Bush To Peddle Promises, Patriotism Tonight

WASHINGTON – Campaign for America's Future Co-director Robert Borosage said President Bush will finally give Americans a hint tonight about what he intends to do in his second term, beyond the quagmire in Iraq. President Bush plans to address "compassionate" domestic issues, focusing on dismantling our shared security with individual risk, when he accepts the Republican nomination for president in New York City tonight.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT BOROSAGE

Bush's plan erodes our shared security and increases individual risk so working people would take it in the teeth. Look behind the empty political rhetoric of "compassionate conservatism" and the "ownership society."

The Bush plan cuts Social Security's guaranteed benefits to set up individual risk accounts, slashes Medicare coverage by turning it into a voucher program, encourages businesses to discontinue health benefits and leaves employees to fend for themselves.

Americans have every reason to look beneath the president's rhetoric. Four years ago, candidate Bush promised that his massive tax cuts would come from the "money left over" after paying down the national debt, protecting the Social Security trust funds and investing in education and health care. The massive Bush tax cuts helped produce the largest deficits ever, the worst jobs record since the Great Depression, and squandered the Social Security surplus.

Its not surprising that Bush is selling ownership rather than owning up to the failure of his economic policies. He can't get re-elected on his performance, so he's peddling promises and patriotism to distract from a record of failure.

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