Wednesday, September 14

O'REILLY CONTENDS BUSH BETTER FOR POOR PEOPLE THAN CLINTON

Bill O'Reilly is insisting that Bush is a greater friend to the poor than was Bill Clinton.

Halfway through President Clinton's tenure in office in 1996, the poverty rate was 13.7 percent. Halfway through President Bush's tenure, the rate is 12.7 percent, a full point lower.

In 1996, the Clinton budget allotted $191 billion for poverty entitlements. That was 12.2 percent of the budget and a whopping amount of money. That's why Bill Clinton (search) was called the first black president by some.

However, the Bush 2006 budget allots a record shattering $368 billion for poverty entitlements, 14.6 percent of the entire budget, a huge increase over Clinton's spending on poverty entitlements.


What O'Reilly failed to note, or tell his audience, was that Bill Clinton inherited a 15.1% poverty rate from Dubya's father, George H.W. Bush, and by the time Clinton ended his tenure that rate had fallen nearly FOUR POINTS to 11.3%. The poverty rate has steadily risen during the second Bush administration, from the 11.3% inherited from Clinton to 12.7% in 2004. Bush hasn't BETTERED Clinton's record, he's worsened it every year since he took office.

2004...... 12.7
2003...... 12.5
2002...... 12.1
2001...... 11.7
2000...... 11.3
1999...... 11.9
1998...... 12.7
1997...... 13.3
1996...... 13.7
1995...... 13.8
1994...... 14.5
1993...... 15.1


Source: U.S. Census Bureau

I don't give a flip how much money is spent in "poverty entitlements" -- that's a bogus number, probably reflective of ineffective spending on Bush's part, since the mountain of money he continues to throw at issues has had little effect other than to create enormous deficits. The bottom line is, the poverty rate under Clinton was reduced EVERY SINGLE YEAR of his administration. Under Bush, it has increased EVERY SINGLE YEAR of his administration.

1 Comments:

Blogger Motherlode said...

Love your post, Dr. L! Wish I'd said it as well --

4:12 PM  

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