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State of the Union 2006: George's Big Nothing

The mainstream media are using words like "modest" to describe Bush's State of the Union Address, which consisted mostly of empty platitudes and recycled sound-bites. Bush ignored or glossed over his Administration's worst crimes and failures, including its defense of torture abroad and corruption and spying at home. He barely mentioned Africa or Latin America. But considering the speaker, maybe we should be thankful for the lack of substance. At least Bush's lowly 35 percent approval rating seems to have sapped his swagger. Following is MADRE's perspective on choice bits of Bush's speech.

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Opening Remarks: "We are grateful for the good life of Coretta Scott King"

Bush began by invoking the legacy of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. Yet these visionary leaders devoted their lives to challenging the very policies and beliefs that Bush embodies. Bush's disenfranchisement of African American voters in Florida, his violent and opportunistic response to the attacks of September 11, and his abandonment of poor people�most visibly in African American New Orleans, but indeed, everywhere �is an affront to the Kings' memory and an attack on the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Coretta Scott King publicly opposed Bush's invasion of Iraq and his attempts to legalize discrimination against lesbians and gay men through a Constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. Unlike George Bush, the Kings demonstrated to the world that human rights and civil rights�not military coercion�are the foundations of democracy.

On Iraq: "In less than three years, that nation has gone from dictatorship, to liberation, to sovereignty, to a constitution, to national elections."

The women of Iraq have a different account of what Bush has done for them. In less than three years, they've gone from dictatorship, to war and ongoing daily violence, to a constitution that was written in secret under US supervision and which stripped them of basic human rights, to national elections that entrenched a reactionary clerical leadership and set the stage for a civil war.

MADRE calls for the US to withdraw from Iraq. Ongoing occupation is only fueling and�to many people in the world, legitimizing�the insurgency, bringing daily violence and suffering to Iraqi women and families. The US should meet its obligations to the Iraqi people to pay war reparations in addition to fully funding Iraq's reconstruction. The US must also formally renounce plans to build permanent military bases in Iraq and make claims on Iraq's resources, as required by the Geneva and Hague Conventions.

On Energy Policy: "America is addicted to oil"

Bush proposed replacing three-quarters of US Mideast oil imports by 2025 with alternative sources of energy. But less than 20 percent of US oil comes from the Mideast (the lion's share is from Mexico, Canada, and Venezuela). The real concern of the Bush Administration is not how much oil the US imports, but how much is controlled by US companies. Controlling global energy resources gives the US powerful leverage against other countries and guarantees tremendous profits to US oil companies. In fact, just a day before Bush's speech, Exxon-Mobil announced the highest profits ever recorded by any US corporation�$36 billion in one year. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere guarantee these huge profits. Meanwhile, most people in oil-rich countries remain poor, in large part because oil companies reinvest almost nothing in the countries where they operate.

MADRE calls for a windfall-profits tax on oil and gas companies to fund economic development in countries where resources are extracted and to fund research and development of sustainable, non-nuclear energy sources.

On Health Care: "Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility."

Actually, another five million people have lost their healthcare coverage since Bush came to power, bringing the total number of uninsured to over 45 million people, most of them poor. Bush's solution will make the problem worse. He said he wants to "strengthen health savings accounts." This scheme shifts healthcare costs from employers to workers and requires high-deductible insurance plans that prevent people from getting the care they need.

MADRE calls for a national health care plan, which has long been supported by a majority of the public and by physicians (though not by the powerful insurance and drug-company lobbies). The government does indeed have a responsibility to provide health care according to international human rights standards, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international instruments.

On Domestic Spying: "based on the authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute�"

The most alarming part of the domestic spying scandal is that Bush arbitrarily claims powers to suspend laws in wartime. He called his warrantless wiretapping the "terrorist surveillance program," but that doesn't change the fact that he is claiming the right to spy on anyone at any time�in violation of the law and the Constitution. Given the severity of his offense, you would think he would have offered a better justification of the program. But all we heard was the usual false dichotomy between security and civil liberties.

MADRE calls for impeachment proceedings to be brought against Bush. As now-retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently wrote, "A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." Bush has admitted to a felony act�clearly grounds for impeachment.

On AIDS Policy: "In recent years you and I have taken unprecedented action to fight AIDS and malaria."

Bush's long-ago promise to spend $15 billion fighting AIDS, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean, has never materialized. Most of it was money that Bush "reallocated" from existing initiatives, including childhood vaccination programs�a move that some describe as forcing African babies to pay for their parents' AIDS medicines. Bush has pushed ideologically motivated abstinence programs over the proven "safer sex" approach and bolstered already-huge profits of US drug companies by blocking the sale of affordable generic AIDS medicines to poor countries.

MADRE calls for the Bush Administration to fund its fair share of the UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria ($3.5 billion annually) and for US AIDS policy to be determined in accordance with international human rights and public health standards, not by lobbyists from the religious right or the pharmaceutical industry.

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Bush framed his closing remarks by saying, "We strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society." Strange words from a man who champions the death penalty for mentally retarded juveniles. Yet, unlike most of what Bush said, we actually believe those words to be true. We see compassion, decency, and hopefulness whenever people reach out to support women and families who are threatened by Bush's policies. In fact, those are the qualities that underpin MADRE's work, firing our vision and fueling our demand for US policies that will reflect the world we wish to inhabit.

To combat the destructive impact of Bush's policies on women and families around the world, support MADRE's programs today. Please click here to make a donation.