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