2008 Woodie Awards
Rebuttal
Kevin Agnese
Issue date: 10/27/04 Section: Perspectives
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While Saddam Hussein may no longer be in power in Iraq our troops and Iraqi civilians continue to die at an alarming rate. Insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have made Iraq a hellhole for the United States, our allies, and Iraqi civilians. Our country is less safe today than we were before the war. The third presidential debate took place a day after Charles Duelfer, the top American weapons inspector in Iraq, reported that Iraq had destroyed their illicit weapons stockpiles within months after the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Duelfer said that Iraq's ability to produce these weapons had significantly eroded by March 2003, when President Bush invaded Iraq. According to Duelfer, Iraq eliminated there last biological weapons plant in 1996, and he said he found no evidence of any Iraqi effort to restart these programs. Translation. No weapons of mass destruction. As Senator Kerry said during the first debate, "The 9/11 Commission confirms there was no connection to 9/11 itself and Saddam Hussein, and where the reason for going to war was weapons of mass destruction, not the removal of Saddam Hussein." Today Iraq is in shambles with insurgents dominating major cities. The United States did not face a threat from Iraq before the war, and today our troops are paying for the lies of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, etc.
Christian Polhamus, in his article, states, "In just three years America has turned its back on George W. Bush." Wrong. George W. Bush has turned his back on the American people. He turned his back on the victims of the September 11th tragedies when he broke his promise to find Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive." Instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan, Bush invaded Iraq. In March 2002, during a press conference, referring to Bin Laden, Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him." That's great George! He has turned his back on the lower and middle classes by giving the majority of his tax cuts to the rich, and by not doing a thing for our countries poor. He turned his back on our children by not funding the "No Child Left Behind Act." In 2003, 1.3 million more people were below the poverty line than the previous year. The 2003 real median family income was down over $1500 from the last year of the Clinton presidency. In February 2003, the Associated Press reported that, "In the two years since the President signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, none of his budgets have come close to meeting the level of funding authorized in the Act. The FY 2004 budget submitted by President Bush fell $9 billion short of the amount authorized for 2004 and his FY 2003 budget fell $7.2 billion short of approved funding." In that same month, the bipartisan National Governors Association voted unanimously to label the act as an unfunded mandate, along with special education, homeland security and Medicaid. A November 2003 survey of nearly 2,000 superintendents and principals found that 9 in 10 viewed the act as an unfunded mandate. When Bush passed his first set of tax cuts in 2001, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the top 1 percent of income earners received nearly 43 percent of the tax cut, while the lowest 20 percent got less than 1 percent. Similar figures appeared when analyzing the figures surrounding the second tax cut of 2003. Bush inherited a $150 billion federal budget surplus from President Clinton. This year, the federal budget deficit will rise to $400 billion, a new record, and deficits could exceed $4 trillion over ten years if the Bush tax cuts are made permanent. Bush has also lauded his health care record, but he fails to mention that over 5 million people have lost their health insurance since he took office.
Christian Polhamus, in his article, states, "In just three years America has turned its back on George W. Bush." Wrong. George W. Bush has turned his back on the American people. He turned his back on the victims of the September 11th tragedies when he broke his promise to find Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive." Instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan, Bush invaded Iraq. In March 2002, during a press conference, referring to Bin Laden, Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him." That's great George! He has turned his back on the lower and middle classes by giving the majority of his tax cuts to the rich, and by not doing a thing for our countries poor. He turned his back on our children by not funding the "No Child Left Behind Act." In 2003, 1.3 million more people were below the poverty line than the previous year. The 2003 real median family income was down over $1500 from the last year of the Clinton presidency. In February 2003, the Associated Press reported that, "In the two years since the President signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, none of his budgets have come close to meeting the level of funding authorized in the Act. The FY 2004 budget submitted by President Bush fell $9 billion short of the amount authorized for 2004 and his FY 2003 budget fell $7.2 billion short of approved funding." In that same month, the bipartisan National Governors Association voted unanimously to label the act as an unfunded mandate, along with special education, homeland security and Medicaid. A November 2003 survey of nearly 2,000 superintendents and principals found that 9 in 10 viewed the act as an unfunded mandate. When Bush passed his first set of tax cuts in 2001, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the top 1 percent of income earners received nearly 43 percent of the tax cut, while the lowest 20 percent got less than 1 percent. Similar figures appeared when analyzing the figures surrounding the second tax cut of 2003. Bush inherited a $150 billion federal budget surplus from President Clinton. This year, the federal budget deficit will rise to $400 billion, a new record, and deficits could exceed $4 trillion over ten years if the Bush tax cuts are made permanent. Bush has also lauded his health care record, but he fails to mention that over 5 million people have lost their health insurance since he took office.