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October 14, 2004
Given several opportunities to explain how he would address major issues such as outsourcing, rising health care costs, widening inequality, the minimum wage, and deficit reduction, President Bush failed last night to present any vision of what his future agenda might look like. "More of the same" was the president's mantra as he restated promises from the 2000 campaign that he failed to deliver on while in office.
- The president promised to make health care more affordable and accessible but health care costs are skyrocketing and the ranks of the uninsured growing. Forty-five million Americans now lack basic health insurance, five million more than when President Bush took office. Health insurance premiums have risen by double digits for four years in a row. Prescription drugs have gotten more expensive, not less. Insurers are cutting back on prescription drug coverage, shifting more costs onto patients.
- The president promised to pay down the debt and maintain fiscal sanity and then squandered record surpluses and created the largest deficits in U.S. history. The president arrived in office with $5 trillion in projected budget surpluses. He will finish his term with $5 trillion in projected deficits over the next 10 years – two-thirds of which will be a direct result of the president's tax cut agenda for the wealthy.
- The president promised to help the middle class and then passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy that have increased burdens on middle-class families. The moderate tax reductions middle class families received have been far outweighed by rising costs for health care, tuition, housing, and other basic needs. Far from "relieving" pressures on average families, the president's priorities have shifted tax burdens to the middle class while reducing obligations for those who need the least help in today's economy.
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund. |
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund. |
