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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion October 2, 2003

     

The President's Promises on Homeland Security are Long on Talk, Short on Money



The Bush Administration apparently is willing to shortchange the police, firefighters and emergency personnel who would be the first to arrive on the scene of a terrorist attack on American soil.

An independent task force headed by former Republican Senator Warren Rudman concluded that the $4.2 billion appropriation signed by the President on Wednesday1 may be "only one-third of what is required to adequately provide for America's emergency responders." 2

After September 11th the President promised to take "every possible measure" to guarantee the security of the homeland, but now Bush's Homeland Security officials are mocking the concerns of the Rudman task force. "I think the [task force] would like to install gold-plated telephones,"3 said one official.

At the same time the Bush Administration wants to spend $6,000 apiece for 600 overpriced hand-held radios and satellite phones in Iraq.4

Sources:
1. "Bush Signs Homeland Security Bill", New York Times, 10/1/03.
2. "Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared," Council on Foreign Relations, June 2003.
3. Meet the Press, 6/29/03.
4. "GOP Finding Iraq War Request a Tough Sell", Washington Post, 10/1/03, p. A14; "Here and There: A Comparison of the Bush Administration's Iraq Reconstruction Package," Center for American Progress.


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