Handy Facts

These are some handy facts for us:

Facts are handy things to have when writing, and Tom Bender could have used a few more when he wrote his June 13 Soapbox. Here are some examples:

Someone in the Bush administration leaked the identity of a CIA operative to the press, compromising her mission and threatening national security. This would fit Bender's definition of "corruption bordering on treason and the internal sabotage of America." President Bush has not told us who this person is.

Nearly all of the "across-the-board tax relief" went to the rich.

Bush did not exactly put more money in taxpayer's pockets. He gave them a cash advance on the giant credit card called the national debt. Taxpayers and their children will have to pay the money back, with interest.

Bush inherited a $230 billion surplus, which he promptly spent, and then borrowed more. To date, he has put us $910 billion deeper in debt.

The unemployment rate in 2000 was 4 percent. Today, it is 4.6 percent. In 2000, the number of unemployed was 5,692,000. Today it is 7,591,000.

It was not the "appeasement of evil" that allowed the 9/11 terrorists to attack. None of them came from the Axis of Evil; most came from countries we consider to be our allies.

Marilyn Musgrave, the "champion for American troops and veterans," got a rating of zero from the Disabled American Veterans for 2004 and 2005. She opposed expanding access to TRICARE health insurance for reservists and voted against giving bonuses to National Guard troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tom Glatzel,
Fort Collins