January 31, 2006
"Americans have not forgotten that the President used the State of the Union to make the case that Iraq had WMD, and to insist that it was his highest priority to privatize Social Security. Given his track record of using the speech to mislead the public or to announce policy initiatives that American people then resoundingly rejected, I'm not sure why anyone would put much stock in anything he said in tonight's speech, least of all his sudden appeal for bipartisanship.
"Secondly, it is important to recognize that Americans are paying the price of the Republican culture of corruption. The health plan the President laid out tonight is brought to you by the same special interests who created the disastrous Medicare prescription drug bill and wanted to privatize Social Security.
"Let's be clear, 50 percent of the 46 million uninsured don't earn enough to pay taxes, and giving more tax breaks to wealthy people, which is what the President is proposing with Health Savings Accounts, does precisely NOTHING for millions of Americans who have no health insurance. We need to be making healthcare available to ALL Americans, which is why I introduced H.R. 3000.
"The President talked about energy policy tonight, but if reducing reliance on foreign oil or increasing renewable energy were real priorities, they would have been included in the administration's energy bill. The only thing you need to know about the President's energy policy is that it was written by and for companies like Exxon-Mobil, who just announced that its annual profits for 2005 totaled a record breaking $36 billion. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are having trouble paying their heating bills, and are getting slammed every time they fill up at the pump.
"The President said tonight that ' ... our greatness is not measured in power or luxuries, but by who we are and how we treat one another. So we strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society.' This is lofty rhetoric, coming from an administration that utterly abandoned the poor people of New Orleans and continues to ignore not only the reconstruction needs of the Gulf Coast but the poverty crisis facing our nation."
"Finally, let me just say that if the President had any conviction at all in his policy in Iraq, he would level with the American people about how long he intends to be there, and how much he expects it to cost, and make his case for that sacrifice.
"Does the President expect to leave Iraq in five years? In ten years or twenty? How much money, how many American lives will it take to achieve this victory? Half a trillion dollars? Two trillion? Five thousand American lives? 10,000? The President condemns 'artificial timetables,' but there is nothing unreasonable or artificial about the American people expecting concrete answers from the President on what it will take to accomplish his plan. His refusal to answer these basic questions means that he doesn't know, or he is afraid to say. And that is unacceptable."
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Barbara Lee Responds to the State of the Union Address
(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) released the following statement in response to President Bush's State of the Union Address tonight:"Americans have not forgotten that the President used the State of the Union to make the case that Iraq had WMD, and to insist that it was his highest priority to privatize Social Security. Given his track record of using the speech to mislead the public or to announce policy initiatives that American people then resoundingly rejected, I'm not sure why anyone would put much stock in anything he said in tonight's speech, least of all his sudden appeal for bipartisanship.
"Secondly, it is important to recognize that Americans are paying the price of the Republican culture of corruption. The health plan the President laid out tonight is brought to you by the same special interests who created the disastrous Medicare prescription drug bill and wanted to privatize Social Security.
"Let's be clear, 50 percent of the 46 million uninsured don't earn enough to pay taxes, and giving more tax breaks to wealthy people, which is what the President is proposing with Health Savings Accounts, does precisely NOTHING for millions of Americans who have no health insurance. We need to be making healthcare available to ALL Americans, which is why I introduced H.R. 3000.
"The President talked about energy policy tonight, but if reducing reliance on foreign oil or increasing renewable energy were real priorities, they would have been included in the administration's energy bill. The only thing you need to know about the President's energy policy is that it was written by and for companies like Exxon-Mobil, who just announced that its annual profits for 2005 totaled a record breaking $36 billion. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are having trouble paying their heating bills, and are getting slammed every time they fill up at the pump.
"The President said tonight that ' ... our greatness is not measured in power or luxuries, but by who we are and how we treat one another. So we strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society.' This is lofty rhetoric, coming from an administration that utterly abandoned the poor people of New Orleans and continues to ignore not only the reconstruction needs of the Gulf Coast but the poverty crisis facing our nation."
"Finally, let me just say that if the President had any conviction at all in his policy in Iraq, he would level with the American people about how long he intends to be there, and how much he expects it to cost, and make his case for that sacrifice.
"Does the President expect to leave Iraq in five years? In ten years or twenty? How much money, how many American lives will it take to achieve this victory? Half a trillion dollars? Two trillion? Five thousand American lives? 10,000? The President condemns 'artificial timetables,' but there is nothing unreasonable or artificial about the American people expecting concrete answers from the President on what it will take to accomplish his plan. His refusal to answer these basic questions means that he doesn't know, or he is afraid to say. And that is unacceptable."