|
Contributor: Darien
Date: 2003-01-24 12:04:38
A few numbers for you...
33 million Americans live in poverty. 41 million live without health insurance.
George W. Bush gave the righest 1% of Americans a $1.6 trillion tax cut, as 'economic stimulus'. Curiously enough, the number of unemployed persons in the country rose by 35% since he 'took' office.
The US's one-year military budget increase of $48 billion is more than the military budget of any other country. The proposed budget for 2003 is $396 billion. Renovating and upgrading every school in the US would cost $112 billion.
The government has to increase money to the military to help fight terrorism? Missile shields won't help against terrorists. Stealth planes won't help against terrorists - and for that matter, the first time the stealth bomber was ever used, it was shot down. Nuclear missiles won't help against terrorism. What will help terrorism isn't kneejerk lashing out, or cold calculated death, it's finding the roots of terrorism and solving those.
Al Gore recieved 540,000 more votes than George Bush. Hundreds of the overseas votes that were counted on his behalf in Florida violated Florida Law. He did not, by any objective mathematical calculations, win that election, but he did take power because of who he knew, and where they were, and what favours they could do for him. And favours he did, with his 'economic stimulus'. The common voter, however, gets nothing.
Bush isn't the worst person in the world, but he finagled an election he didn't win into providing him with power, and he has abused that power.
A few more numbers:
Cut $39m from federal spending on libraries.
Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50%.
Cut half a billion dollars from the EPA's budget.
Cut funding for the Community Access Program (coordinates health care for people without health insurance) bt 86%.
Cut $200m from the Childcare and Development Grant, which provides child care to low-income families so they can go to work.
Are these the actions of a tyrant? Not necessarily. But they hardly seem to be the actions of a man concerned about the security and well-being of the population, or at least, most of it. The rich will stay rich, and the poor, well, they're poor already, it can't get worse, right?
People in the US die, because they can't get good health care. They die because they don't have anywhere to go when the weather gets cold. They die because they can't get food when they need it. All the while, Bush and his ruling nobility sit on the mountain and look down upon the struggling unwashed masses, and don't seem to care. To me, that's right up there with tyranny.
Reply to this message
|
