[News] George W Bush and the real state of the Union

[News at freedomarchives.org]

George W Bush and the real state of the Union

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=482947&host=3&dir=70



Today the President gives his annual address. As the election battle 
begins, how does his first term add up?




20 January 2004

<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=482951>Drama 
as Kerry emerges as big winner in Iowa

<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=482946>Bush 
takes the moral high ground as rivals slug it out

<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=482947>George 
W Bush and the real state of the Union

<http://argument.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?story=482900>Leading 
article: George Bush has presided over a vast catalogue of failure and 
division13de8a4.jpg<http://argument.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?story=482900> 


232: Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and January 2004

501: Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning of the 
war - so far

0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender to 
the Allies in May 1945

0: Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that the 
Bush administration has allowed to be photographed

0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for 
soldiers killed in Iraq

100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President Dick Cheney 
in 2003

13: Number of meetings between Bush and Tony Blair since he became President

10 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets in 
opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time record for 
simultaneous protest

2: Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming 
into the White House

9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the 
invasion in March last year

1.6: Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since 
hostilities began

16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war

10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of 
the conflict

$100 billion: Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens by the 
end of 2003

$13 billion: Amount other countries have committed towards rebuilding Iraq 
(much of it in loans) as of 24 October

36%: Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999

92%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that had access to drinkable water a 
year ago

60%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that have access to drinkable water today

32%: Percentage of the bombs dropped on Iraq this year that were not 
precision-guided

1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of 
golden spurs

45%: Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that Saddam 
Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US

$127 billion: Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became 
President in 2001

$374 billion: Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003

1st: This year's deficit is on course to be the biggest in United States 
history

$1.58 billion: Average amount by which the US national debt increases each day

$23,920: Amount of each US citizen's share of the national debt as of 19 
January 2004

1st: The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57 
million) was set in 2002

10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning his 
term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration, and 
Bill Clinton 33

1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita

$113 million: Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, setting a 
record in American electoral history

$130 million: Amount raised for Bush's re-election campaign so far

$200m: Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in 2004

$40m: Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine 
Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003

28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second longest 
holiday of any president in US history (Recordholder: Richard Nixon)

13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each year

3: Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US in 
2002. America is only country openly to acknowledge executing children

1st: As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152) than 
any governor in modern US history

2.4 million: Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the three 
years of the Bush administration

221,000: Number of jobs per month created since Bush's tax cuts took 
effect. He promised the measure would add 306,000

1,000: Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December. 
Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000

1st: This administration is on its way to becoming the first since 1929 
(Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during its 
complete term in office

9 million: Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003

80%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed

55%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce unemployed before the war

43.6 million: Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002

130: Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognised by the United 
Nations) with an American military presence

40%: Percentage of the world's military spending for which the US is 
responsible

$10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person 
cabinet

88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on their 
2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,000: Average savings members of Bush's cabinet are expected to enjoy 
this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,228: Median household income in the US in 2001

$116,000: Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year in taxes

44%: Percentage of Americans who believe the President's economic growth 
plan will mostly benefit the wealthy

700: Number of people from around the world the US has incarcerated in 
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

1st: George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the Geneva 
Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held prisoners of war

+6%: Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in poverty

1951: Last year in which a quarterly rise in US military spending was 
greater than the one the previous spring

54%: Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately elected to 
his post

1st: First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40 years. 
Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at federal level

9: Number of members of Bush's defence policy board who also sit on the 
corporate board of, or advise, at least one defence contractor

35: Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance after 
they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution 
before the International Criminal Court

$300 million: Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies 
to poor families so they can heat their homes

$1 billion: Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April 2003 to 
offset the "burdens" of the US war on Iraq

58 million: Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road 
building, logging and drilling

200: Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted to 
downgrade or weaken

29,000: Number of American troops - which is close to the total of a whole 
army division - to have either been killed, wounded, injured or become so 
ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the Pentagon

90%: Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way 
George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26 September, 2001

53%: Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was 
handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004

Sources: Vanity Fair magazine, Harper's Index, Amnesty International, Human 
Rights Watch, US Army (Washington), US Department of Defence, 
Iraqbodycount.net, Citizens for Tax Justice, Bureau of Economic Analysis 
(Washington), New York Times/CBS News Poll (NYC), US Department of 
Commerce, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (NYC), Coalition Provisional Authority 
(Baghdad), World Health Organisation (Geneva), Office of Management and 
Budget (Washington), Centre for Responsive Politics (Washington), 
Bush-Cheney '04, Inc (Arlington, Va), Election Systems & Software (Omaha), 
United States Central Command (Tampa)


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