[Mb-civic] Game. Set. Match

[Michael Butler]

    Game. Set. Match.
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

     Thursday 14 October 2004
 "Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin
Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations."

- George W. Bush, 10/13/04

 "So I don't know where he is. Nor - you know, I just don't spend that much
time on him really, to be honest with you. I...I truly am not that concerned
about him." 

- George W. Bush, 03/13/02

     The third and final debate between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry was
slated to be about domestic issues. It finished as a crystal-clear argument
about basic American values, and made clear for all who watched or listened
where each of these candidates stand.

     Bob Schieffer of CBS News, the moderator for this last debate, put a
series of questions to both candidates about the minimum wage, about Social
Security, about the assault weapons ban, about health care. It must be noted
that Schieffer failed completely, demonstrably and shamefully to put a
single question to either candidate about protecting the environment and
alternative energy, but the questions he did lay out afforded the American
people a long, hard look at where Bush and Kerry stand on a number of
lynchpin issues..


    The words of the candidates speak for themselves.

     Schieffer, questioning Bush: "You said that if Congress would vote to
extend the ban on assault weapons, that you'd sign the legislation, but you
did nothing to encourage the Congress to extend it. Why not?"

     Bush response: "I believe law-abiding citizens ought to be able to own
a gun. I believe in background checks at gun shows or anywhere to make sure
that guns don't get in the hands of people that shouldn't have them. But the
best way to protect our citizens from guns is to prosecute those who commit
crimes with guns. And that's why early in my administration I called the
attorney general and the U.S. attorneys and said: Put together a task force
all around the country to prosecute those who commit crimes with guns. And
the prosecutions are up by about 68 percent -- I believe -- is the number.
Neighborhoods are safer when we crack down on people who commit crimes with
guns. To me, that's the best way to secure America."

     Kerry response: "I ran one of the largest district attorney's offices
in America, one of the ten largest. I put people behind bars for the rest of
their life. I've broken up organized crime. I know something about
prosecuting. And most of the law enforcement agencies in America wanted that
assault weapons ban. They don't want to go into a drug bust and be facing an
AK-47. I was hunting in Iowa last year with a sheriff from one of the
counties there, and he pointed to a house in back of us, and said, 'See the
house over? We just did a drug bust a week earlier, and the guy we arrested
had an AK-47 lying on the bed right beside him.' Because of the president's
decision today, law enforcement officers will walk into a place that will be
more dangerous. Terrorists can now come into America and go to a gun show
and, without even a background check, buy an assault weapon today. And
that's what Osama bin Laden's handbook said, because we captured it in
Afghanistan. It encouraged them to do it."

     In this exchange, Bush sided with the National Rifle Association, which
has sadly become an institution that supports any and all weapons, up to and
including personal rocket launchers and buzz-saw machine guns, in the hands
of any American, regardless of criminal background. Kerry, the former
prosecutor, injected a strong dose of law-enforcement reality into the
conversation. Supporting the repeal of the assault weapons ban is tantamount
to approving of cops walking into a spray of 7.62mm assault rounds while
trying to do their jobs.

     Schieffer, questioning Kerry: "The gap between rich and poor is growing
wider. More people are dropping into poverty. Yet the minimum wage has been
stuck at, what, $5.15 an hour now for about seven years. Is it time to raise
it?"

     Kerry response: "The minimum wage is the lowest minimum wage value it
has been in our nation in 50 years. If we raise the minimum wage, which I
will do over several years to $7 an hour, 9.2 million women who are trying
to raise their families would earn another $3,800 a year. The president has
denied 9.2 million women $3,800 a year, but he doesn't hesitate to fight for
$136,000 to a millionaire. One percent of America got $89 billion last year
in a tax cut, but people working hard, playing by the rules, trying to take
care of their kids, family values, that we're supposed to value so much in
America - I'm tired of politicians who talk about family values and don't
value families...I think that it is a matter of fundamental right that if we
raise the minimum wage, 15 million Americans would be positively affected."

     Bush response: "Let me talk about what's really important for the
worker you're referring to. And that's to make sure the education system
works. It's to make sure we raise standards. Listen, the No Child Left
Behind Act is really a jobs act when you think about it. The No Child Left
Behind Act says, "We'll raise standards. We'll increase federal spending.
But in return for extra spending, we now want people to measure -- states
and local jurisdictions to measure to show us whether or not a child can
read or write or add and subtract. You cannot solve a problem unless you
diagnose the problem. And we weren't diagnosing problems. And therefore just
kids were being shuffled through the school."

     Kerry spoke to millions of Americans who get paid a minimum wage better
suited to the economic realities of the Truman administration. A higher
minimum wage lifts those millions of Americans working McJobs, which are the
lion's share of the 'new jobs' created under this administration, to a place
where they can begin to dream of someday possibly joining the oft-ballyhooed
middle class. A higher minimum wage opens the entire economy up to the kind
of consumer spending that is the lifeblood of our system. Bush, by
comparison, avoided the question entirely and wandered off into a confused
paean for his tragically underfunded No Child Left Behind bill. This became
his refuge several times on Wednesday night; when he had no answer, he
flogged NCLB.

     Laying it out on the razor, Bush backed machine guns in our
neighborhoods toted by people who take the risk of selling drugs instead of
working a counter job, because the counter jobs available to them can't
possibly begin to pay a living wage thanks to the currently anemic minimum
wage. Kerry, by contrast, would get the machine guns off the streets,
period, and at the same time make sure anyone working a minimum wage job
will make enough money to feed their family and keep a roof over their head.


    Beyond the clear delineation of values exposed in this last exchange is
the ugly fact that Bush went out of his way to dodge as many hard questions
as he could get away from. How does nattering about NCLB answer the question
of the minimum wage? Was Bush afraid of offending his corporate backers on
that one? The folks who support him are happy to keep the minimum wage where
it is, because it increases their bottom line. It was this exchange, above
all the others, that displayed where Bush stands when it comes to the
American people. He does not stand with you if you don't have a few million,
at least, in the bank.

     The NCLB refuge received a direct hit from Kerry at one point, when the
Senator said, "Five hundred thousand kids lost after-school programs because
of your budget. Now, that's not in my gut. That's not in my value system,
and certainly not so that the wealthiest people in America can walk away
with another tax cut. $89 billion last year to the top 1 percent of
Americans, but kids lost their after-school programs. You be the judge."

     Dodging the question is not an American value, Mr. Bush.

     Consider the question Schieffer put to Bush on Social Security: "We all
know that Social Security is running out of money, and it has to be fixed.
You have proposed to fix it by letting people put some of the money
collected to pay benefits into private savings accounts. But the critics are
saying that's going to mean finding $1 trillion over the next 10 years to
continue paying benefits as those accounts are being set up. So where do you
get the money? Are you going to have to increase the deficit by that much
over 10 years?

     Bush's answer? "There is a problem for our youngsters, a real problem.
And if we don't act today, the problem will be valued in the trillions. And
so I think we need to think differently. We'll honor our commitment to our
seniors. But for our children and our grandchildren, we need to have a
different strategy. And recognizing that, I called together a group of our
fellow citizens to study the issue. It was a committee chaired by the late
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, a Democrat. And they came up
with a variety of ideas for people to look at. I believe that younger
workers ought to be allowed to take some of their own money and put it in a
personal savings account, because I understand that they need to get better
rates of return than the rates of return being given in the current Social
Security trust. And the compounding rate of interest effect will make it
more likely that the Social Security system is solvent for our children and
our grandchildren. I will work with Republicans and Democrats. It'll be a
vital issue in my second term. It is an issue that I am willing to take on,
and so I'll bring Republicans and Democrats together. And we're of course
going to have to consider the costs. But I want to warn my fellow citizens:
The cost of doing nothing, the cost of saying the current system is OK, far
exceeds the costs of trying to make sure we save the system for our
children."


    Note well that Schieffer asked a pointed question: "But the critics are
saying that's going to mean finding $1 trillion over the next 10 years to
continue paying benefits as those accounts are being set up. So where do you
get the money? Are you going to have to increase the deficit by that much
over 10 years?"

     Bush had no answer whatsoever. He gassed. This happened repeatedly
throughout the night.

     Kerry quoted Bush's bizarre statement from March of 2002 about Bush no
longer being concerned about Osama bin Laden. Bush tried to claim Kerry was
exaggerating, but the White House website says different. Bush: "So I don't
know where he is. Nor - you know, I just don't spend that much time on him
really, to be honest with you. I...I truly am not that concerned about him."
Beyond the glaring silliness of this lie - millions of Americans saw the
filmclip of Bush making this statement when they saw Moore's documentary
'Fahrenheit 9/11' - is the frightening truth behind it. If Bush truly does
not care about or worry about Osama bin Laden, as his March statement
indicates, he is truly an Army of One, divorced from one of the most
fundamental concerns within the American mind.

     Bush said Pell Grants had increased under his tenure, and had
previously promised to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100. Yet
his fiscal year 2005 budget is the third in a row that has refused to
increase the value over the current amount of $4,050. The value of the
maximum Pell award has fallen dramatically in the past years from covering
94% of the public two-year institution to just 68% today. Kerry did well to
split this lie open by stating, "You know why the Pell Grants have gone up
in their numbers? Because more people qualify for them because they don't
have money. But they're not getting the $5,100 the president promised them.
They're getting less money. We have more people who qualify. That's not what
we want."

     Bush said he supported Mitch McConnell's minimum wage bill. In fact, he
supported minimum wage increase by $1.00 per hour, but only if states could
opt out of the increase. According to the Associated Press, Bush's
qualification for a minimum wage increase was, "a condition that could
render a proposed increase meaningless." Bush and the Republicans are
rapidly approaching the record set in the 1980s for the longest period
without an increase adjusted for inflation. The minimum wage is 24.5% lower
than it was 24 years ago and is rapidly approaching an all-time low set in
1989. Bush has not used his influence to pass a minimum wage law in
Congress, where the law cannot even get out of committee. This follows a
pattern, as Bush, while governor of Texas, resisted raising that state's
decade-old minimum wage, which was only $3.35 an hour.

     Lying is not an American value, Mr. Bush.

     There was a statesman and a salesman on that debate stage on Wednesday
night. Kerry, the statesman, was calm and clear, in command of the facts,
and not afraid to stare into the camera at the American people and tell some
hard truths. Bush, the salesman, left behind the muddled foolishness of the
first debate and the screaming histrionics of the second debate, in favor of
an aw-shucks smirk and a series of ill-timed snickers that makes one truly
wonder if he knows his job is on the line. All the pundits agreed that Bush,
having lost the first two debates, needed to dominate during this third and
final meeting. He failed completely to do so.

     In the end, it comes down to values. When Schieffer asked Bush at one
point about the problem of health care for America's seniors, Bush burst
into a fit of laughter. If there was ever a moment, in any of these three
debates, that let people know exactly where Bush's head and heart and
priorities lay, that was it. He laughed.

  

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