AMERICA UNDER BUSH: THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND'S WORKING FAMILIES

■*■ 8,366 More Rhode Island Workers Have Become Unemployed Since Bush Took Office.

■*■ 5,000 Of Rhode Island Workers Have Lost Their Unemployment Benefits Since January 2004.

•* 13,100 Rhode Island Manufacturing Jobs Lost Since Bush Took Office.

■*• 49 Percent Of Rhode Island Taxpayers Will Receive Less Than $100 From Latest Bush Tax Cut In 2004.

■*• Rhode Island Families Face Rising Share Of National Debt Burden; $21,301 Over Next Six Years.

-» 33,000 Rhode Island Children Abandoned By Bush, Left Out Of Child Tax Credit.

•* 104,000 Rhode Island Residents Have No Health Insurance, Up 27 Percent Under Bush.

■*• 28,700 Rhode Island Seniors Worse Off Under Bush Medicare Prescription Plan.

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RHODE ISLAND UNDER BUSH

JOBS AND ECONOMY:

Bush Does Nothing While Jobs Are Lost,

Salaries Stagnate, And Poverty Soars

Nationwide: Businesses Have Lost 2.6 Million Jobs; Unemployment At 5.7 Percent — Up 36 Percent Since Bush Took Office. [Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov]

> Rhode Island Fact: Unemployment At 5.6 Percent — Up 33 Percent Since Bush Took Office.

[Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.govl

> Rhode Island Fact: 5,000 Jobless Rhode Island Workers Have Lost Their Unemployment Benefits Since January 2004. 5,000 Rhode Island workers have been dropped from unemployment insurance because Bush and the Republican Congress have refused to extend them. [CBPP, 3/25/04, www.cbpp.orgl

Nationally, Median Wages are Stagnant. In 2003, median weekly wages grew slower than the rate of inflation, meaning that real value of workers paychecks actually declined. [EPI, 4/12/04, www.epinet.orgl

Nationally, Nearly 2.8 Million Manufacturing Jobs Lost Under Bush, And Account For 95 Percent of All Job Loss. [Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.govl

> Rhode Island Fact: 13,100 Manufacturing Jobs Have Been Lost Under Bush. [Bureau of Labor

Statistics, http://www.bls.gov]

Nationally, 3.5 Million More Americans Have Fallen Into Poverty Under Bush — Poverty Rate Up

To 12.1 Percent [Census Bureau, Poverty in the United States: 2002, Table 4, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/povertv.htmll

> Rhode Island Fact: Rhode Island Poverty Rate At 10.3 Percent — Up From 9.9 Percent In

2000-2001. [Census Bureau, Poverty in the United States: 2002, Table 4, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.htmll

TAXES: Bush Squandered Surplus, Increasing Debt Burden, Gave Tax Breaks To Rich

Bush Squandered Trillions In Three Years: Inherited $5.6 Trillion Surplus, Has Now Created $5.2 Trillion Deficit. In August 2003, the Congressional Budget Office projected federal deficits "as far as the

eye can see." [CBO, 8/03; OMB Mid-Session Review, 7/15/03; CBPP, 9/29/03, 1/28/04; Los Angeles Times, 8/29/03]

> Rhode Island Fact: Small Benefits of Bush Tax Cut Dwarfed by Rising Debt Burden For Rhode Island's Middle Income Families; Rhode Island Taxpayers Face $21,301 Average Increased Debt Burden. [CTJ Fact Sheet, 9/23/03]

> Rhode Island Fact: 49 Percent of Rhode Island Taxpayers Get Less Than $100 in 2004; Richest 1 Percent Would Get $48,019. [CTJ Fact Sheet, 1 1/19/03, http://www.ctj.org]

> Rhode Island Fact: 33,000 Children in Rhode Island Are Left Out of Bush Child Tax Credit

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RHODE ISLAND UNDER BUSH

Provision. fNew York Times, 5/29/03; CBPP Fact Sheet, http://www.cbpp.org/5-28-03tax3.htm; CTJ Fact Sheet, 6/3/03]

HEALTH CARE:

In the Face of Rising Health Care Costs and Uninsured, Bush Offers

Prescription Drug Plan That Actually Hurts Seniors

Nationally, One in Nine Have No Health Insurance Under Bush. [Census Bureau, Historical Health Insurance

Tables, Table HI06, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins.html]

> Rhode Island Fact: One in Ten Rhode Island Residents (104,000) Have No Health Insurance — Up 27.3 Percent From 2001. [Census Bureau, Historical Health Insurance Tables, Table HI06, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins.html]

> Rhode Island Fact: 184,000 Rhode Island Residents Were Without Insurance At Some Point During 2001-2002. [Families USA, Going Without Insurance, March 2003]

Nationally, Many Seniors Worse Off Under Bush Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. The Medicare bill that President Bush signed in November 2003 includes limited prescription drug coverage but protects the interests of drug companies by failing to include measures to bring down the cost of prescriptions. The bill has been described as a "big win" for the drug industry, and nationwide, many seniors are worse off under the plan. [Wall Street Journal, 1 1/17/03; Senate HELP Committee Minority Staff, "National and State Impacts of the Medicare Prescription Drug Conference Proposal," 1 1/03, emphasis added]

> Rhode Island Fact: Rhode Island Seniors Hurt By Bush Medicare Plan.

— > 9,240 Rhode Island Medicare beneficiaries will lose their employer-based retiree health benefits.

— > 28,700 seniors will pay more for the prescription drugs they need. [Senate HELP Committee Minority Staff, "National and Rhode Island Impacts of the Medicare Prescription Drug Conference Proposal," 11/03]

EDUCATION:

Bush Ignores Skyrocketing Tuition, And Underfunds His Own Education

Reform Plan

Nationally, College Tuition Skyrocketing. Public universities in 49 of 50 states have increased tuition to as much as 39 percent, averaging 14 percent increases across the country. [Associated Press, 8/25/03; College Board, 10/21/03]

Bush Consistently Shortchanged Higher Education And Froze Pell Grant Maximum Awards, Leaving Students And Parents To Face Tuition Increases. [House Budget Committee Minority Staff, 4/30/03, 2/7/03; House Appropriations Committee Minority Staff, 2/3/03, www.ed.gov]

New Bush Budget Underfunds "No Child Left Behind" by $9.4 Billion. [President's FY 2005 Budget, www.ed.gov]

> Rhode Island Fact: Rhode Island Will Face $27,688,000 in Unfunded No Child Left Behind

Mandates Under New Bush Budget. [National Conference of State Legislatures, Mandate Monitor, March 2004]

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RHODE ISLAND UNDER BUSH

> Rhode Island Fact: Rhode Island Will Face $37,905,000 in Unfunded Special Education

Mandates Under New Bush Budget. [National Conference of State Legislatures, Mandate Monitor, March 2004]

MILITARY AND VETERANS: Despite Promises, Bush Abandons Struggling Veterans And Military Families

Bush's 2004 Budget Cut $200 Million From Impact Aid Program, Denying Education Funds For Children In Military Families. fNew York Times, 8/22/00; House Appropriations Committee, Minority Staff, 6/17/03, 6/16/03; Washington Post, 6/17/031

> Rhode Island Fact: Over 96,000 Veterans In Rhode Island Affected By Bush Policies. [Department

of Veterans Affairs]

Bush Proposed Doubling Costs of Prescription Drugs for Veterans. In 2003, Bush proposed adding a $250 enrollment fee and nearly doubling prescription drug costs for veterans earning over $24,000. rReuters, 7/14/03; Washington Post, 7/22/031

ENVIRONMENT: Bush Helped Industry By Weakening Rules And Oversight

> Loosening Rules

— > Under Bush, violation notices against polluters dropped 35 percent from 2002 through the first 10 months of 2003. [Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/9/03]

— > Bush opened 9 million acres of national forest to logging and mining. [Seattle Post Intelligencer,

12/24/03] — > Bush tried to allow 20,000 facilities nationwide to increase pollution. [Baltimore Sun, 8/28/03; Los

Angeles Times, 8/28/03, 11/6/03]

> Weakening Oversight

— > In his first budget Bush cut $10 million from EPA enforcement programs. [Washington Post, 4/10/01]

— > Bush cut the EPA budget by $500 million between 2003 and 2004. [Democratic Staff, Committee on Energy and Commerce, 2/26/03]

— > Completed Superfund cleanups have decreased every year under Bush. Superfund is a trust fund that polluting corporations pay into to help clean contaminated sites. The GOP Congress refused to re-authorize funding for Superfund, so the program is slowing depleting. fBoston Globe, 1/9/04]

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RHODE ISLAND UNDER BUSH

HOMELAND SECURITY: Bush Ignoring Dangerous Security Concerns

Bush is Letting Many Homeland Security Needs Fall Through the Cracks. More than two years after the 9/1 1 attacks, serious gaps exist in the Bush administration's attempts to defend America against terrorism:

— > Emergency Response to Public Health Threats: The Department of Homeland Security is cutting by 80 percent ($40 million) of funds for its program to ready local emergency responses to public health crises. The program, the Metropolitan Medical Response System run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, plays a "significant role in [federal] mass casualty planning." [CQ, 1/2/04]

— > Cargo Containers: Only 2% of the 7 million cargo containers arriving at the nation's 361

commercial ports each year are screened. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 7/10/03; Portland Press Herald, 7/5/03]

— > Airline Screeners: The Transportation Security Administration's airport screening force will be cut by 6,000 screeners, about 11%, because GOP says TSA "over hired." [AP, 4/30/03]

— > Air Cargo: On average, half of a plane's hull on any passenger flight is filled with cargo, and 22 percent of the nation's air cargo travels on passenger flights, yet most air cargo traveling by passenger plane remains unscreened, with only "random checks" being performed by TSA officials. Part of the reason is pressure from passenger air carriers, who, according to Newsday, "worry that screening their cargo would add such a delay that the $4-billion-a-year business would dry up." [The Hill, 4/30/03; Newsday, 9/8/031

— » Chemical Plants: The Government Accounting Office report found that even though US chemical facilities were "attractive targets for terrorists," there was no government oversight to assure that plants are safe from terrorist attack. In addition, Bush has declined to push for accountability from chemical companies. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, the EPA "backed down" from using its regulatory power to oversee plant security "after the industry balked." [GAO, Voluntary Initiatives Are Under Way at Chemical Facilities, but the Extent of Security Preparedness Is Unknown, March 2003; Richmond Times Dispatch, 3/23/03]

— > Police Equipment: The non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations criticized homeland security

preparedness in a 2003 report, stating, "Many police departments lack adequate detection and personal protective equipment and training for responding to chemical, biological, or radiological incidents." [Independent Task Force, Council on Foreign Relations, 7/29/03]

— > Emergency Responders: The non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations criticized homeland security preparedness in a 2003 report, stating, "Most cities do not have the necessary equipment to determine what kind of hazardous materials emergency responders may be facing." [Independent Task Force, Council on Foreign Relations, 7/29/03]

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