanadoo in France, Telefonica in Spain and China Telecom.
  (source:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-pentagon24sep24,1,7688741.story)
• Republican Nation Committee supports groups that throw away voter registration of voter registered as "Democratic".
  (source:http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595&nav=168XRvNe)(source:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?ex=1098504000&en=afe1dbe5dc6218df&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1)
• President Bush's New England campaign chairman, has stepped down because of involvement in the jamming of democratic party telephone lines on Election Day 2002. Depositions scheduled for this week were called off after the Justice Department said it would seek to delay them.
  (source:http://www.theunionleader.com/Articles_show.html?article=45676&archive=1)
• A Republican county executive insists that this year, when everyone expects a record turnout, Milwaukee, Wisc will receive fewer ballots than it got in 2000 or 2002 - a recipe for chaos at polling places serving urban, mainly Democratic voters.
  (source:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?ex=1098504000&en=afe1dbe5dc6218df&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1)

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Please go to 100 Facts at The Nation to see more documented Bush administration miss steps.