27 Bush Flubs in the Second Debate:

1. Bush: "We went into Russia, we said, 'Here's some IMF money,' and it ended up in Viktor Chernomyrdin's pocket and others."

Fact: "Bush appears to have tangled up whispers about possible wrongdoing by Chernomyrdin--who co-chaired a commission with Gore on U.S.-Russian relations--with other unrelated allegations concerning the diversion of International Monetary Fund money. While there has been speculation that Chernomyrdin profited from his relationship with Gazprom, a big Russian energy concern, there have
been no allegations that he stole IMF money." Washingon Post, 10/12/00

2. Bush:"We got one [a hate crime law] in Texas, and guess what? The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They're going to be put to death... It's going to be hard to punish them any worse after they get put to
death....We're happy with our laws on our books."

Fact: "The three were convicted under Texas' capital murder statute...The state has a hate crime statute, but it is vague." LA Times, 10/12/00. "The original Texas hate-crimes bill, signed into law by Democrat Ann Richards, boosted penalties for crimes motivated by bigotry. As Gore correctly noted, Bush maneuvered to make sure a new hate-crimes law related to the Byrd killing did not make it to his desk. The new bill would have included homosexuals among the groups covered, which would have been anathema to social conservatives in the state." Washington Post, 10/12/00

3. Bush: "Bragged that in Texas he was signing up children for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as "fast as any other state."

Fact: "As governor he fought to unsuccessfully to limit access to the program. He would have limited its coverage to children with family incomes up to 150 percent of the poverty level, though federal law permitted up to 200 percent. The practical effect of Bush's efforts would have been to exclude 200,000 of the 500,000 possible enrollees." Washington Post, 10/12/00

4. Bush: "He [Gore] is for registration of guns."

Fact: "Gore actually favors licensing for new handgun purchasers but nothing as vast as registering all guns." Salon, 10/12/00

5. Bush: Said he found Gore's tendency to exaggerate "an issue in trying to defend my tax relief package. There was some exaggeration about the numbers" in the first debate.

Fact: "No, there wasn't, and Bush himself acknowledged that the next day on ABC's "Good Morning America" when Charlie Gibson pinned him on it." Salon, 10/12/00

6. Bush: "I felt during his debate with Senator [Bill] Bradley saying he Gore] authored
the EITC [earned-income tax credit] when it didn't happen."

Fact: "Actually, Gore had claimed to have authored an "expansion of the earned-income tax credit," which he did in 1991." Salon, 10/12/00

7. Fact: Gore noted that "Texas "ranks 49th out of the 50 states in healthcare in children with healthcare, 49th for women with healthcare and 50th for families
with healthcare"

Bush: "You can quote all the numbers you want but I'm telling you we care about our people in Texas. We spent a lot of money to make sure people get healthcare in the state of Texas."

8. Fact: Gore said, ""I'm no expert on the Texas procedures, but what my friends there tell me is that the governor opposed a measure put forward by Democrats
in the Legislature to expand the number of children that would be
covered....And instead [he] directed the money toward a tax cut, a significant part of which went to wealthy interests."

Bush: "If he's trying to allege I'm a hardhearted person and don't care about children, he's absolutely wrong."

9. Bush: "The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They'll be put to death. A jury found them guilty."

Fact: Two of the three are being put to death. The other was given life. Bush Watch, 10/12/00

10. Bush: said he favored "equal" rights for gays and lesbians, bu not "special" rights.

Fact: "Bush has supported a Texas law that allows the state to take adopted children from gay and lesbian couples to place the kids with straight couples." Salon, 10/12/00.
"Bush supports hate crime protections for other minorities! So Bush doesn't believe that gays should have the same "special" rights in this regard as blacks, Jews, Wiccans and others. Employment discrimination? Again, Bush supports those rights for other Americans, but not gays. Military service? Bush again supports the right to military service for all qualified people--as long as they don't tell anyone they're gay. Marriage? How on earth is that a special right when every heterosexual in America already has it? But again, Bush thinks it should be out-of-bounds for gays. What else
is there? The right to privacy? Nuh-huh. Bush supports a gays-only sodomy law in his
own state that criminalizes consensual sex in private between two homosexuals. New Republic, 10/13/00

11. Bush. "We ought to do everything we can to end racial profiling."

Fact: The Texas Department of Public Safety has just this year begun keeping detailed
information about the race and sex of all people stopped by its troopers, the sixth year Bush has been in office. Salon, 10/12/00

12. Bush: "Got caught not giving the full story on Texas air pollution laws. He was correct in saying the 1999 utility deregulation bill he signed into law had mandatory emissions standards.

Fact: "What was missing, as Gore's campaign pointed out, was that many
more
non-utility industrial plants are not mandated to reduce air quality.
The
issue is an
important one because Texas ranks near the bottom in air-quality
standards. Bush
instead approved a voluntary program allowing grandfathered oil, coal,
and
other
industrial plants to cut down on pollution." Boston Globe, 10/12/00

13.
Bush: About the Balkans, "I think it ought to be one of our priorities
to
work with our
European friends to convince them to put troops on the ground."

Fact: "European forces already make up a large majority of the
peacekeeping forces in
Bosnia and Kosovo." Washington Post, 10/12/00

14.
Bush: "One of the problems we have in the military is we're in a lot of
places around the
world" and cited Haiti as an example.

"Though approximately 20,000 U.S. troops went to Haiti in 1994, as of
late
August this
year, there were only 109 U.S. troops in Haiti and most were rotating
through as part of
an exercise." Washington Post, 10/12/00

15.
Bush: "I don't think we ought to be selling guns to people who
shouldn't
have them.
That's why I support instant background checks at gun shows. One of the
reasons we
have an instant background check is so that we instantly know whether
or
not someone
should have a gun or not."

Fact: "Bush overstates the effectiveness of instant background checks
for
people trying
to buy guns.... The Los Angeles Times reported on Oct. 3 that during
Bush's term as
governor, Texas granted licenses for carrying concealed guns to
hundreds
of people
with criminal records and histories of drug problems, violence or
psychological
disorders." Washington Post, 10/12/00 "He didn't mention that Texas
failed
to perform
full background checks on 407 people who had prior criminal convictions
but were
granted concealed handgun licenses under a law he signed in 1995. Of
those, 71 had
convictions that should have excluded them from having a concealed gun
permit, the
Texas Department of Public Safety acknowledged." AP, 10/12/00

16.
Bush:"Said the number of Texans without health insurance had declined
while the
number in the United States had risen."

Fact: " A new Census Bureau report says the number of uninsured
Americans
declined
last year for the first time since statistics were kept in 1987. About
42.5 million people,
or 15.5 percent of the population, lacked insurance in 1999, compared
with
44.2 million,
or 16.3 percent, in 1998, the agency reported. Texas ranked
next-to-last
in the nation
last year with 23.3 percent of its residents uninsured. But that was an
improvement from
1998, when it ranked 50th at 24.5 percent." AP, 10/12/00

17.
Bush:"Some of the scientists, I believe, Mr. Vice President, haven't
they
been changing
their opinion a little bit on global warming?"

Fact: "Bush's dismissive comments about global warming could bolster
the
charge that
he and fellow oilman Dick Cheney are in the pocket of the oil industry,
which likewise
pooh-poohs the issue. [While] there is no consensus about the impact of
global
warming,...most scientists agree that humans are contributing to the
rising global
temperature. "Most climate experts are certain that global warming is
real
and that it
threatens ecology and human prosperity, and a growing number say it is
well under
way," wrote New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin." Salon,
10/13/00

18.
Bush: When Jim Lehrer asked Bush if he approved of the U.S.
intervention
in Lebanon
during the Reagan years, Bush answered a quick "yes" and moved on.

Fact: "Lebanon was a disaster in the history of American foreign
affairs.
Next to
Iran-Contra, it was the Reagan administration's greatest overseas
fiasco.
Quoting from
the Encyclopedia of the American Presidency: '[In 1983] Reagan stumbled
into a
disastrous intervention in the Middle East when he sent U.S. Marines
into
Lebanon on
an ill-defined mission as part of an international peacekeeping force.'
In
December,
according to Reagan biographer Edmund Morris, 'two days before
Christmas,
a
Pentagon commission of inquiry into the Beirut barracks bombing
humiliated
[Secretary
of State] Shultz [who had backed the intervention], and embarrassed
Reagan, by
concluding that the dead Marines had been victims of a myopic Middle
Eastern policy.'"
Tom Paine, 10/11/00

19.
Bush: "I thought the president made the right decision in joining NATO
and
bombing
Serbia. I supported him when they did so."

Fact: The bombing of Serbia began on March 24, 1999, and Bush did not
express even
measured support until April 8, 1999 - nearly two weeks later. Prior to
April 8, 1999,
every comment by Bush about the bombing was non-committal. Finally, he
offered a
measured endorsement: "It's important for the United States to be slow
to
engage the
military, but once the military is engaged, it must be engaged with one
thing in mind, and
that is victory," he said after being pressed by reporters. A Houston
Chronicle story
documented the Governor's statements on the crisis and reported that
"Bush
has been
widely criticized for being slow to adopt a position on Kosovo and then
for making vague
statements on the subject." Houston Chronicle, 4/9/99

20.
Bush: Discussing International Loans: "And there's some pretty
egregious
examples
recently, one being Russia where we had IMF loans that ended up in the
pockets of a lot
of powerful people and didn't help the nation."

Fact: Bush's own vice presidential candidate, Dick Cheney, lobbied for
U.S.-backed
loan to Russia that helped his own company. "Halliburton Co. lobbied
for
and received $
292 million in loan guarantees to develop one of the world's largest
oil
fields in Russia.
Cheney said: 'This is exactly the type of project we should be
encouraging
if Russia is to
succeed in reforming its economy...We at Halliburton appreciate the
support of the
Export-Import Bank and look forward to beginning work on this important
project.'" PR
Newswire 4/6/2000. The State Department, armed with a CIA report
detailing
corruption
by Halliburton's Russian partner, invoked a seldom-used prerogative and
ordered
suspension of the loan. The loan guarantee "ran counter to America's
'national
interest,'" the State Department ruled. New Republic, 8/7/00

21.
Bush "There's a lot of talk about trigger locks being on guns sold in
the
future. I
support that."

Fact: When asked in 1999, if he was in support of mandatory safety
locks,
Bush said,
"No, I'm not, I'm for voluntary safety locks on guns." In March of
2000,
Bush said he
would not push for trigger lock legislation, but would sign it if it
passed. [Washington
Post, 3/3/00;ABC, "Good Morning America," 5/10/99] Bush Let Trigger
Locks
Bill Die
in Texas. When Bush was asked, "when two bills were introduced in the
Texas
legislature to require the sale of child safety locks with newly
purchased
handguns, and
you never addressed the issue with the legislature, and both bills
died.
If you support it,
why did that happen?" Bush said, "Because those bills had no votes in
committee."
When asked again if he supported the bills, Bush said, "I wasn't even
aware of those
bills because they never even got out of committee." NBC, "Today Show,"
5/12/00

22.
Bush: "Africa is important and we've got to do a lot of work in Africa
to
promote
democracy and trade."

Fact "While Africa may be important, it doesn't fit into the national
strategic interests,
as far as I can see them," Bush said earlier. When he was asked for his
vision of the
U.S. national interests, he named every continent except Africa.
According
to Time
magazine, "[Bush] focused exclusively on big ticket issues ... Huge
chunks
of the globe
-- Africa and Latin America, for example -- were not addressed at all."
Time, 12/6/99;
PBS "News Hour," 2/16/00; Toronto Star, 2/16/00

23.
Bush: "There's only been one governor ever elected to back-to-back four
year terms
and that was me."

Fact:Prior to Bill Clements, governors of Texas served, by law, 2 year
terms, not four
year terms. Alan Shivers, for example, served four two-year terms, or 2
consecutive
4-year terms. The governors who served consecutive two-year terms
adding
up to 2
consecutive 4-year terms follows. While Bush was elected twice, each of
the others were
elected four times: Coke R. Stevenson (2 consecutive 4-year terms)
August
4,
1941-January 21, 1947. Allan Shivers (2 consecutive four-year terms)
July
11,
1949-January 15, 1957. Price Daniel (2 consecutive four-year terms)
January 15,
1957-January 15, 1963. John Connally (2 consecutive four-year terms)
January 15,
1963-January 21, 1969. Dolph Briscoe (2 consecutive four-year terms)
January 16,
1973-January 16, 1979. George W. Bush (2 consecutive four-year terms)
January 17,
1995 to present. Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission.

24.
Bush: "We spend $4.7 billion a year on the uninsured in the state of
Texas."

Fact: The state of Texas came up with less than $1B for this purpose.
$3.5
came from
local governments, private providers, and charities, $198M from the
federal
government, and just less than $1B from Texas state agencies. Texas
Comptroller of
Public Accounts

25.
Bush: ""Our CHIPS (children's health insurance) program got a late
start
because our
government meets only four months out of every two years, Mr. Vice
President. May
come for a shock for somebody's been in Washington for so long, but
actually limited
government can work in the second largest state in the Union, and
therefore Congress
passes the bill after our session in 1970 --'97 ended. We passed the
enabling legislation
in '99."

Fact: Texas governors can call special sessions of the legislature to
pass
specific
legislation at any time. Bush could have done so with CHIPS. "But more
important is
that Bush could have gotten CHIP sign-ups under way without the
Legislature. As
governor, Bush could have drawn up plans for enrolling kids, lined up
providers and filed
an amendment to Texas' Medicaid Plan with the Health Care Finance
Administration,
which handles Medicaid and CHIP nationally. With HCFA's approval, he
could
have
started enrollment at once.Instead he waited for the Legislature to
convene in January
1999. Then, Bush failed to exercise another gubernatorial option to
speed
things up.
CHIP would have been among the first things considered by the
Legislature
had he
declared it "an emergency," as he did with his tax cut for oil
producers.
Instead, Bush
sparred with legislators about how much a family could earn for their
kids
to qualify for
the program. His first proposal was to make CHIP available to families
whose earnings
are between 100 percent and 133 percent of the poverty level. Those
whose
earnings
are at or below the poverty level supposedly qualify for Medicaid, but
Texas' record in
enrolling those eligible has been so bad federal courts have twice
ordered
the state to
clean up its act. When even the Republican legislators balked at Bush's
miserly
eligibility proposal, he raised it to 150 percent, which would have
made
about 280,000
kids CHIP-eligible. It was well into the 1999 Legislature that the 200
percent of the
poverty level eligibility was approved, which expanded the number of
eligible kids to
500,000.Now that it is a national embarrassment, state officials are
rushing to sign them
up, but at last count, only 100,000 kids have CHIP.Bush could have
started
signing up
poor kids 15 months earlier." San Antonio Express News, 10/15/00

26.
Bush: "We need to make sure that if we decontrol our plants that
there's
mandatory -
that plants must conform to clean air standards, to grandfather plants.
That's what we
did in Texas, no excuses. I mean, you must conform." (Also, claims
credit
for the
"landmark" Texas Clean Air Act of 1999, http://www.georgewbush.com)

Fact: The legislation he supported calls for only "voluntary
compliance"
by the old
plants that were grandfathered in the Clean Air Act of 1971 (Houston
Chronicle
6/19/99). Efforts by concerned legislators to mandate pollution
reductions
on
grandfathered non-utility plants in the 1999 session of the legislature
were thwarted by
the Governor's support of SB 766 that he allowed the big oil and
chemical
companies to
draft. This voluntary approach has failed. An Environmental Defense
Fund
analysis of
the data compiled by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation concerning
SB
766
found that the Governor's bill had resulted in these plants
implementing
and promising
to implement reductions of less than 1% of their grandfathered
emissions.
http://www.texascenter.org/aircrisis/index.htm

27.
Bush: "If you want a trigger lock to make your gun safe, come to--come
and
get one for
free. And so we're distributing in our state of Texas for free."

Fact: The gun locks are not being distributed in Texas. Although the
freee
trigger lock
program started in May and plans are to hand out one million free
trigger
locks each
year for five years, only 10% of this year's locks have actually been
handed out to
Texas law enforcement agencies to date, and those have gone to only 15
of
the
thousands of lawy enforcement agencies in Texas. Reports from those 15
agencies show
that few of the locks have actually been given to Texas citizens, and
there are two
problems with those locks. First, they can only be used on unloaded
guns.
Secondly,
according to the AP, "the locks spring open when bounced or hit in a
particular
manner," rendering the locks useless for the purpose intended.
Distribution of the gun
locks has been halted. This information was found at thegovernor's web
site.