Misleader Home A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion
Photo: Collage of President Bush and White House
Navigation: Who We Are Navigation: Special Reports Navigation: Ask the Experts Navigation: Feedback Navigation: Donate Navigation: Tell a Friend Navigation: Contact Us

Receive the Daily Mislead
Get a look past the rhetoric, every day, delivered to your inbox.

your email:

Member of the press?


             Privacy policy


In the Spotlight
Bush Campaign Ads . . . Brought to You by Special Interests
As President Bush's $10.5 million campaign ad blitz begins, Public Citizen released a report outlining who helped pay for the campaign ads and what favors they have received during his presidency.

Special Reports
No Child Left Behind? The Funding Gap in ESEA and Other Federal Education Programs
The current reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), raises high expectations for achievement and imposes stringent measures of accountability on students, teachers, and schools.

See the Ad


A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion April 1, 2004
Send The Misleader to a Friend | Printer Friendly Version | Want the Mislead on your site?



     

Bush Blocks Full Funds for Fight Against Terrorists



President Bush has repeatedly said he is committed to doing whatever it takes to "cut off terrorist finances" in order to win the War on Terror1. But according to a new report, the president is trying to kill a desperate request by his own officials to increase the number of investigators needed to disrupt the finances of Al Qaeda.

The New York Times reports the president is trying to eliminate a $12 million request by the IRS, which says it needs the small injection of new money "to increase by 50% the number of criminal financial investigators" necessary to do its part in the fight against terrorism2. The president could easily fund the program by reducing the tax cuts he wants to give to the 200,000 millionaires in America: instead of giving these millionaires an average tax cut of $88,326 he could simply reduce that tax cut by $60, giving them instead $88,266, while using the savings to fully fund the IRS request3. Instead, President Bush is pushing more than $1 trillion in new tax cuts, while ignoring the request4.

The effort to deny the IRS needed counterterrorism funds is just the latest example of the president grossly underfunding the protection of America. The Washington Post reported last week that immediately after 9/11, the White House "cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI"5.

Sources:
  1. President Recaps Historic Week in Domestic and Foreign Affairs, 11/23/2002.
  2. "I.R.S. Request for More Terrorism Investigators Is Denied", New York Times, 03/31/2004.
  3. "HOYER ON THE HOMELAND SECURITY BILL: A One Billion Dollar Trade-Off", 06/24/2003.
  4. "Bush wants tax cuts to stay", Washington Times, 01/20/2004.
  5. "FBI Budget Squeezed After 9/11", Washington Post, 03/22/2004.



Send the Misleader to a Friend | Print It | Misleader Archive