| Mainstream Media | Bias Revealed! |
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| This would seem to be a bad thing. That makes me want to read this article. I expect to learn 1) what's on Bush's Second-Term Agenda, and 2) why or how these things will "widen the partisan divide" ... for an agenda item to widen the partisan divide it would have to involve enacting or doing something that one side agrees with and thinks is good to do that the other side feels the opposite way about, but is powerless to prevent due to lack of votes (influence) ... right? |
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Wed Nov 3, 2004 7:10 PM ET
By Adam Entous and Caren Bohan | |
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, declaring victory in the 2004 election, sketched out a second-term agenda on Wednesday even supporters conceded would be tough to achieve, from bringing stability to Iraq to overhauling Social Security and the tax code. | Define "agenda" - define "achieve"....
The article implies the president is setting himself up to fail. Stated positively, these would be: "lofty goals", a direction, with no commitment implied; to achieve them would be a wild dream, but any progress in the direction would more than justify setting these goals! I think this is more the spirit of that moment for the president. |
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| Minutes after Democrat Sen. John Kerry conceded the bitter presidential race, Bush vowed to reach across partisan lines. "A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. I will need your support, and I will work to earn it," the Republican president said. | Given the title, this seems to be setting Bush up in a contradiction!
Bush's quote calls out for unity, while the writer's description of Bush as "... the Republican president ..." reinforces division. At this point, after the election, what other purpose would there be(?) ... maybe someone didn't realize he was a Republican! |
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| But his top domestic priorities, whether tax code changes or reviving legislation to promote energy production, could spark as much partisan rancor as the sweeping tax cuts he pushed through in his first term, congressional aides said. | |
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| Democrats say the White House has already told Homeland Security, Education and other federal agencies to brace for a slowdown in spending growth and, possibly, outright budget cuts starting next year. | How about this sentence: "The White House has already told Homeland Security, Education and other federal agencies to brace for a slowdown in spending growth and, possibly, outright budget cuts starting next year." What is achieved by beginning this sentence with: "Democrats say?"
Given that other federal agencies were also told to "brace ... " it's interesting that the two that "Democrats" would name specifically would be these two especially important programs to this president! This is just plain fiscal responsibility, and we can only think the writer is trying to dress it up like Bush breaking promises. |
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| The belt-tightening is part of Bush's plan to cut the record budget deficit in half within five years -- a goal even fiscal conservatives doubt Bush can achieve. | More verbiage portraying a good intention, a "stretch-objective," as a common lie. |
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| Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said the election victory gave Bush "a mandate" and new leverage after Republicans expanded their majority in Congress. | |
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| White House ally Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, predicted that Bush would push through annual tax cuts, achieving his goal of reform incrementally. Norquist said Bush now had the votes in Congress to abolish inheritance taxes. | |
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| Bush's most ambitious domestic proposal -- adding personal retirement accounts to Social Security -- may be the most divisive and costly of all. The estimated cost of diverting some payroll taxes to these private accounts ranges from $1 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years, and Bush has yet to settle on a plan to finance it. | This is such a complex issue, that this oversimplification can only be misleading.
But again the verbiage makes it sound like Bush is intending to do something fiscally irresponsible that the Democrats will have to oppose, just to protect the American people. |
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| Some Republicans close to the White House said revamping Social Security would, at least initially, take precedence over another of Bush's top economic goals -- broad tax reform. | |
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| They said Bush's goal is to secure passage of the Social Security overhaul within the first two years of his second term. But Democratic congressional aides are already talking about the prospects of a vote-blocking filibuster against any plan to "privatize" the retirement system. | This is comparing apples to oranges; the old "bait and switch" ... with the word "But" the writer implies a connection between these two thoughts that does not exist. If it was apples to apples the paragraph would read:
"They said Bush's goal is to "privatize" the Social Security system within the first two years of his second term. But Democratic congressional aides are already talking about the prospects of a vote-blocking filibuster against any such plan." |
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| Stephen Moore, head of the Club for Growth, a group that helped Bush's re-election, said the president views Social Security reform as a "legacy issue." | |
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| But he acknowledged: "Social Security reform and tax reform are two big boulders in the budget -- it's hard to do both at once." | |
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CELEBRATIONS CUT SHORT | |
| Administration officials and top Republicans say Bush's foreign policy agenda also faces major challenges, the most immediate of which is keeping elections in Iraq on track and quelling the violence there. | They didn't say Bush's foreign policy agenda faces major challenges, this implies the foreign policy is flawed, and in imminent danger of failing ... what they said was: the foreign situation is a major challenge. Bush's foreign policy agenda is designed to meet or "face" those challenges. |
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| "There was not a lot of high five-ing," one senior administration official said after Bush's election victory. "The sense was, okay, we've won, but the prize is the responsibility, the toil." | |
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| So far, the United Nations has balked at sending enough staff into Iraq to help carry out the elections, citing poor security. And some administration officials have expressed doubts about the election timetable, though Bush insists it will take place on schedule in January. |
Every knowledgeable thinking person considering the situation in Iraq has doubts, some administration officials have expressed them. It is the role of a leader to set the tone and champion the cause. The article is implying dissention within the ranks; an overstatement of the facts. |
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| "Even if we succeed in temporarily suppressing the insurgency, all we're going to be doing is pruning it back. It's going to come back in full force," predicted John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org. "The elections aren't going to bring stability." | Elections don't bring stability. Elections are a manifestation of self-government. Elections will change the situation from Americans battling insurgency to the Iraqi government battling insurgency. |
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| Pike said Bush could be forced to keep at least 140,000 to 150,000 troops in Iraq "for at least another two years," putting further strain on an already stretched military. | When it's not our battle, but that of the Iraqi government, that changes the coin of whatever the analyst is imagining might "force" the president. |
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| Bush is expected to ask Congress early next year for $65 billion to $85 billion in additional emergency funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional aides said. | |
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| The bigger-than-expected request will bring total U.S. funding for military operations and reconstruction efforts in both countries to nearly $300 billion. (Additional reporting by David Morgan) | The "bigger-than-expected" request is obviously a fiction, since the previous paragraph calls the request being referred to: "expected" ! |
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