PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche: Latest Debate
Proves Bush Is a Liar
Oct. 9, 2004 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the LaRouche PAC political action commitee.
"The President is a liar," said leading Democrat Lyndon LaRouche in response to the Oct. 8 Presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. "Whether the President knowingly lied, or lied because of some junk that was fed to him, he lied to the American people, and we cannot afford to have a U.S. President who lies."
Some of the leading lies from the October 8 debate were:
- Challenged on his rush to war without a plan for the peace, President Bush said, "Of course, I listened to our generals."
This is an outright lie, since General Shinseki, then Army Chief of Staff, had publicly said that several hundred thousand troops were necessary to secure Iraq, and he had been "retired" as a result.
- Several times throughout the debate, President Bush said that his Administration had created 1.9 million jobs in the last 13 months and that "we're growing," and "small business is flourishing."
This is an outright lie or hallucination. First, over 80% of the jobs allegedly created were "computer projections," i.e. virtual jobs, imputed to new businesses assumed to have been started but which have never been surveyed by the Labor Department to know if they exist or not. Second, the overall job figures have gone down since Bush took office, by at least a net 600,000 jobs, and by many more manufacturing jobs. Senator Kerry is right that President Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover to see a collapse in jobs during his term.
Thirdly, there is no growth in the economy, unless one counts debt as growth. Poverty has increased by at least 4.3 million people since President Bush took office, reaching 36 million people according to the ridiculously low standard upon which the government statisticians compute. Many major urban centers have a poverty rate of over 20%, due to the collapse of manufacturing jobs, with the major city of Cleveland having a rate of over 31%.
- When confronted on the shockingly inadequate security and economic infrastructure required to protect the country against terrorism, such as hospital infrastructure, first responders, and checking of cargo at ports and airports, President Bush claimed that he had tripled spending for homeland security.
This is an outright lie according to government figures, which show that the Homeland Security Department spending went from $19.7 billion in FY 2001, to $36.5 billion in FY 2004. More importantly, of course, it was inadequate to the task, since, as Senator Kerry said, this level of spending has left the necessary infrastructure inadequate to day-to-day life, much less an emergency.
These three examples by no means exhaust the President's lies, which included his insistence that his "lower taxes on the rich" tax plan is necessary to protect small business; his claim that Senator Kerry's health plan would hand all decisions over to the Federal government; and his denial that he owned a timber company (which was, in fact, listed on his 2001 tax return).
More information on President Bush and Vice-President Cheney's lies about Iraq and the economy is at www.larouchepac.com.
