This page was last updated on August 29, 2004.

It appears Mr. White is writing from a Democrat party script.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Conservatives may not remember exactly why they will be voting for President Bush in November.  Maybe they need a reminder:

“An unheard of $7.3 trillion national debt, or $1.72 billion per day.  The ability, once again, to buy assault weapons.  The highest trade deficit in American history.  An invasion, with no thought as to how it might end.  No plan for energy conservation.  Tax reductions for the elite.  Many, many children left behind.”

[RWC] While the dollar value of the debt is higher, the national debt as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) is lower than the average for the Clinton years.  Was the ever-increasing national debt during the Clinton years a problem for Mr. White?  That said, I’m not a fan of debt.

Mr. White implies President Bush will be solely responsible if the so-called assault weapon ban expires in September 2004.  Congress must first pass legislation to renew the ban before President Bush can choose to sign it or not.  Mr. Bush has stated publicly since 2000 he supports extending the ban.  Where does Mr. White get his information?

I’m not the expert regarding trade deficits Mr. White is, but here’s what the Congressional Budget Office wrote in 2000.  “Given the benefits of the trade deficit, there is little if any reason to try to reduce or eliminate it, particularly since it is likely to subside on its own even without any policy response.”¹

The idea that we attacked Iraq without a follow-up plan is ridiculous.  If we did no planning, please explain how all the resources just happened to be in place for reconstruction, both of infrastructure and of government.  Are there problems?  Of course.  Anyone who expected a fairy tale ending was kidding himself.

Regarding energy conversation, President Bush has had an energy bill before Congress for quite a while.  That said, he has been unable to get Congress to act on it.

“Tax reductions for the elite.”  When everyone gets tax cuts, even those “evil” rich guys will get a cut.  What’s wrong with that anyway?  Remember, despite the tax cuts, the rich now pay a higher proportion of income taxes than they did before the cuts.

Please, Mr. White, whose children are being left behind?  If you are talking about education, you forget that public education is NOT a federal responsibility.  Read the U.S. Constitution if you doubt me.

“Outsourcing said to be OK.  The White House exposure of a CIA agent for political purposes.  Elimination of overtime-pay rights for more than 6 million people.  A policy of ‘Go it alone; we don’t need any advice or friends.’  Oil prices moving toward $50 a barrel.  Drug pricing going through the roof, with the White House’s blessing.  The manufacture of American goods becoming a thing of the past.  Stem cell research being ignored for the extreme vote.  A roadmap to nowhere.”

[RWC] Outsourcing is a fact of life that has been occurring for hundreds of years.  When you have free markets, production of a given product takes place where it makes the most economic sense.  Mr. White ignores the “insourcing” of BMW, Honda, Michelin, Sony, Toyota, et cetera.

The CIA agent incident is currently under investigation.  As a reminder, in 2002 the CIA sent former ambassador Joe Wilson to Niger to check on rumors Iraq was trying to buy uranium.  Wilson claimed he found no evidence of Iraq attempts to buy uranium and ripped the Bush administration for claiming otherwise.  The “Report on the U.S Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq” issued by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on July 7, 2004, indicated Wilson’s public representations were somewhat less than truthful.

It’s been widely reported that it was fairly common knowledge around Washington circles that Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent.  On a side note, it’s only a crime to “out” an undercover agent, and not all CIA agents work undercover.  In fact, most don’t.  Also, you must know by official channels the agent is working undercover.  For example, if you knew Valerie Plame (Wilson’s wife) was a CIA agent but did not know she worked undercover, it would not be a crime to identify her as agent.  If a person with appropriate clearance knew Plame was an undercover agent and revealed that fact, he should be prosecuted.

The overtime issue is labor union BS.  A net one million workers will gain overtime protection.²

I guess Mr. White missed the 40+ countries in the coalition.  When did the definition of “alone” change to mean “in the presence of many allies?”  I’ll bet the folks in the U.K., Poland, Italy, et cetera would like to know Mr. White considers them worthless.

I don’t know how to break it to Mr. White, but the White House doesn’t control the price of oil.  Supply and demand determines the price of oil, and demand has caught up with supply.

The same is true for prescription drugs.

President Bush is the first president to provide any funding for stem cell research, in excess of $250 million.  On ethical grounds, Bush chose not to use federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.³  Umbilical cord placenta, adult, and animal stem cell research was funded.  None of this stops private funding of embryonic stem cell research.

What kind of roadmap is Mr. White talking about?

“Good luck, conservatives, when you are asked to defend this administration.  This smoke-and-mirrors agenda only goes so far.  President Bush has taken this country away from the mainstream and has never, to this day, put the American people first.”

[RWC] What “smoke and mirrors?”  If President Bush has “taken this country away from the mainstream,” explain his 51% approval rating as of late August 2004.  Are 51% of Americans “away from the mainstream?”

1. Causes and Consequences of the Trade Deficit: An Overview; Congressional Budget Office; March 2000.

2. Who Benefits From the New Overtime Regulations?; Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.; The Heritage Foundation; August 16, 2004.

3. Remarks by the President on Stem Cell Research; President George W. Bush; August 9, 2001.

© 2004 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.