I’ve got another gem to add to George W. Bush’s long line of whoppers. This one comes courtesy of The Nation’s David Corn.
Corn noticed that since September is back-to-school time, Bush is back to promoting his education policies. Unfortunately, Bush isn’t afraid to throw around a few falsehoods while he’s at it.
In a speech in Nashville earlier this month, Bush pointed out his administration’s impressive record on funding America’s public schools. If only the claim was true, we’d all be better off.
“The budget for next year boosts funding for elementary and secondary education to $53.1 billion,” Bush said. “That’s a 26 percent increase since I took office. In other words, we understand that resources need to flow to help solve the problem.”
True? No.
“A few things were untrue in these remarks,” Corn said. “Bush’s proposed elementary and secondary education budget for next year is $34.9 billion, not $53.1 billion, according to his own Department of Education. It’s his total proposed education budget that is $53.1 billion.
“More importantly, there is no next-year ‘boost’ in this budget,” Corn added. “Elementary and secondary education received $35.8 billion in 2003. Bush’s 2004 budget cuts that back nearly a billion dollars, and the overall education spending in his budget is the same as the 2003 level. Instead of a ‘boost,’ there is the opposite — a decrease.”
Will Bush be able to turn around and say this wasn’t actually a lie, but merely a misstatement (as I talked about this morning)? He might try, but it’s a tougher sell. As Calpundit mentioned yesterday, “[T]his was a prepared speech, not some off the cuff remarks, so this was a deliberate lie, not a casual mistake.” Good point.
And speaking of Bush’s dishonesty, I wanted to alert readers to a new service available from the fine folks at MoveOn.org. The MoveOn team has unveiled a new project — Misleader.org — which is a new website and free daily email service that tracks Bush’s false statements.
It’s a fine new initiative and I’d encourage everyone to sign up, if you haven’t already done so.
As the MoveOn team said yesterday, “The daily dispatches will take a ‘Just the Facts, Ma’am’ approach — no rhetoric, just a couple of paragraphs we’ll email each morning on what the President said and why it was misleading or untrue. It’s our hope that by doing some of the research for the press corps, we can ensure better coverage of President Bush’s lies.”
To generate attention for the new project, they even took out a full-page ad in the New York Times (available here as a .pfd doc).
Of course, it’d be almost impossible for the Misleader project to collect new Bush falsehoods every day — the president doesn’t even speak publicly every day. As a result, it appears that some of the daily updates will include golden oldies of Bush lies from recent months. But that doesn’t take away from the worthwhile effort. Go sign up.