One of the preferred GOP tactics in public discourse is to "Equate the Un-Equatable." For example: Should one Democratic Party support group register one ineligible voter, that is somehow equal to GOP attempts to suppress voting in an entire neighborhood. If one Democrat accepts more campaign funds than allowed, then this somehow excuses GOP manipulation of Texas campaign finance laws. There are, however, some things that don't add up so neatly. If the GOP is called upon to "put it's money where it's mouth is," then it becomes readily obvious that the money and the mouth do not inhabit the same body.
Consider the many GOP claims to support
education. No Child Left Behind was supposed to bolster public education, even though it does little more than reward test manufacturing by major publishing companies. If the Republicans really wanted to help they could address the needs of such entities as the New York public schools.
Amount of money needed by New York State to meet the instructional needs of public school students to attain the present standards set by the state Regents: $6.21 billion. Amount of money New York City would need to help students meet those standards: $3.62 billion.
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Compare this to: the total value of Halliburton's military contracts as of November, 2004, as reported by Merrill Lynch: $21 billion
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Another example comes from the 2000 campaign. Bush promised to make the backlog of Park Service maintenance projects disappear. The actual numbers give an entirely different picture.
The amount George Bush promised to provide for the National Parks Service Budget in the 2000 campaign: $2.7 billion.
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Compare this to the actual amount of money needed to clear the maintenance backlong in the National Park System: $6 billion
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And, how was the "Ownership Society" supposed to help alleviate Park Service underfunding? Was it by allowing the sale of oil and mineral rights? If so, then the numbers don't add up here either. The Bush Administration has agreed to for the private buyout of drilling rights in the Big Cypress National Preserve: $120 million. Drop in the proverbial bucket, but a flood of paybacks for oil company friends.
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Public transportation, which benefits the working and middle class in this country, was supposed to be "improved" during a Bush Administration with an increased
amount of money in the Administration's 2005 budget for public transportation: $7.644 billion.
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Public transportation works, and could work even better were it not for the fact that the Administration wants to pour more money into the unworkable Star Wars Missile Defense system.
The amount of money proposed by the Bush Administration for the National Missile Defense Agency in 2005: $9.2 billion (Budget Office) To paraphrase Wilde: The Unworkable in pursuit of the Inconsiderable.
Meanwhile in Iraq, where we are supposed to be sowing the seeds of democracy and rebuilding the infra-structure, how well are we doing?
Consider the amount of money Contrack Corp. dropped by pulling out of a contract to build roads in Iraq because of the surge of attacks in that country: $325 million.
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"If only the media would report all the progress we are making," cry the Republicans. Perhaps we could make some progress there if there were roads not festooned with IED's and unhappy, disenfranchised people?
Are we safer than we were in 2001? There's the amount of money in the 2005 budget for port security: $46 million.
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Compare that to the money Bush Administration will ask for to fund the war in Iraq: $80 to $100 billion. source Billions for an Oil War. Millions for port security.
The Bush administration would no doubt consider the following numbers "incomparable," but nonetheless there is:
The cost of the war in Iraq per week: $2 billion. source
Average weekly wages in California: $806.00 source
Median weekly wage for workers in the United States as a whole: $625.source
Maybe weekly wages might increase if American workers could get just a dribble of the
amount of money in accounts frozen by the Swiss Government in bank accounts allegedly used by Halliburton for bribing the Nigerian Government: $180 million. source