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BUsh moving back to middle in time for the 2004 elections ...

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by No Worries, Jan 20, 2004.

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  1. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    Bush Speech Promoting Election-Year Plan
    Jan 20, 10:34 AM (ET)
    By SCOTT LINDLAW

    WASHINGTON (AP) - Campaign 2004 officially under way, President Bush will use his State of the Union address Tuesday night to propose measures designed to bring millions of uninsured onto the health care rolls, while urging Americans to stand behind him in the war on terrorism.

    Bush will take advantage of the high-visibility speech to the nation to highlight his election-year agenda, a day after Democrats formally kicked off their presidential nomination selection process in the Iowa caucuses. Sen. John Kerry vaulted to victory in the contest.

    In his nationally televised address, scheduled for 9:01 p.m. EST at the U.S. Capitol, Bush will open with remarks on national security, then move into domestic priorities, contrary to past practice, aides said. He will urge Americans to back him on combating terrorism, arguing that the path he has chosen is the right one: using war to confront Iraq, diplomacy to urge North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, persuasion to convince Libya to give up its illicit weapons.

    Bush will propose steps to rein in the rising costs of health care, administration officials said. They include offering tax incentives to make high-deductible, low-premium policies more attractive, and to bring more people into the insurance system; offering health savings accounts, which allow workers to place money into accounts tax-free and withdraw it with no tax penalty for medical expenses; passing Bush's medical-malpractice award caps; and allowing businesses to pool their resources to get workers coverage.

    Bush will also call for a more aggressive use of medical technology to reduce the number of medical mistakes, which drive up health care costs.

    The administration seeks to attack the costs of health care, rather than pouring billions of dollars in government money into bringing more people onto the rolls, White House officials said. The measures, taken together, could bring millions of uninsured people into the health care system.

    The president changed the order of his speech, choosing to end it with a long section on domestic concerns, at a time when Americans' priorities are shifting to domestic issues. An ABC News-Washington Post poll published Tuesday showed the number of Americans who want him to devote most of his speech to domestic issues has risen from 31 percent just before the 2002 address to 40 percent today.

    One new Bush initiative will be increased job retraining - through grants to community colleges - in an economy that has seen the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing over the past few years.

    Bush's job approval rating, 58 percent in the ABC-Washington Post poll taken Sunday, is higher than for any president at this point in his term since President Eisenhower in 1956. Bush's poll numbers are buoyed by his leadership on the fight against terrorism - 66 percent approval - but dragged down by concerns over domestic issues, such as health care, immigration and the economy.

    The second half of Bush's speech will focus on domestic priorities, with a special emphasis on the economy, which has rebounded strongly since the president declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq in May. Bush will seek to convince Americans that his series of tax cuts has turned the economy around, and that he is now turning his attention to job creation, aides said.

    Bush will call for new job-training grants channeled through community colleges to help prepare American workers for a changing economy.

    Democrats said they were determined to make sure the president does not get too much credit; he has cut vocational education and an array of job-training programs in recent years, they said.

    On other domestic issues, Bush will repeat his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but stop short of seeking a constitutional amendment to enshrine that anew in law. The 1996 Defense of Marriage law already denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

    Bush was rehearsing the speech a final time Tuesday, aides said. They invited Rend Rahim Francke, Iraq's diplomatic representative to the United States, to the State of the Union speech, along with members of all five branches of the U.S. armed services.

    The president, his wife, Laura, and members of his administration planned an aggressive day-after effort to reinforce the messages in his speech.

    The president was headed Wednesday and Thursday to Ohio, Arizona and New Mexico; Mrs. Bush was going to Orlando, Fla. on Wednesday.

    Small Business Administration chief Hector Barretto was leading an effort to target Hispanic voters with broadcast interviews Tuesday. Top officials were making themselves available Wednesday to radio-talk show hosts - many of them conservatives whom the administration sees as effective messengers for Bush - for a second annual "radio day" on the North Lawn of the White House.
     
    #1 No Worries, Jan 20, 2004
  2. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    Bush will propose steps to rein in the rising costs of health care, administration officials said. They include offering tax incentives to make high-deductible, low-premium policies more attractive, and to bring more people into the insurance system; offering health savings accounts, which allow workers to place money into accounts tax-free and withdraw it with no tax penalty for medical expenses; passing Bush's medical-malpractice award caps; and allowing businesses to pool their resources to get workers coverage.

    Tax incentives for the wealthy will go a long way to reducing health care costs. Non-rich people are less likely to get high-deductible, low-premium policies and to start a health savings accounts. Neither of which actually reduce health care costs, i.e. the cost that health care providers charge.

    "Allowing businesses to pool their resources to get workers coverage" would reduce health care cost to individuals across the economic spectrum, but again not what health care providers charge.

    All in all, this is just a bunch of hot air.
     
    #2 No Worries, Jan 20, 2004
  3. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    The administration seeks to attack the costs of health care, rather than pouring billions of dollars in government money into bringing more people onto the rolls, White House officials said.

    More jibberish. Clean Air Act. Healthy Forest Intiative. Bring It On!!!
     
    #3 No Worries, Jan 20, 2004
  4. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    I will watch the speech this evening, but I will change the channel as soon as I hear President Bait -n- Switch utter his first lie. Should be no more than five minutes into the speech. Thank G-d for digital cable, 40 different movie channels, and ESPN Classic.
     
    #4 RocketMan Tex, Jan 20, 2004
  5. Major

    Major Member

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    The administration seeks to attack the costs of health care, rather than pouring billions of dollars in government money into bringing more people onto the rolls, White House officials said.


    Interesting, after a $400B expansion of Medicare...
     
    #5 Major, Jan 20, 2004
  6. ROXTXIA

    ROXTXIA Member

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    Kinda sad that people are so easily duped into giving King George credit for fighting terrorism when he is probably breeding it. All his actions today can have long-term negative effects.

    You can say the economy is coming around, at least, as long as you haven't had to look for work. But the bill of these tax breaks will come due. A Democratic President will have to return income tax levels and such to levels prior to this President's tax cuts, and the conservatives will scream, Tax and spend! Tax and spend!

    As far as Saddam, he isn't Osama. Ideologically opposed to Osama's extreme fundamentalism. Both are ruthless murdering scumbags, and that seems to be good enough in the eyes of Americans who don't make fine distinctions. I don't like to insult people but doesn't that seem the way of it?

    Which is why we need to get a Democratic nominee who can stand up there and actually explain some of these things. Whether or not America will listen, I don't know. But it's better than being force-fed all this Bu'sh-it.
     
    #6 ROXTXIA, Jan 20, 2004
  7. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Everything that the hard right is pushing about short term gain at the expense of future generations; Destroy a low level threat in Iraq, create a new generation of hostile arab youth; Screw Kyoto and global warming, drive SUVs now, worry about melting icecaps later; Deficit? Cut taxes, increase spending, let somebody else deal with it.

    That gets you votes in the short term, and f-ks over the country in the long term..Guess who pays the piper.
     
    #7 SamFisher, Jan 20, 2004
  8. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    That's been the hard right's mantra since the Reagan years. Remember that we more likely than not be dealing with Osama and Saddam today had the Reagan Administration not provided both of them arms, money and (in Saddam's case) weapons of mass destruction in the early 1980s.
     
    #8 RocketMan Tex, Jan 20, 2004
  9. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    We have been paying for Reagan's tremendous deficit... now we get to add on Bush's, which in many ways is even more outrageous. My kids will be paying for his gift to the upper classes long after I'm gone, even if Bush doesn't get re-elected. If he gets re-elected, which I pray he doesn't, the cost to the country is unfathomable.
     
    #9 Deckard, Jan 20, 2004
  10. glynch

    glynch Member

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    Is Bush going to try the following themes again?

    1) "I'm a uniter not a divider"

    2) "No child left behind"

    3) ""compassionate conservative"

    :p
     
    #10 glynch, Jan 20, 2004
  11. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    Play the game...
    ________
    The George W Bush State of the Union drinking game
    Watch out for the guy in the suit -- he can't be trusted

    WHAT YOU NEED:

    A group of four taxpayers: including 1 white guy wearing a suit, 2 wearing normal clothes and 1 in semi-shabby clothes.

    A shot glass per person (all bought in a secondhand store)

    100 tiny toothpicks with American flags wrapped around them.

    A slab of soft French cheese, i.e., brie.

    A large stash of beer. The one in the ragged clothing gets the cheapest crap you can find, like Milwaukee's Best; the white guy in the suit gets to drink whatever import he wants; and the other two pick between Bud and Miller Lite.
    Rules of the Game:

    1. Whenever George W mentions the liberation of the freedom-loving Iraqi people, the last person to grab his throat in a choking motion has to drink four shots of beer.

    2. Whenever George W uses the words: "God," "America" or "jobs," drink a shot of beer.

    3. Whenever George W mispronounces the word "terrorism" the last person to knock on wood drinks two shots of beer.

    4. Whenever George W mentions the phrase "sanctity of marriage," take a shot of beer. The first time this happens, the last person to finish has to drink two more shots of beer and do the dishes during the Democratic Response.

    5. Whenever the speech is interrupted by applause, the last person to stick one of the American flag toothpicks into the soft French cheese from a distance of two feet drinks two shots of beer. The white guy in the suit gets an extra chance each round.

    6. Whenever George W smirks during a standing ovation, take turns drinking shots of beer until the audience sits down. Do it double time if his shoulders shake with silent laughter.

    7. If the Vice President Dick Cheney or First Lady Laura Bush are caught on camera not paying attention and talking to somebody else while Puppet- Boy is still speaking, drink a whole beer.

    8. If George W Bush mentions Halliburton, his inability to find the Weapons of Mass Destruction or Osama bin Laden, the white guy in the suit has to drink a shot of everybody else's beer out of their shot glass, and they get to wipe their glass clean on his jacket.

    9. If George W Bush attempts to make a joke, anybody who laughs drinks three shots of beer.

    10. Whenever George W Bush quotes the Bible or uses the word "evildoers" in a sentence, the last person to fall to their knees drinks two shots of beer. If he pulls a quote from the Bible about "evildoers," the last person to get prostrate drinks an entire beer.

    EXTRAS:

    1. The white guy in the suit gets to kick the person wearing the shabby clothes if George W uses a heartfelt story of an individual's grace and/or courage under pressure to illustrate a point. He gets 15 seconds to kick everybody if that person is in the audience sitting next to an astronaut.

    2. Everybody gets to kick the crap out of the guy in the suit for 15 seconds, only if Bush's teleprompter goes out and he begins to flail about mumbling nonsense about his days with the Texas Rangers.

    Will Durst will be playing this game with his friends, although he is still looking for a volunteer to wear the suit. To read more Will Durst satire, see the Will Durst archive.
     
    #11 rimrocker, Jan 20, 2004
  12. TheFreak

    TheFreak Member

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    This board is so conservative.
     
    #12 TheFreak, Jan 20, 2004
  13. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking

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    The people that know the least about finance tend to complain the most about that same topic. Gotta loves those liberals!
     
    #13 El_Conquistador, Jan 20, 2004
  14. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    Thus, TJ is a liberal. Deep down I knew it all along.
     
    #14 No Worries, Jan 20, 2004
  15. DavidS

    DavidS Member

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    Bush moving back to middle?

    Gotta love it....then if he was to be releacted he'd solidify his place on the royal throne. King George the IV...the modern day monarchy.

    I thought that ended in 1776...
     
    #15 DavidS, Jan 20, 2004
  16. DavidS

    DavidS Member

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    rimrocker,

    I can't play the "Bush Drinking" game. If I did, I'd die of alcohol poisoning.
     
    #16 DavidS, Jan 20, 2004
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