“We are neither safer nor stronger than we were when Bush took office”

(Washington, DC) Representative John Conyers, Jr., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus released the following statement on the  President’s upcoming State of the Union Address :

 “Three years into the Bush presidency, it is clear that the state of our union is neither as robust or optimistic as Mr. Bush claims.  Time after time, Bush’s claims ring hollow or false.

Economy

Bush claims the economy is roaring back. The reality is, its not only a “jobless recovery” (companies expanding production without hiring back many of those previously laid off). Its also a “job-loss recovery,” with companies continuing to lay off additional workers, even as they increase production or otherwise expand their business:

 Contrary to Bush’s claims, the President’s tax cuts to the wealthy and big business have led to economic insecurity, job loss, and a weakened economy.  Nationally, the economy has lost nearly 3 million private sector jobs under Bush and the unemployment rate is up 39 percent.  In my home state of Michigan, over 200,000 jobs have been lost since Bush took office.   Empty promises don’t feed families, jobs do.  In addition, we now have the burden of a one and a half billion annual deficit – and growing.

Foreign Affairs
 
 Bush claims the war in Iraq and current U.S. combat and non-combat roles there have made Americans safer in today’s uncertain world of terrorism.  The reality is that on the foreign policy front, Bush has squandered more than 60 years of bilateral international cooperation. 
The President has misled the American people and alienated our friends in pursuit of his radical notion of preemptive war.  Instead of making our country safer, Bush has turned our brave soldiers into targets and turned off the very people and nations we need to be working with to battle terrorism.  The Iraq War has proven to be built on lies, and has proven to be a colossal distraction from the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Immigration

 In terms of immigration, I am skeptical of the election year conversion by the Bush Administration to immigration reform.  Mr. Bush’s proposal itself is little more than a reconstitution of the Bracero program, and would relegate millions of foreigners to permanent underclass status. The initiative is being offered by a President that for three years has chosen to ignore immigration policy, or has weighed in only to deny immigrants legal protections.  I hope my friends in the immigration community see this cynical political ploy for what it is – a wolf in sheep’s clothing offered by a party that has consistently opposed immigrants’ rights.

Education

 Forty years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, we still face dramatic achievement and resource gaps and far greater likelihood that children of color attend dilapidated and overcrowded schools, where school performance is low and the drop-out rate is very high. We need to ask why our new prisons are in better shape than our schools, why there13 states where more African Americans are in prisons than in college and why the President refuses to fund the “No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).”

 The 2004 budget submitted by President Bush falls $9 billion short of the amount authorized for 2004 by NCLB.  In February, 2003, the bi-partisan National Governors Association voted unanimously to label Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act an unfunded mandate, along with special education, homeland security and Medicaid. The Governors were right.  Eventually the smoke clears and the mirrors reflect the ugly truths and broken promises of the Bush Administration.

National Priorities

 One has to wonder sometimes about our sense of national priorities. President Bush has proposed sending Americans to Mars. That would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. At the same time, a new public health study reveals that chronic asthma and other serious respitory illnesses in young children in the inner city is up dramatically because of rodent and other fecal matter and the toxic fumes used to kill them. That juxtaposition reminds me of a comment by my former colleague Ed Koch, later Mayor of New York. Some years ago, Ed said:

 “I’m not sure if there is or isn’t life on Mars. But I do know there are rats biting babies in New York City tenements.”
 
 We can all sympathize with the innocent civilians in Iraq, now free from Saddam’s rule but facing a society needing our assistance. Yet should we not be at least as concerned, if not more so, about millions of American without enough to eat, without decent shelter and without health care?
 
 If I was asked for advice by a teacher, or policeman or nurse being laid off in one of America’s cities facing huge budget deficits, I would recommend that they go to Iraq.
The United States is eager to provide billions for training and hiring new teachers, police and health care workers there.

Healthcare

 The President’s Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is filled with empty promises to America’s seniors.  The Medicare bill that President Bush signed in November 2003 includes limited prescription drug coverage but protects the interests of drug companies by failing to include measures to bring down the cost of prescriptions. The bill, which was presented to American seniors with much smoke-and-mirrors-like fanfare,  has been described as a “big win” for the drug industry, and many seniors are worse off under the plan. In Michigan, 138,810 Medicare beneficiaries will lose their employer-based retiree health benefits and 183,200 seniors will pay more for the prescription drugs they need.  Tonight I call on the President to drop the smoke-and- mirrors act and offer clear solutions, such as my Universal Healthcare Plan, to the over 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured and the millions more who are under-insured.

Retirement Security

 Americans are outraged by corporate loopholes that permit companies to protect millions of dollars in pension benefits for top executives while millions of loyal employees lose their retirement savings.  President Bush protected wealthy donors and big corporations, leaving everyday people to fight for the pensions they earned.

 I want to protect worker pensions by cracking down on mutual fund abusers and cleaning up the corporate scandals that have cheated ordinary people out of their retirement savings, helping small businesses provide pension coverage for employees, making sure that companies that change their pension plans don’t leave older workers out in the cold, and making sure that executives play by the same rules as employees.

Civil Rights

 The Bush Administration has proven to be a graveyard for the civil rights laws.  For example, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a constructive and measured response to a problem that continues to plague our nation – violence motivated by prejudice.  There is no more graphic a reminder of the hate violence than the shocking murders of James Byrd in Jasper, TX and Matthew Shepard in Wyoming.  These crimes are especially destructive because their perpetrators seek not only to harm the immediate victim, but to make a statement to an entire community.
 
 The same is true for racial profiling.   Before September 11, 2001, there was wide agreement among Americans, including President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft, that racial profiling is wrong and should end.  Many in the law enforcement community acknowledged that singling out people for heightened scrutiny based on their race, ethnicity or national origin had eroded the trust in law enforcement necessary to appropriately serve and protect our communities.  What was true before September 11th is even more true today: racial profiling is inappropriate and ineffective as a law enforcement tactic.  Again, the Administration has to date refused to even consider any legislative solution for this problem.”

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