President Bush hasn’t kept every campaign promise he made in 2000, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying. A recent Knight Ridder News Service article shows that Bush has been able to keep 46% of the pledges he made while almost half have been blocked by Congress.
As a firm believer in the benefit of legislative checks-and-balances, I won’t criticize Congress for not rubber-stamping the President’s agenda. Still, we should look closely at what promises we’re blocked and place the credit (or blame) where it's due. Too often we place the accountability on one person in the Oval Office rather than the hundreds who sit on Capital Hill.
Social conservatives have reason to be pleased with the President's efforts. Bush had been able to keep a large number of his pledges on issues that we value. Listed below are some of the highlights:
ABORTION
PROMISE: Prohibit federal funds for international family-planning groups that provide abortion-related services. (YES. By a directive issued Jan. 22, 2001.)
PROMISE: Sign legislation banning a late-term procedure opponents call "partial-birth" abortion. (YES. Nov. 5, 2003.)
CHARITY
PROMISE: Establish an Office of Faith-Based Organizations in the White House to make it easier for such organizations to participate in government programs. (YES. By executive order in 2001.)
PROMISE: Limit the civil liability of businesses that donate equipment, facilities, vehicles or aircraft to charitable organizations to protect them from lawsuits if the donated items turn out to be defective. (NO. Stalled in Congress.)
CHILDREN
PROMISE: Provide states with an additional $1 billion over five years to help prevent cases of child abuse or neglect. (NO. Congress cut Bush's request in half.)
PROMISE: Require states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents. (YES. Signed June 25, 2003.)
PROMISE: Provide $300 million over five years for college or vocational-education vouchers of as much as $5,000 for youths who reach college age in foster care. (NO. Congress cut Bush's funding requests.)
PROMISE: Set a goal to return children in foster care to their stable biological family or, with a judge's ruling, to adoption. (NO.)
PROMISE: Help states establish paternity registries. (NO. Still working on legislation.)
PROMISE: Provide $200 million in competitive grants over five years for grants to promote responsible fatherhood. (NO. Stalled in Congress.)
Congress
PROMISE: Adopt two-year budgets. (NO. Blocked in Congress.)
PROMISE: Require a Joint Budget Resolution to promote early agreement on an overall framework, which the president must sign. (NO. Stalled in Congress.)
PROMISE: Enact legislation to prevent government shutdowns if funding is not enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year. (NO.)
PROMISE: Support a bipartisan Commission to Eliminate Pork-Barrel Spending. (NO.)
PROMISE: Seek legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority. (YES, although Bush has not made it a top priority and Congress has not acted.)
PROMISE: Ask Congress to act on presidential nominees within 60 days of submission of their names. (YES. Bush has repeatedly prodded Congress to act.)
CRIME
PROMISE: Increase prosecutions under federal gun laws. (YES.)
PROMISE: Increase funding for state gun-law enforcement. (YES. New $50 billion program signed into law in 2001.)
PROMISE: Impose a lifetime ban on gun possession for juvenile weapons offenders. (NO.)
PROMISE: Establish Project Sentry, a federal-state program to prosecute juvenile weapons violations. (YES.)
PROMISE: Practice zero tolerance for terrorism. (YES. Launched war on terrorism.)
POVERTY
PROMISE: Establish Individual Development Accounts for low-income Americans. Give banks tax credits for matching up to $300 in deposits by low-income customers. (NO.)
PROMISE: Establish the American Dream Down Payment Fund to give low-income families as much as $1,500 in matching funds toward down payments for homes. (YES. Signed Dec. 16, 2003.)
TEEN PREGNANCY
PROMISE: Provide at least $135 million for abstinence education, equal to the amount for teen contraceptive programs. (NO. Funding reduced by Congress.)
PROMISE: Direct the General Accounting Office to study the effectiveness of pregnancy-prevention programs. (YES. But the study was conducted by Health and Human Services, not GAO.)
PROMISE: Support a bipartisan Commission to Eliminate Pork-Barrel Spending. (NO.)
If there is one thing that the President, the Republican leadership in both houses, and the Democrats have agreed on, it is adding Pork Barrel Spending. For those of us who can remember back 10 years to the Contract With America and its implementation, this is really sad. A conservative president coupled with a solidly Republican Congress - who better to cut wasteful spending? Are other social conservatives bothered by this?
THIS other social conservative is bothered by it, Samuel.
I support military spending if wisely managed. I have the feeling that we could be getting twice the return on the money we're spending. I wish we were spending MORE on Homeland Defense.
Otherwise, I'm appalled by the budget.