Bush Lies about Financial Aid

In the 2004 Presidential debates on October 13, 2004, Bush was asked what he would tell a guy who just lost his job to outsourcing. His response was "...here's some help for you to go get an education. Here's some help for you to go to a community college."

He also said "education is how to help the person who's lost a job."

Lastly, Bush said that if given another term in office he would "continue to expand Pell Grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma."

That's all straight out of his mouth, here is the official transcript on the Debate Commission's website: http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004d.html

Here is what Kerry said in response: "They've cut the Pell Grants and the Perkins loans to help kids be able to go to college." and "The fact is that he's cut job-training money. $1 billion was cut."

Now compare Bush's statements in the debate with the headlines in the Denver newspaper today:

"the administration wants to reduce or eliminate Pell Grants for about 1.4 million students this fall."

and

"90,000 students, who now receive about $400 each, would not get any money in 2005-06."

source: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~417~2631220,00.html

Now look at what is being reported in the Seattle paper:

"Hundreds of University of Oregon students from low-income families will get smaller federal grants, or none at all, next year because of changes by the government in how it calculates financial need."

and

"James Gilmour, associate financial aid director for the university, said most affected students would lose from $100 to $200 a year. 'Probably about a hundred of those will lose their grants altogether.'"

and

"Financial aid staff at Oregon State University and Portland State University don't yet know who will be affected, but similar results are expected there and at community colleges."

...and who is being affected? Bush is only cutting grants to rich people who don't need them, right? Wong! Look at this: "Depending on family size, the kind of people being affected are families whose incomes range anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 (annually),"

Here's the rest of the article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/206284_pell03.html


Tho only source that I could find that pointed out that Bush promised the opposite in the debates was the CONSERVATIVE Washington Times, which said "for a man who likes to call himself an education president, it didn't take George W. Bush long to break one of his proudest education promises"

and

"a new Pell Grant eligibility formula that will knock 80,000 to 90,000 students off the eligibility rolls in 2005 and slash grants to 1.3 million others"

the rest of the article, which is the best at describing why the Bush administration can claim to "expand" the Pell grant program while cutting its budget is located here: http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050101-113838-2584r.htm

Although the author of the Washington Times piece, Clarence Page, is considered "liberal" by many, the Washington Times is a very conservative paper. If you read the explanation of how Bush claims to "expand" the Pell Grant program, you cannot call it anything other than an obvious misrepresentation (that's a lie for all of you who voted for Bush because he "tells the truth").

If you need more confirmation on this story, there are plenty of other sources: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2973011
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1224pell24.html
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/editorial/10520853.htm
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/23/pell.grants/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/267483p-229124c.html
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/01/02/b1.cr.pellgrants.0102.html
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke\16299.html
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050103/NEWS08/501030333
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/10547052.htm

-- droxford