Atelier No.15, article 27
 
 

Michael Moore :
(©excerpt from Stupid White Men, 2001)
 

List of accomplishments by George W. Bush, the first few months in office.
 

He has:

· Cut $39 million from federal spending on libraries
 
· Cut $35 million in funding for advanced pediatric training for doctors
 
· Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50 percent
 
· Delayed rules that would reduce "acceptable" levels of arsenic in drinking water
 
· Cut funding for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks by 28 percent
 
· Revoked rules strengthening the power of the government to deny contracts to
 companies that violate federal laws, environmental laws, and workplace safety
 standards
 
· Allowed Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to request suggestions for opening up
 national monuments for foresting, coal mining, and oil and gas drilling
 
· Broken your campaign promise to invest $100 million per year in rain forest
 conservation
 
· Reduced by 86 percent the Community Access Program, which coordinated care for
 people without health insurance among public hospitals, clinics, and other health
 care providers
 
· Nullified a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential
 ramifications of chemical plant accidents
 
· Cut funding for the Girls and Boys Clubs of America programs in public housing by
 $60 million
 
· Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol agreement on global warming, ultimately
 signed by 178 other countries
 
· Rejected an international accord to enforce the 1972 treaty banning germ warfare
 
· Cut $200 million from workforce training programs for dislocated workers
 
· Cut $200 million from the Childcare and Development grant, a program that provides
 child care to low-income families as they are forced from welfare to work
 
· Eliminated prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though viagra
 is still covered)
 
· Cut $700 million in funds for public housing repairs
 
 
· Cut half a billion dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency's budget
 
· Overturned workplace ergonomic rules designed to protect workers' health and
 safety
 
· Abandoned your campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, a major
 contributor to global warming
 
· Prohibited any federal aid from going to international family planning organizations
 that provide abortion counseling, referrals, or services with their own funds
 
· Nominated former mining company executive Dan Lauriski as Assistant Secretary of
 Labor for Mine Safety and Health
 
· Appointed Lynn Scarlett, a global warming skeptic and an opponent of stricter
 standards on air pollution, as Undersecretary of the Interior
 
· Approved Interior Secretary Gale Norton's controversial plan to auction off areas
 close to Florida's eastern shore for oil and gas development
 
· Announced your plans to allow oil drilling in Montana's Lewis and Clark National
 Forest
 
· Threatened to shut down the white House MDS office
 
· Decided no longer to seek guidance from the American Bar Association on federal
 judicial appointments
 
· Denied college financial aid to students convicted of misdemeanor drug charges
 (though convicted murderers are still eligible for financial aid)
 
· Allocated only 3 percent of the amount requested by Justice Department lawyers in
 the government's continued litigation against tobacco companies
 
· Pushed through your tax cut, 43 percent of which goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of
 Americans
 
· Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for
 bankruptcy, even when facing overwhelming medical bills
 
· Appointed affirmative action opponent Kay Cole James to direct the Office of
 Personnel Management
 
· Cut $15.7 million from programs dealing with child abuse and neglect
 
· Proposed elimination of the "Reading Is Fundamental" program, which gives free
 books to poor children
 
· Pushed for development of "mini-nukes," designed to attack deeply buried targets-a
 violation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
 
· Tried to reverse regulation protecting sixty million acres of national forest from
 logging and road building
 
· Appointed John Bolton, an opponent of nonproliferation treaties and the United
 Nations, as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
 
· Made Monsanto executive Linda Fisher deputy administrator of the Environmental
 Protection Agency
 
· Nominated Michael McConnell, a leading critic of the separation of church and state,
 to a federal judgeship
 
· Nominated civil rights opponent Terrence Boyle to a federal judgeship
 
· Canceled the 2004 deadline for auto makers to develop prototype high-mileage cars
 
· Named John Walters, an ardent opponent of prison drug treatment programs, as
 drug czar
 
· Appointed oil and coal lobbyist J. Steven Giles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior
 
· Named Bennett Raley, who has called for the repeal of the Endangered Species Act,
 as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science
 
· Sought the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States against Japan
 by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves in World War II
 
· Appointed as solicitor general Ted Olson, your chief lawyer in the Florida voting
 debacle
 
· Proposed to ease the permit process for constructing refineries and nuclear and
 hydroelectric dams, including lowering environmental standards
 
· Proposed the selling of oil and gas tracts in the Alaska Wildlife Preserve