Domestic policy of the George W. Bush administration
Civil Rights
George W. Bush endorsed a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which sought to define marriage as "between a man and a woman." The amendment would have prohibited and nullified any existing same-sex marriages, and included language which would have disallowed state-sanctioned gay civil unions. The proposal failed in the Senate on July 14, 2004. On October 26, 2004, one week before his re-election, Bush reversed his opinion and expressed support for states' rights to establish civil unions (though he did not perfsonally endorse civil unions). After his re-election, Bush stated that he would not lobby for the amendment during his second term unless the Defense of Marriage Act is declared unconstitutional. However, his chief political advisor Karl Rove announced on November 7, 2004 that a second-term drive will be made for a Federal Marriage Amendment, Bush has told private guests to the White House that he remains commited to a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage,[1] and repeated his support for the amendment during his 2005 State of the Union address.
Although Bush was not the first President to ask Congress to confirm the appointment of an openly gay man in the diplomatic corps (Bill Clinton nominated James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg in 1999), he was the first President to successfully obtain U.S. Senate approval for a gay ambassadorial candidate (Michael E. Guest as ambassador to Romania), and the first Republican President to nominate a gay man to such a position.
Bush has tended to be opposed to forms of affirmative action, but expressed appreciation for the Supreme Court's ruling upholding selecting college applicants for purposes of diversity.
Although President Bush did meet with the National Urban League, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, he has been criticized for failing to meet with the NAACP, a longstanding civil rights group, during his term in office; he is the first sitting President not to do so since Herbert Hoover, although he did meet with them during the 2000 campaign. During the 2004 campaign, Bush declined an invitation to speak, at first citing scheduling conflicts; later on, several of Bush's staff also cited hostile political advertisements that the group ran as a reason not to attend.
Economy
President Bush has implemented three tax cuts during his term in office: The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), the Job Creation and Workers Assistance Act of 2002 (JCWA), and Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA).
Bush's supporters claim that the tax cuts increase the pace of economic recovery and job creation. His opponents contest this, primarily noting that the increase in job creation predicted by Bush's plan failed to materialize. They instead allege that the purpose of the tax cuts was intended to favor the wealthy and special interests, as the majority of benefit from the tax cut, in absolute terms, necessarily went to earners in the higher tax brackets. Bush's opponents additionally claim that the tax cuts are a major reason Bush reversed a national surplus into a historic deficit.
Of the US$2.4 trillion budgeted for 2005, about US$450 billion are planned to be spent on defense. Congress approved US$87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan in November, and had approved an earlier US$79 billion package last spring. Most of those funds were for U.S. military operations in the two countries. [2]
Bush supports free trade policies and legislation but has resorted to protectionist policies on occasion. Tariffs on imported steel imposed by the White House in March 2002 were lifted after the WTO ruled them illegal. Bush explained that the safeguard measures had "achieved their purpose", and "as a result of changed economic circumstances", it was time to lift them. [3]
Bush is an advocate of the partial privatization of Social Security wherein an individual would be free to invest a portion of his Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts.
During Bush's presidency, the U.S. population has risen by about three million people per year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unemployed was nearly 6.0 million in January 2001 and 8.0 million in August 2004. The unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in January 2001 and 5.4 percent in December 2004. [4]
Health Care
Bush signed the Medicare Act of 2003, which added prescription drug coverage to Medicare, subsidized companies that sell these drugs, and prohibited the Federal government from negotiating discounts with drug companies. Critics claim that health care plans still are not affordable for those in lower income brackets; Bush states his policies offered more choice and help with the high costs of health care.
Education and Science
In January of 2003, Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, which targets supporting early learning, measures student performance, gives options over failing schools, and ensures more resources for schools. Critics say schools were not given the resources to help meet new standards, and there are different views on whether the act goes too far in imposing federal influence on state rights. Some state governments are refusing to implement provisions of the act as long as they are not adequately funded. [5]
Scientists have repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for reducing funding for scientific research, setting restrictions on Federal funding of stem cell research, ignoring scientific consensus on critical issues such as global warming, and hampering cooperation with foreign scientists by employing deterring immigration and visa practices. [6]
While Bush was in office the CDC reframed information about condom usage on its website to favor abstience, changed information on whether abortion and cancer are related to imply that they are, ran investigations to the point of harrassment on safer sex workshops and related organizations, advised researchers not to use words such as "gay" in grant proposals, and most recently the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration made Oregon health officials rename their conference from "Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals" to "Suicide Prevention in Vulnerable Populations." [7]
Space exploration
On January 14, 2004, Bush announced a "space vision", calling for a return to the Moon by 2020, the completion of the International Space Station by 2010 and eventually sending astronauts to Mars. To this end, the plan proposes that NASA's budget increase by five percent every year until it is capped at $18 billion in 2008, with only inflationary increases thereafter [8]. The planned retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010 after the ISS is completed is also expected to free up $5 billion to $6 billion a year.
Supporters believe that this plan will be an important part of Bush's presidential legacy. However, two arguments against the policy have been put forward: that it will divert resources from other priorities, and that it is unrealistic. The program's projected funding favors the second criticism over the first one in the near term: Most of the spending for the new program, and most of the budget cuts for existing programs, are scheduled after the last year of the Bush presidency. It is unclear how the space vision will be reconciled with budgetary concerns in the longer term.
The $16.2 billion budget for 2005 proposed by NASA met with resistance from House and Senate spending committees, and the initiative was little-mentioned during the presidential campaign. Nonetheless, the budget was approved with only minor changes shortly after the November elections.
In January 2005 the White House released a new Space Transportation Policy fact sheet which outlined the adminstration's space policy in broad terms and tied the development of space transport capabilities to national security requirements.
Environment
Mr. Bush's environmental record has been largely critcized by environmentalists, who charge that his policies cater to industry demands to weaken environmental protections. Some of the most controversial moves have been the repeal of the Clinton-era regulation banning snowmobiles from Yellowstone National Park; Bush's Clear Skies Act, a law reducing regulations on emissions in favor of rewarding companies that voluntarily reduce emissions (However some mostly left leaning groups and individuals consider this to be a blatant show of support of industry's actions and doubt that it would "clean" up its pollution problems by itself); and the alleged manipulation of the EPA's report on global warming, which some consider to be a sign of the administration's close ties to industry.
Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Bush administration's plan to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was rejected twice by the U.S. Senate in 2002 due to concerns that it would potentially harm Artic wildlife in the region. [9]
The Clear Skies Act of 2003
Bush supported the Clear Skies Act of 2003, which repeals or reduces air pollution controls. This act reduces caps on toxic chemicals in the air and cuts enforcement of the Clean Air Act, and is opposed by environmentalist groups such as the Sierra Club. Bush has faced heavy criticism over his advocacy for the act, with Henry A. Waxman (D-California) describing its title as "clear propaganda." Among other things, the Clear Skies Act:
- Weakens the current cap on mercury pollution levels from five tons per year to 26 tons.
- Weakens the current cap on nitrogen oxide pollution levels from 1.25 million tons to 2.1 million tons, allowing 68 percent more nitrogen oxide pollution.
- Weakens the current cap on sulphur dioxide pollution levels from two million tons to 4.5 million tons, allowing 225 percent more SO2 pollution.
- Delays enforcement of smog-and-soot pollution standards until 2015.
- Allows industrial buildings undergoing renovation, modernization, or expansion not to install machines that allow the building to come into current environmental standards compliance.
By 2018, the Clear Skies Act would allow 450,000 more tons of nitrogen oxides, one million more tons of SO2, and 9.5 more tons of mercury than what would be allowed by enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Criticism from the Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and other groups have routinely denounced Bush for distorting or suppressing scientific findings. In a February 2004 report endorsed by sixty Nobel laureates, the UCS alleged a pattern of manipulation of scientific findings for political goals. One example cited was that when the administration asked the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to review work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the academy supported the panel's findings that human activity was playing a role in climate change. Nevertheless, the administration excised this information from official reports, such as the EPA's State of the Environment report [10], and disregard it in policy decisions. The administration — and its appointees in the EPA — nonetheless defend the administration's policies.
On a related note, an eight-nation report compiled by 250 scientists due for publication on November 8th says the Arctic is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet due to a build-up of heat-trapping gases.[11] [12]