In a cleverly-timed speech, stealing some of the thunder of the Dem presidential candidates just 24 hours after the Iowa caucuses, President Bush will deliver the always-interesting State of the Union address tonight.
We already know Bush will probably talk in a little detail about his Mars/Moon plan, tax-free savings accounts for medical expenses, and gay marriage, though the range of specificity ranges from vague references to a call for a constitutional amendment.
And, of course, you won’t have to wait too long to hear a lot about Iraq, though Bush probably won’t tell us all about those weapons of mass destruction — the topic that dominated the last State of the Union.
If you’ll be watching, the fine folks at the Center for American Progress have created a very handy “viewers guide” with a few (OK, more than a few) things to look out for, including:
* Did he explain why he has not fixed the unemployment crisis?
Since March of 2001, the economy has shed more than 2 million jobs. While the President has said that the economy looks “good,” unemployment is still at 5.7%. Because the job situation was so bleak last month, 255,000 jobless Americans simply stopped looking for work.
* Did he provide any evidence that his tax cuts helped anyone other than the wealthy?
In 2005, the President’s most recent tax bill gives people who make over $1 million an average tax cut of more than $22,000. At the same time, it gives people making $35,000 per year a tax cut of $35 – all while middle-class wages stagnate and health care costs skyrocket.
* Did he explain how we can afford $1 trillion in new tax cuts at a time of budget deficits?
The budget deficit stands at $500 billion – the largest in American history. At the same time, the President is pushing a $1 trillion plan to make his tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. While the White House says it has a proposal to cut the deficit in half, the fine print of the proposal shows that it purposely omits huge inevitable expenditures. For instance, the proposal omits all costs of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan after 2004.
* Did he explain why he is underfunding his own education bill?
While the No Child Left Behind Act promised historic funding increases for education, the last two budgets the President authored have fallen at least $7 billion short of those promises. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children are being cut from education programs, and tens of thousands of teachers are not receiving the training they are required to have.
* Did he offer a plan to provide health care to over 40 million uninsured Americans?
President Bush proposed billions for a Mars mission, and universal health care to all Iraqis within a year. Yet, his top health care official says providing health insurance to all Americans by 2010 is “not realistic.” While Bush is expected to propose “block grants,” this plan does not definitively guarantee health care for all citizens.
* Did he promise that his Medicare bill will provide the same drug benefit to every senior?Despite promises to the contrary, the Medicare bill provides no standards for which prescription drugs will be covered, how much beneficiaries will have to pay, or what they will have to pay – all while sending billions to HMOs and drug companies.
* Did he explain how he will safeguard the environment after unraveling regulations?
Rhetoric about clear skies and healthy forests aside, this administration has weakened clean air/clean water laws, cut funding for toxic cleanups and opened up protected forests for logging.
* Did he say why bin Laden is at large & why Iraq was more important than his capture?
Two years after the September 11th attacks, Osama bin Laden is still at large and issuing threats to the United States. Instead of putting more resources into “hunting him down,” Bush put resources into a war in Iraq – a war a recent U.S. Army report said “was not integral to the global war on terrorism, but rather a detour from it.”
* Did he explain why no WMD have been found after he said Iraq’s WMD justified war?
Despite having 10 months and unlimited access to the country, no WMD have been found in Iraq.
* Did he explain why he falsely claimed Saddam obtained nuclear material?
One year ago, the President said, “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” When this was proven to be false, the Administration blamed the CIA. But the CIA noted it had told the White House to exclude that claim from the speech. The Administration has yet to explain why the President made the claim when he knew it was false.
* Did he explain why he wants to cut benefits for the military during a time of war?
At the same time he deployed over 100,000 soldiers into combat in Iraq, the President proposed to cut $1.5 billion out of military family housing, ban Guard and Reserves from access to the Pentagon’s health care system and reduce soldiers’ pay – all while denying one million children of military families from receiving the child tax credit.
* Did he explain why his staff has not turned in the person who leaked classified info?
After a White House official leaked the name of a CIA official to the news media in retaliation, President Bush said he wanted the leak found. But he has yet to formally demand his staff to turn in the leaker.
Just a few things to keep in mind during tonight’s show…