Greens Speak Out on Bush

Greens Speak Out on Bush's State of the Union Remarks and the Democratic Response

Greens want to know: will Bush enlist Gov. Schwarzenegger in his crusade against steroid abuse? A post-speech follow-up to the Green Party's pre-speech rebuttal released on January 20 http://www.gp.org/press/pr_01_20_04.html .

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders disputed and criticized statements made by President Bush in his 2004 State of the Union address and by Democrats Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. Tom Daschle (S.Dak.) in their response to the President's speech:

-- President Bush continued to speak of the invasion of Iraq as part of the war on terrorism, although Saddam Hussein apparently had no proven connections with al-Qaeda or the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Bush addressed none of the disturbing questions raised by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's revelations, the damning analysis from the Army War College and Carnegie Endowment, and the failure to locate WMDs. Mr. Bush has changed his terminology from "weapons of mass destruction" to the vague "weapons of mass destruction programs," obfuscating the fact that the U.N. inspections had worked as intended in Iraq.

-- It's evident from Rep. Pelosi's comments that the Democrats will make no effort to hold Mr. Bush and his staff acountable for the numerous lies they told to justify the invasion. Democrats will also take no responsibility for their yea votes that helped pass the USA Patriot Act, the transfer of Congress's constitutional war powers to the White House, and much of the rest of the Bush agenda. Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who led in the Iowa caucuses, supported these bills and the invasion itself.

-- Mr. Bush listed several countries who supported the invasion as proof that it was a truly international effort, but neglected to mention that the U.S. leveled economic threats against some of these countries to win their support. Many of these governments backed the invasion in disregard of vigorous opposition from a majority of their citizens.

-- Mr. Bush claimed that "The people of Iraq are free", even though Iraq is under occupation by a foreign power. Mr. Bush said, "For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible - and no one can now doubt the word of America." But nearly the whole world, except for diehard Republicans and British Prime Minister Blair, knows that the reasons given in early 2003 to invade Iraq were fraudulent.

-- While speaking of American heroes in the war on Iraq, neither President Bush nor the Democrats acknowledged the 500-plus American troops killed in Iraq or the many more wounded. President Bush has attended no services for fallen troops; his Administration has banned media coverage of the return of bodies to the U.S.

-- President Bush spoke at length about eliminating terrorism, but continues to hinder a full investigation into the facts behind the 9/11 attacks. U.S. foreign aid continues to benefit the ruling families of Saudi Arabia, who may be diverting these funds to terrorist groups, but the F.B.I. has never questioned anyone in Saudi Arabia about the attacks.

-- Neither Mr. Bush nor the Democrats mentioned the crisis in Israel and Palestine, which is aggravating anti-American sentiment throughout the Muslim world. The Bush Administration, with no objection from most Democrats, continues to support Israel's government with billions of dollars from American taxpayers for the construction of the Wall, the illegal settlements, the Israeli military's daily suppression of rights and violence visited on Palestinians. Greens also deplore the violence committed by some Palestinians against Israeli citizens, but note that Palestinian violence is not funded with U.S. taxpayers' money.

-- The Democratic response failed to mention the 200 public-health and environmental laws that Mr. Bush has attempted to weaken. Democratic votes put some of his worst anti-ecological legislation over the top.

-- Despite his rosy prognosis, the first Bush term saw a $127 billion surplus turned into a $500 billion deficit, with 2.4 million lost jobs and 9 million currently unemployed, thanks to massive tax cuts for the rich and a price tag of $162 billion and growing for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The resulting cuts in social spending include $300 million from heat subsidies for poor families.

-- "Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage." With these words, the President sanctioned a jihad against the rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans, painting them as enemies of America's future without specifically mentioning them. Mr. Bush tacitly blessed the Federal Marriage Protection Amendment, which if passed would be the first amendment to repeal rights and protections for one class of Americans. The Democrats failed to respond to this part of the speech; many Democrats (including liberals and progressives) voted yea for President Clinton's antigay Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, which Mr. Bush cited to show that his jihad has bipartisan support.

"Bush wants to overturn rulings like the one from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which fulfilled its civic and legal responsibility and moral obligation to uphold the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans," said Brandon Lacy Campos, chair of the Green Party's Lavender Caucus. The Green Party strongly supports full same-sex marriage rights.

-- If all Americans enjoyed the kind of health coverage enjoyed by Congress, to which Mr. Bush referred in his discussion of Medicare, we'd have national health insurance, which the Green Party supports but Republicans and most Democrats reject. Sen. Daschle's response offered no systematic proposal for covering the U.S.'s 43 million uninsured citizens.

"The cost of providing health care in the U.S. is a staggering $1.6 trillion annually, but national health insurance, the single payer proposal developed by the Physicians for a National Health Program, would save $200 billion," said Greg Gerritt, secretay of the Green Party of the United States. "President Bush wants to fly to Mars, but he won't give Americans access to a doctor."

-- President Bush's educational reform basically amounts to a standardized testing program, centralized through a federal bureaucracy, that has interrupted the classroom curricula across the U.S. He promised "better options when schools are not performing," but public schools are facing an economic crisis because of the Bush tax cuts. Poor children and those with special needs will suffer most. Millions of children will be left behind.

MORE INFORMATION

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