George Bush: Darling of the Liberals (Lord Haw Haw Alert!)

“President [George W.] Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years.”

---Stephen Slivinski, “The Grand Old Spending Party: How Republicans Became Big Spenders,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis, No. 543 (May 3, 2005), p. 1.

Liberal politicians — Howard Dean and John Kerry come immediately to mind — profess disdain for President Bush and his cohorts. * But is this ideologically based contempt justified? Have the actions of the president and his party gone against the liberal grain?

Even to ask such questions may appear bizarre. Yet the record of the past five years shows that they need to be asked — and answered with a resounding “No.” If they care about their liberal agenda, Howard Dean and his friends should be rejoicing, because the president and his party have willingly implemented a very large part of it. Consider:

1) Spending. Total government spending rose by 33% during Bush’s first term. The federal budget as a share of gross domestic product grew from 18.5% on the last day of the Clinton administration to 20.3% at the end of Bush’s first term. 2

2) The “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001, a 670-page federal assault on local control over public schools. This pet project of the Republican president, made into law with the help of Sen. Ted Kennedy and other Democrats, is the direct descendant (technically a re-authorization) of Lyndon Johnson’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, a linchpin of the Great Society legislative program.

3) The Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. Covering millions of mostly elderly Americans, this new entitlement is projected to cost as much as $1.2 trillion over its first ten years. 3 A classic New Deal, Great Society approach to health care, it was originally part of President Clinton’s abortive Health Security Act of 1993. Despite having been proposed by a Democratic president, and rejected even when the Democrats held majorities in both houses of Congress, this new entitlement became law at the urging of President Bush in 2003.

4) The war on drugs. Bush has eagerly continued the bipartisan folly that started in 1914 with the Harrison Act, prohibiting the possession of narcotics for nonmedical purposes. We should note that in 1914 there were an estimated 200,000 users of narcotics in the United States, out of a population of slightly over 90 million. According to information available online from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in 1998 there were an estimated 3.3 million “hardcore” users of heroin and cocaine. In other words, there has been a more than sixteenfold increase in the number of narcotics users since the beginning of federal regulation, while population during the same period has only tripled. And the sixteenfold increase reflects only those “hardcore” users of heroin and cocaine. Not included in the 3.3 million figure are untold numbers of casual heroin and cocaine users, methamphetamine users, and marijuana smokers.

That the federal government should continue its campaign to curb the national appetite for drugs, despite the obvious failure of this campaign, and its colossal expense to society, is perhaps understandable from a political point of view. Regrettably, however, Bush has pushed the costs even higher. He has escalated the war on drugs by bringing the U.S. military increasingly to the forefront, combating so-called narco-terrorists, ferreting out smugglers, and harassing growers in Colombia and other places. 4 Thus are employed the forces that won the battles of Normandy and Iwo Jima. Is this not a solution worse than the problem, a perversion of government power such as only big-government liberalism could conceive? Like his fellow liberals, the president has no compunction about the use of force to impose morality. Which brings us to:

5) The war in Iraq. As we have come to know, President Bush believes that 9/11 justified a crusade to remake the Arab world in our image. To a classical liberal (or, for that matter, a traditional conservative) the proper response to the terror attacks of 2001 was a military operation designed to smash the terrorists and their supporters in their bases in Afghanistan. The president, to his credit, ordered just such an operation (using local forces and a limited U.S. ground presence — sound tactics that worked). But he followed Afghanistan with Iraq. There he has given us a Vietnam in the desert, a folly to match LBJ’s foray in the jungle.

Even the rhetoric used to justify the cost in blood and money is the same (just substitute weapons of mass destruction for the domino theory). While there is no evidence that a President Al Gore, lacking the Oedipal baggage of George W. Bush, would have taken us more deeply into Iraq than Bill Clinton did, there can be no doubt that the war in Iraq epitomizes the type of war that world-improving liberal Democrats love to start. It is, indeed, a war that one might believe only a Wilsonian Democrat was capable of starting. But it was not Woodrow Wilson or Lyndon Johnson who ordered the march on Baghdad; it was President Bush, who had previously proclaimed his contempt for “nation-building” in foreign places, only to embark on one of this country’s greatest nation-building crusades.

6) NSA spying on American citizens. The mind of a classical liberal recoils at the spectacle of a supposedly strict-constructionist administration asserting its right to spy on Americans without obtaining warrants. To use the government’s intelligence-gathering capability in this way is, in a word, Nixonian. Again, we cannot say that Gore would have done the same after 9/11, but the action itself is typical of modern liberalism. Of the four presidents prior to George W. Bush who are known to have indulged in illegal wiretapping, three (FDR, JFK, and LBJ) were liberal Democrats, while the fourth, Richard Nixon, might just as well have been. 5 Tellingly, no Democrat opposed the Bush policy (beyond a mild, private expression of doubt from Sen. Jay Rockefeller) until the New York Times made the spying program public.

One could continue this list. Whether Bush is playing with our freedoms6 or our money — over $40 billion spent so far on ineffective Star Wars technology, $120 billion proposed for travel to Mars and bases on the moon — he never fails to display his instinctive allegiance to modern liberalism, to his conviction that big (indeed, massive) government has the solution to whatever problems may beset us.

Other people have made the point that the Republican Party under George W. Bush is a party of big government. 7 Their construct holds that Republicans want a different kind of big government from the Democrats. Essentially, this means that Republicans prefer more defense spending and corporate welfare, while Democrats want to expand social programs. But is even this perceived difference between the two parties significant, or for that matter, real? Given the growth in spending and entitlements under the current president (with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress), one cannot help but see the gap between Republicans and Democrats narrowing, almost to the vanishing point. We live today in a country supposedly dominated by conservative (if not quite classically liberal) principles, where the practices of modern, big-government liberalism prevail. Perhaps this should not surprise us. When great issues divide nations, principles actually mean something. They mean something because the energies of individuals are behind them. But when great issues disappear (the collapse of Soviet power, which carried the Cold War with it) or seem to be settled (the general agreement that government will have a large role in American life), those energies dissipate. Then there is nothing left but the cutting of the cake. How will the national product be divided? How will parties and politicians obtain the money necessary to win and keep power?

These are purely practical matters that shelter behind the rhetoric of policy and principle. It is no cause for astonishment that attempts to reform lobbying or the financing of political campaigns fail again and again, that somehow money always finds new channels to its recipients. The exposure of a Jack Abramoff or a Duke Cunningham changes nothing, for now only money matters. Politicians exhaust themselves raising the money they require to win the elections that determine who controls the money that government collects and then distributes, the collection and distribution of money having become government’s principal reason for existence. And those who benefit from government largesse are, naturally, quite willing to return a small portion of the money they receive to the campaign kitty (or the congressman’s pocket) in order to keep the game going. Naive idealists, like Sen. John McCain, believe this vicious cycle can be broken by legislative tinkering. They have, repeatedly, been proven wrong.

Money has always meant power. But today money is all-powerful; ideas and principles are mere window-dressing. This is not cynicism. It is the reality of American politics and government in the early 21st century. The 1994 “Contract With America” election was the last to be fought (even partly) over ideas and principles. Since 1994 it has all been about the money.

Only when the money that government dispenses starts to dry up, and government of necessity shrinks, can there be real change. The prospect of national bankruptcy, visible though still distant, may one day be enough to cause Congress and the executive to reduce, voluntarily and in a significant way, the flow of money that cycles from government to beneficiary, then back again. But given what we have witnessed since 1994, and especially since 2000, it will probably require actual insolvency to bring an end to the game.

As we look back, how meaningless seems the thunderous Republican applause that greeted Bill Clinton’s announcement in 1995 that “the era of big government is over.” Certainly President Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress have shown themselves, through their actions if not always their words, to be very comfortable with the liberal status quo. We can truthfully say that George W. Bush is, or at least ought to be, the darling of the liberals. For he has done their work for them. And the Republican Party has followed him every step of the way.

What Is to Be Done? George W. Bush, the “compassionate conservative” ultimately responsible for most of the errors and follies of the past five years, will soon exit the political scene. We can say with confidence that his policies will one day find their rightful place in the wastebasket of history. But even the most superficial analysis reveals that our problems go deeper than Mr. Bush. We must admit that the root problem is not this president but the American people themselves, together with the political class that they have, with their votes, created.

The people as well as the politicians have been corrupted by the culture of big government bequeathed to them by Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. The New Deal-Great Society “consensus” that government is the answer to virtually all our problems remains largely intact, despite the Republican electoral landslides of 1980, 1984, and 1994. It is difficult to see how either people or politicians can be weaned off the debilitating drug that is modern, big-government liberalism. A financial meltdown, brought on by the cavalier fiscal policies of the federal government, will be the most likely instrument of change.

In the meantime, with an optimism that I confess is somewhat forced, I will offer a couple of very modest proposals.

Don’t rush out and vote Republican. The Republicans took the mandates given to them in the 1980s, and again in 1994, and used them, after brief bursts of reform, to reinforce the condition of things as they are. I personally have stopped voting in federal elections. As a wag once said, “Why encourage them?”

Think nationally, act locally. At the state, and above all at the local level, possibilities still exist for direct citizen action. Citizens must be encouraged to start taking back power, beginning with the public schools. It is scandalous, and tragic, how local control over education has been usurped by education bureaucrats in state capitals and Washington, D.C. Parents and taxpayers, not distant government functionaries, should control the education of our children. As new government education mandates grow ever more expensive, one can only hope that an education revolt akin to the tax revolts of the 1970s and ’80s will develop.

This may be no more than tilting at windmills. But it can serve as practice for the day when real power will again be thrust upon the citizenry. Modern, big-government liberalism will someday collapse of its own weight. One hopes that the collapse will be peaceful, like that of the Berlin Wall. Perhaps it will come with a crash, like the conclusion of Humpty Dumpty. In any case, we must be ready to pick up the pieces.

Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security

Oh look Howard Dean's favorite Freeper pseudo Conservative Chamberlain bluff is back. EVERY President presides over larger budgets then the one before. Not adjusting for growth in Mandatory Entitlement spending makes this analysis an obvious fraud. It is, basically, a knowing lie told by DNC Virtual Campaigners pretending to be "Betrayed Conservatives"

Gee wonder why some of these "betrayed Conservatives" are so obviously working as PR stooges for the Democrat Party? Seems the REAL people betraying the Conservative Movement are these Junk Media clowns who spend all their time shooting at their OWN side.

Here Freeper Fringers is a list of all the things GW Bush has done for the Conservatives. On Judges alone he nukes all these pathetic whining.

GW Bush has accomplished VASTLY more for Conservatives then all the pathetic whining by all the screaming pseudo "Conservative" Talking Heads in the Junk Media will EVER accomplish. Time for them to grow up. Time for them to get over their unthinking bigoted hate for GW Bush because he whipped their idol Paddy Buchanan. Time for these petulant bats to grow up. NO one gets 100% of what they want out of life. A glass 60% full of Conservative Values is infanitely more desirable then one 100% full of Pure Moveon.org/Answer style Leftist political posion. Way past time for this pathetic constant whining because everything in the world is not ordered 100% to ONLY what the Perptual Whiners want to end. This is the behavior of spoiled brat children throwing a tempetantrum NOT of rational adult minds

Abortion & Traditional Values

1. Banned Partial Birth Abortion — by far the most significant roll-back of abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade. 2. Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy. 3. By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act. 4. By EO, prohibited federal funds for international family planning groups that provide abortions and related services. 5. Upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals. 6. Made $33 million available for abstinence education programs in 2004. 7. Supports the Defense of Marriage Act — and a Constitutional amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman. 8. Requires states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents. 9. Requires districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools. 10. Requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption (reintroducing discipline into classrooms). 11. Signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits related to student discipline. 12. Expanded the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs.

Budget, Taxes & Economy

1. Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history. 2. Supports permanent elimination of the death tax. 3. Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks. 4. Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority. 5. In process of permanently eliminating IRS marriage penalty. 6. Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people. 7. Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts. 8. Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America. 9. Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals. 10. Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains. 11. Signed trade promotion authority. 12. Reduced and is working to ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches. 13. Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States. 14. Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes. 15. Provided $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home. 16. Created a fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled. 17. Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to $2,000 per child. 18. Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $10,000. 19. Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans. 20. Reduced H1B visas from a high of 195,000 per year to 66,000 per year.

Character & Conduct as President

1. Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the presidency. 2. Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse. 3. Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together during those searing days:

* Just three days after the attacks, in his address at the National Cathedral, the President reassured the nation when he said: "War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."

* On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn. The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then he raised that American flag and rallied a nation:

Education & Employment Training

1. Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations). The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads against the accountability provisions of this Act. 2. Announced "Jobs for the 21st Century," a comprehensive plan to better prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening post-secondary education and job training, and by improving high school education. 3. Is working to provide vouchers to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. (Blocked in the Senate.) 4. Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight. 5. Requires states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance. 6. Requires school-by-school accountability report cards. 7. Established a $2.4 billion fund to help states implement teacher accountability systems. 8. Increased funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program, which recruits former military personnel to to become teachers.

Environment & Energy

1. Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty. 2. Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc. 3. Established a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives. 4. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops. 5. Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger. 6. Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger. 7. Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California. 8. Provided matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species.

Defense & Foreign Policy

1. Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom. 2. Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured. 3. Leader by leader and member by member, al Qaida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaida leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaida leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror. 4. Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed. 5. Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network. 6. Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE capabilities were critical in the 21st Century. 7. Killed the old US/Soviet Union ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses. 8. Has been one of the strongest, if not THE strongest friend Israel has ever hand in the U.S. presidency. 9. Part of the coalition for an Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace," along with Great Britain, Russia and the EU. 10. Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by more than $1 billion a year. 11. Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia. 12. Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia, and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ. 13. Prohibited putting U.S. troops under U.N. command. 14. Paid back UN dues only in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs. 15. Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for next-generation weaponry. 16. Increased defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal 2002 to 2006. 17. Ordered a comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy. 18. Ordered a review of overseas deployments. 19. Ordered renovation of military housing. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year. 20. Is working to tighten restrictions on military-technology exports. 21. Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed.

Globalization & Internationalism

1. Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become another League of Nations (in other words, showed the UN to be completely irrelevant). 2. Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court. 3. Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).* 4. The only President since the founding of the UN to essentially tell that organization it is irrelevant. He said: "The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations, and a threat to peace. Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" We all know the outcome and the answer. 5. Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."

Government Reform

1. Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises. 2. Initiated review of all federal agencies with the goal of eliminating federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of the federal government while increasing private sector jobs. 3. Led the most extensive reorganization the Federal bureaucracy in over 50 years: After 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency, the Department of Homeland Security.* 4. Ordered each agency to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers. 5. Converted federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals.

Health

1. Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free. 2. Double the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.

3. Signed Medicare Reform, which includes:

* A 10-year privatization option. * Prescription drug benefits: Prior to this reform, Medicare paid for extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery, for example, at a cost of about $28,000 per patient. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that eliminate the cause of most ulcers, drugs that cost about $500 a year. Now, drug coverage under Medicare will allow seniors to replace more expensive surgeries and hospitalizations with less expensive prescription medicine. * More health care choices: As President Bush stated, "…when seniors have the ability to make choices, health care plans within Medicare will have to compete for their business by offering higher quality service [at lower cost]. For the seniors of America, more choices and more control will mean better health care. These are the kinds of health care options we give to the members of Congress and federal employees. What's good for members of Congress is also good for seniors. * New Health Savings Accounts: Effective January 1, 2004, Americans can set aside up to $4,500 every year, tax free, to save for medical expenses. Depending on your tax bracket, that means you'll save between 10 to 35 percent on any costs covered by money in your account. Every year, the money not spent would stay in the account and gain interest tax-free, just like an IRA. These accounts will be good for small business owners, and employees. More businesses can focus on covering workers for major medical problems, such as hospitalization for an injury or illness. At the same time, employees and their families will use these accounts to cover doctors visits, or lab tests, or other smaller costs. Some employers will contribute to employee health accounts. This will help more American families get the health care they need at the price they can afford.

Homeland Security, Border Enforcement & Immigration

1. *See Government Reform above. Under President Bush's leadership, America has made an unprecedented commitment to homeland security. 2. Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004. 3. Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the Department of Defense and Project BioShield). 4. Before DHS was created, there were inspectors from three different agencies of the Federal Government and Border Patrol officers protecting our borders. Through DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now consolidates all border activities into a single agency to create "one face at the border." This not only better secures the borders of the United States, but it also eliminates many of the inefficiencies that occurred under the old system. With over 18,000 CBP inspectors and 11,000 Border Patrol agents, CBP has 29,000 uniformed officers on our borders. 5. The Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along the borders to detect illegal activity. 6. Launched Operation Tarmac to investigate businesses and workers in the secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance. Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the criminal indictment of 774 individuals. 7. Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, 13,000 air patrols, boarded more than 92,000 vessels, interdicted over 14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime Security Zones. 8. Announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were arrested. 9. This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies. 10. Eliminated INS bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability. 11. Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization. 12. Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens. 13. Established a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications. 14. Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond to the effects of a WMD attack.

Judiciary & Tort Reform

1. Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits. 2. Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA. 3. Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary. 4. Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims.

Politics

1. His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate, solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency. 2. Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.

Second Amendment

1. Ordered Attorney General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, and is NOT a Leftist-imagined "collective" right. 2. Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit. 3. Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers. 4. *See Globalization & Internationalism.

Traditional Values, Compassion & Volunteerism

1. Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else — to one in which every single American understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself." 2. Started the USA Freedom Corps, the most comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever offered. For the first time in history, Americans can enter geographic information about where they want to get involved, such as state or zip code, as well as areas of interest ranging from education to the environment, and they can access volunteer opportunities offered by more than 50,000 organizations across the country and around the world. 3. Established the The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative — located in seven Federal agencies. The faith-based initiative supports the essential work of these important organizations. The goal is to make sure that grassroots leaders can compete on an equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support, and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. Work focuses on at-risk youth, ex-offenders, the homeless and hungry, substance abusers, those with HIV/AIDS, and welfare-to-work families. 4. The White House released a guidebook fully describing the Administration's belief that faith-based groups have a Constitutionally-protected right to maintain their religious identity through hiring — even when Federal funds are involved. 5. Issued an EO implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible. 6. Increased funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them. 7. Revised the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people, permitting them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states. 8. Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa. 9. Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:

* Equal Justice * Freedom of Speech * Limited Government Power * Private Property Rights * Religious Tolerance * Respect for Women * Rule of Law

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