On July 30, in a speech in Springfield, Missouri, shortly after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention, in which nominee John Kerry said repeatedly, "We can do better," George W. Bush, aka King George II, picked up the challenge and, oblivious to the possibility that people would go back and check, said repeatedly, "Results matter." Results matter indeed.
Well, people did go back and check. The Kerry campaign responded quickly with some quick hits on the issues Bush mentioned in the same sentence as "Results matter" -- education, health care, employment, and security. I'm sure many others took him to task as well. I want my turn too, so here it is -- the results, at least those that matter...
Number of US and allied troops dead and wounded in Iraq:
139 US troops dead, 542 wounded during major fighting (March and April 2003)
775 US troops dead, 5434 wounded since war was “won” (Since 5/1/03 -- Bush having declared "Mission accomplished" after landing on an aircraft carrier on 5/2/03)
914 total US troops dead, 5976 total wounded
122 non-US coalition troops and at least 120 contractors also killed in Iraq
[US casualties are as reported by US Department of Defense as of 7/24/04 and summarized with links to DoD by icasualties.org. All others are as reported by icasualties.org with links to sources. Updates can be found here.]
Number of Iraqi dead in Iraq:
3,572 Iraqi troops and civilians reported killed on 4/8/03 with major fighting ongoing
International Red Cross declared Iraqi casualties “too high to count” at around the same time
Iraqi Health Ministry halted attempts to count civilian casualties (12/03)
11,000 (perhaps more than 13,000) Iraqi deaths reported by Iraq Body Count based on published reports as of 8/1/04
Number of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) found in Iraq after the invasion: 0
Number of nations renouncing WMD since invasion of Iraq: 1 (Lybia)
Number of nations renouncing nuclear weapons for reasons other than military defeat before invasion of Iraq: 15, including at least three during the Clinton administration, one of which was Iraq -- (Sweden 1960s, Egypt 1967, Australia 1969, Switzerland 1969, Taiwan 1970s, South Korea 1975, Argentina 1983, Jugoslavia 1987, Rumania 1989, South Africa 1989, Belarus 1991, Ukraine 1991, Kazakhstan 1995, Iraq 1996, Brazil 1998)
Number of nations continuing to actively pursue WMD since invasion of Iraq: 14 (Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological: Iran and North Korea; Chemical and Biological: Taiwan; Chemical: India, Egypt, Syria; Biological: Cuba; and the 7 known (plus one highly suspected) nations with nuclear weapon stockpiles: US, UK, France, Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan)
Number of Iraqi-sponsored attacks vs. US before invasion of Iraq since Clinton bombed Iraq in response to attempted assassination of former president Bush: 0
Number of terrorist attacks in Iraq since the invasion: multiple daily occurrences
Number of Anti-American terrorist attacks after 9/11 and invasion of Afghanistan, and before invasion of Iraq (calendar year 2002): 77 attacks resulting in 27 deaths
Number of Anti-American terrorist attacks in the year of the invasion of Iraq (calendar year 2003): 82 attacks resulting in 35 deaths (not including attacks on US troops in Iraq, which are considered acts of war, not acts of terrorism, by the reporting agency, the State Department)
Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda before invasion of Iraq (including 9/11): none
Number of "foreigners" including Al-Qaeda terrorists operating against the U.S. in Iraq today: hundreds or more
Number of U.S. tax dollars committed to rebuilding Iraq: estimated $14.5-19.5 billion (the difference being contracts that are worth at least $500,000 but possibly as much as $500 or 600 million each)
Percentage of those U.S. tax dollars committed to Bechtel, Fluor, and Halliburton for work in Iraq: 60% of $14.5 billion estimate, 53% of $19.5 billion estimate -- at least $1.5 billion and perhaps over $3 billion for Flour, over $2.8 billion to Bechtel, and over $4.3 billion in what is really an open-ended contract to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR).
Number of former Secretaries of State serving on the boards of Bechtel and Halliburton: 2 (Nixon Secretary of State George Schultz for Bechtel and George I's Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger for Halliburton)
Number of former Halliburton CEO's currently serving as Vice President of the U.S.A: 1 (Dick Cheney)
Number of former Fluor CEO's overseeing the restructuring of Iraq's oil industry: 1 (Phillip J. Carroll Jr., still a major personal shareholder in Fluor, currently serving as Chairman of the board advising Iraq's Oil Minister)
Number of other companies with Iraq reconstruction contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion each with direct ties to Bechtel, Flour, or Halliburton: 2 out of 4, not including Bechtel, Fluor, or Halliburton (Parsons Corp., founded by Bechtel co-founder Ralph Parsons, with over $2.3 billion in contracts, one third of which was intended for Halliburton before public criticism caused reconsideration, and Washington Group, awarded contracts worth as much as $1.6 billion, with four top executives formerly employed by Halliburton or Fluor).
Number of companies from among Bechtel, Fluor, and Halliburton penalized since 2000 by the US government for fraud, bid rigging, and other irregularities: all 3 (plus Fluor joint venture partner AMEC)
Status of Mullah Omar: at large
Status of Osama bin Laden: at large
Number of bin Laden family members allowed to begin their flight out the US to Saudi Arabia on 9/13/01: 24
Number of stranded American civilians allowed to fly home between 9/11 and 9/13: 0
Price of a gallon of regular gas on 2/22/99: $0.89
Price of a gallon of regular gas on 1/1/01: $1.38
Price of a gallon of regular gas on 5/24/04: $2.02
Increase in gas prices during Bush adminstration: 34% (compared to 12.8% increase during prior four-year presidential term)
Increase in crude oil prices during Bush adminstration: 66% (up from 4.6% increase during prior four-year term)
Change in gas prices between now and Election Day: Don't know -- spike in crude oil prices suggests gasoline will go up, but politics suggests a continued decline right on through October (unless you believe former oil exec Dick Cheney when he says it's the Democrats' fault)
Decline in the S&P 500 from November 2000 until today: over 20% (up from 45% decline by Summer, 2002)
Decline in the NASDAQ from November 2000 until today: over 50% (up from nearly 75% decline by Summer, 2002)
Increase in federal budget deficit during Bush adminstration: from $33.3 billion in 2001 to $536.1 billion in 2003 (compared to prior administration reducing deficit from over $300 billion in 1993 to a surplus of over $85 billion in 2000)
Increase in national debt during Bush adminstration through 2003: 18% (compared to 12% decrease during prior four-year term)
Increase in government spending during Bush adminstration through 2003: 20.6% (compared to 14.6% increase during prior four-year term)
Increase in trade deficit in 2003: over $530 billion, an all-time record high deficit
Projected trade deficit in first quarter of 2004: very nearly $145 billion, higher than any quarter in record deficit year of 2003
Increase in real GDP during Bush adminstration: 9% (down from over 15% growth during prior four-year term)
Growth in civilian labor force during Bush adminstration: 2.4% (down from 6.1% growth during prior four-year term)
Growth in non-farm payroll employment during Bush adminstration: just about none (down nearly 1%, after 9.2% growth during prior four-year term)
Growth in number of unemployed during Bush adminstration: 37.5% (number of unemployed declined by over 16% during prior four-year term)
Growth in unemployment rate during Bush adminstration: 33.3% (rate declined by over 20% during prior four-year term)
Growth in average hourly earnings during Bush adminstration: 9.7% (down from 16.3% growth during prior four-year term)
Growth in disposable income per capita during Bush adminstration: 6% (down from over 12% growth during prior four-year term despite tax cuts of over 20% during Bush administration)
Annual growth in poverty rate during Bush administration through 2002: 4.75% (compared to 2.5% annual decline 1993-2000)
King George II loves to talk about farmers and small businessmen. Even to them, results should matter:
Growth in net value added to US economy by agricultural sector (annual average) during Bush administration: 3%
Growth in payments to stakeholders (annual average) during Bush administration: 11.3% -- stakeholders are those who own stakes in farms but do not operate them themselves
Decline in net farm income (annual average) during Bush administration: 3.75%
Annual growth in farm household income during Bush adminstration through 2003: 2.6% (down from 7.4% annual growth from 1995 to 2001)
Annual growth in farm equity during Bush adminstration through 2003: 4.2% (down from 5.2% annual growth from 1995 to 2001)
[In case you need help interpreting these numbers, they mean that all of the modest growth in agriculture under Bush, and then some (actually, a lot more than "some"), did not go to farmers themselves, but to their non-farmer investors.]
Annual growth in direct government payments to farms during Bush adminstration through 2003: 8% annual decline (down from over 30% annual growth from 1995 to 2001)
Increase in small business bankruptcies during Bush adminstration through 2002: 8.3% (compared to decline of nearly 35% during prior four-year term)
Increase in small business terminations during Bush adminstration through 2002: 7.7% (compared to 2.4% during prior four-year term)
Decrease in small business start-ups during Bush adminstration through 2002: 4.2% (compared to increase of 2.8% during prior four-year term)
I'm sure there are some positive accomplishments one could cite for King George II, some results that reflect well upon him. But consdering what is on this list, do any of those results really matter?
One positive result achieved over the past three years may indeed matter greatly to Bush -- there has been a shift of six electoral college votes from states that went to Gore to states that went to Bush (from states like New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Illinois to states like Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Colorado).
The changes took place in 2002 based on the 2000 census, and including some changes in the other direction (from Bush state Mississippi to Gore state California) is clearly the result of population shifts from north to south, east to west, and to states with newly created jobs (e.g. Georgia, Texas, Colorado). So no one is going to make a case that the results were rigged in any way. Still, it means Bush has at least four more electoral college votes in the bag (we won't count Florida just yet) than he had in 2000.