Published in "The independant" (UK)
Published on January 20, 2004 By JEPEL In Politics
New Page 1

 

Always good to have some numbers....


Published today in "The independant" (UK). CheckHere

George W Bush and the real state of the Union

Today the President gives his annual address. As the election battle begins, how does his first term add up?

20 January 2004

232: Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and January 2004

501: Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning of the war - so far

0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender to the Allies in May 1945

0: Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that the Bush administration has allowed to be photographed

0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for soldiers killed in Iraq

100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2003

13: Number of meetings between Bush and Tony Blair since he became President

10 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time record for simultaneous protest

2: Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into the White House

9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion in March last year

1.6: Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since hostilities began

16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war

10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi cililians killed since the beginning of the conflict

$100 billion: Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens by the end of 2003

$13 billion: Amount other countries have committed towards rebuilding Iraq (much of it in loans) as of 24 October

36%: Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999

92%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that had access to drinkable water a year ago

60%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that have access to drinkable water today

32%: Percentage of the bombs dropped on Iraq this year that were not precision-guided

1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs

45%: Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US

$127 billion: Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became President in 2001

$374 billion: Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003

1st: This year's deficit is on course to be the biggest in United States history

$1.58 billion: Average amount by which the US national debt increases each day

$23,920: Amount of each US citizen's share of the national debt as of 19 January 2004

1st: The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57 million) was set in 2002

10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration, and Bill Clinton 33

1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita

$113 million: Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, setting a record in American electoral history

$130 million: Amount raised for Bush's re-election campaign so far

$200m: Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in 2004

$40m: Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003

28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second longest holiday of any president in US history (Recordholder: Richard Nixon)

13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each year

3: Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US in 2002. America is only country openly to acknowledge executing children

1st: As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152) than any governor in modern US history

2.4 million: Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the three years of the Bush administration

221,000: Number of jobs per month created since Bush's tax cuts took effect. He promised the measure would add 306,000

1,000: Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December. Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000

1st: This administration is on its way to becoming the first since 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during its complete term in office

9 million: Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003

80%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed

55%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce unemployed before the war

43.6 million: Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002

130: Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognised by the United Nations) with an American military presence

40%: Percentage of the world's military spending for which the US is responsible

$10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet

88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,000: Average savings members of Bush's cabinet are expected to enjoy this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,228: Median household income in the US in 2001

$116,000: Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year in taxes

44%: Percentage of Americans who believe the President's economic growth plan will mostly benefit the wealthy

700: Number of people from around the world the US has incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

1st: George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the Geneva Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held prisoners of war

+6%: Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in poverty

1951: Last year in which a quarterly rise in US military spending was greater than the one the previous spring

54%: Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately elected to his post

1st: First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40 years. Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at federal level

9: Number of members of Bush's defence policy board who also sit on the corporate board of, or advise, at least one defence contractor

35: Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court

$300 million: Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes

$1 billion: Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April 2003 to offset the "burdens" of the US war on Iraq

58 million: Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road building, logging and drilling

200: Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted to downgrade or weaken

29,000: Number of American troops - which is close to the total of a whole army division - to have either been killed, wounded, injured or become so ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the Pentagon

90%: Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26 September, 2001

53%: Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004


Comments (Page 1)
3 Pages1 2 3 
on Jan 20, 2004
Brilliant - especially the juxtaposition of funerals and fundraisers.
on Jan 20, 2004
A good manipulation of statistics.

For instance, how many Americans died during the defeat of Germany? In the war with Iraq, the strategy was to finish the war as quickly as possible which has the negative side effect of there still being resistance. Would you have supported the complete leveling of Iraq with the deaths of millions of Iraqi's in order to avoid 500 American deaths? That seems to be what you imply.

You can pretty much put together any kind of thing like that for any President.
on Jan 20, 2004
Don't bother, Brad. Information without analysis is the lazy demogogue's modus operandi.

5: Number of lines I got through before I realized there wasn't any point in going on.
on Jan 20, 2004
3: Number of times I had to stop myself from writing a rant about someone in the UK thinking that they have any right to talk about my president or my government. Oops...4 now...
on Jan 20, 2004
Bush couldn't possibly attend any funerals. If he attended one, he'd have to attend them all. Is there supposed to be something wrong with bombs that aren't precision guided? I've had some experience with military aircraft simulations, and trust me, normal gravity bombs are used more often than you'd think. The 'smart bomb' - or Paveway, or JDAM (new tech) - isn't practical when you're dropping so many bombs. For one, they're larger, due to the guidance system installed on the nose, and usually heavier. If you're dropping so many bombs, naturally you go with normal Mark 80-series bombs. It's not as if the pilot randomly drops them. HUD's have a way of showing you where the bomb is going to fall. So what if 45% of Americans believed Sadaam had anything to do with 9/11. Bush said he had WMD's - which, in my opinion, they didn't but MAY have developed it if not watched - not that he had anything to do with 9/11.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly fond of Bush, and am politically a liberal (or so they tell me ) But all this incessant whining is getting incredibly annoying.
on Jan 20, 2004
wow that isn't biased at all.......oh wait. I really don't mind biased articles if they label them as being biased. Using methods like this can allow you to make anybody look bad. This article tries to be very deceptive. If you look at figures that are similar(like tax money savings) in many cases they changed the years of comparison to make the figures look far worse.
Is the figure about number of American casualties after Nazis surrendered right? I remember seeing commercials for a show on the history channel about nazi resistance after the war(I don't think I ever actually saw the show).
I could go on for a long time, which I don't plan on doing.
on Jan 20, 2004
Thanks for the numbers. It sure stirred up some Republicans over here. We need more of that because you know it hurt their self image to have to face the betrayals of "MY Candidate" and My Party". We go through it each Presidency, as Clinton also betrayed his promises. They'll eventually have to face the error of their ways or be trapped in these emotional reactions which drive them to try to silence objective facts. You forgot to put up the popular vote totals of Americans for Gore and Bush in 2000. If they make you "biased" they can rest assured they are not. Fuzzy logic, but it gives 'em the illusion of joy-joy feelings as they watch the pathetic spectacle of this evenings photo-op, and delude themselves Bush is good and everyone who opposes any decision he makes is bad. Republicans! Do you have any number for the ILLEGAL Mexican immigrants who have ILLEGALLY (or is it now legalized?)crossed the border since Bush decided to guarantee they can come if they take an Americans job?
on Jan 20, 2004
All I can say is this.
If we don't like him. Don't vote for him.
Not that there's a better man out there.

We need to start over.
Thomas Jefferson once stated, (And I'm going to mess this quote up a bit) "In order to keep the government in line, the people need to have a revolution every 200 years." It's not exact. But it's close. Mr. Jefferson was eloquent, and correct.
on Jan 20, 2004


Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrr
on Jan 20, 2004


No photoshop here , this really happened, this is the guy who the people who disagree with Bush want to put in office
on Jan 20, 2004
Great start and just think, President Bush has 5 more years to go. Now, why don't you do something more worth while and make a list of all the innocent people that terrorists have slaughtered. GCJ
on Jan 21, 2004
To: MissfitChicks: Actually Jefferson said revolution every twenty years, about a generation. The one stat that doesn't seem accurate is that the 501 dead U.S. Citizens (troops) is actually the number since we won the war, or since major action has ceased. That we've gone through that number without psychologically effecting the Citizenry suggests they will not act to end our foreign occupation until more die; a sad commentary on a people who vote for either Republicrat Candidate. Sure hope admitted Skull&Bones member Sen. Kerry wins to oppose the Skull&Bones President. Talk about your fundamental change, what can be more blatant. Both Party- voters are hopeless.
on Jan 21, 2004
oops
on Jan 21, 2004
Brad:
You are right a lot of individual facts doesn't make an overall true. Still there are facts...
Engeeke:
As the UK has been supporting US a lot this last 4 years, they might have some right to criticise.

As I'm foreigner to US, I don't care about your president. However taking the leadership of the world make the US exposing themself to world criticism.

on Jan 21, 2004
'lo all,

As a matter of fact, Dean isn't the person who I, as someone who wants Bush out of the presidency, want in the White House instead, in fact, as a majority of the Caucuses in Iowa stated, Dean isn't the person they want either. Anger is well and good, but sense is something Democrats do understand. As someone who has lived in Republican states all my life, I've learned that they use anger and bluster to hide their ignorance of statistics. The numbers are there for you to analyze, if you say they're wrong then provide evidence, and discussion. Otherwise bugger off.

Cheers
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