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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion March 16, 2004
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Bush Dishonesty Takes Center Stage



President Bush attacked his opponents today, saying, "If you're going to make an accusation, you ought to back it up with facts."1 But on everything from the economy to national security, this high standard stands in sharp contrast to the president's own behavior.

On Iraq, President Bush said before the war that Iraq "recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa"2 despite the CIA previously warning the White House not to make this factually inaccurate statement 3. He also said there was "no doubt the Iraqi regime continues to possess the most lethal weapons ever devised"4 despite receiving repeated warnings that there was little hard evidence Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction after 19915. He even said that "we found the weapons of mass destruction" when none had been found6.

On economic policy, President Bush said that, with his tax plan, "by far the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder."7 In fact, according to Congress' bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, households making less than $40,000 - roughly the bottom half of the economic ladder - would receive only 10 percent of Bush's income tax cut.

On the budget, President Bush said, "This nation has got a deficit because we have been through a war."8 He said this two months after his own budget acknowledged that his economic policies and tax cuts for the wealthy - not the war - were what created the largest deficits in American history.9

Sources:
  1. Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Balkenende of the Netherlands in a Photo Opportunity, 03/16/2004.
  2. State of the Union, 01/28/2003.
  3. "Bush Aides Disclose Warnings From CIA", Washington Post, 07/23/2003.
  4. President Says Saddam Hussein Must Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours, 03/17/2003.
  5. "Doubts, dissent stripped from public Iraq assessment", Mercury News, 02/09/2004.
  6. Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, 05/29/2003.
  7. "Serial Exaggerators", Fair.Org.
  8. President Discusses Plan for Economic Growth in Ohio, 04/24/2003.
  9. "Secrets of S-3", GovExec.com, 02/12/2003.



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