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Pell Grants: Another Bush "Mislead"

In last night's debate John Kerry said that Bush's administration had cut the Pell Grants for education, and Bush said "We've increased Pell grants by a million students. That's a fact!" Mitch Ratcliffe notes that "most of the "million more students" who got Pell Grants did so because the law required the Bush Administration to do it, not because President Bush decided to expand the program." Mitch also notes that Bush made misleading statements about about tax cuts, that "most of the tax cuts went to low and middle income Americans."

Any way you cut it, most of the tax cuts, in dollars and as a percentage of the total reduction in taxes, went to the wealthiest Americans. It simply isn't honest to say that the tax cuts were stimulating to the economy because they put more money in lower and middle class pocket—the Bush tax cuts were designed to trickle down to the rest of us from the very pinnacle of American capital.

If the President were to describe his tax cuts this way, honestly, and said "hey, it's just going to take more time for the rest of you to see the results," then he would be talking honestly with the American people and they could decide if they will accept this kind of fiscal policy making. My bet is they would show President Bush the door before the election, but the President lies to us about his tax cuts.

President Bush only talks about education as a prop, because he's interested in protecting fortunes that exist today. But real capitalism is built on the uncertainty of fortunes, they can be lost if they are not shepherded carefully. America's future fortunes will come in large part from today's privileged families. President Bush is trying to preserve those fortunes at the expense of the rest of us.

jon posted this at 2:59 PM
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