David BrodyWith the third and last presidential debate at Arizona State University only several hours away, Student Life’s Truth Squad digs the facts out of several more topics that arose during the Oct. 8 debate at Washington University.
Foreign Policy
In criticizing Senator John Kerry’s ability to lead, President George W. Bush charged that Kerry would require the rest of the world’s consensus before taking action to defend America.
“My opponent said that America must pass a global test before we used force to protect ourselves,” said Bush, recalling Kerry’s remarks from the first debate.
However, Bush’s implication that Kerry would cede control to an external power mischaracterizes Kerry’s remarks. In the first debate, Kerry referred to a “global test” as a communal understanding.
“You have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons,” said Kerry.
Kerry also said at that first debate, “No president… has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.”
Kerry makes no mention of America’s defense policy being governed by the approval of foreign nations, instead asserting the importance of being understood at home and being viewed as legitimate abroad.
Health Care
Kerry attacked Bush’s Medicare bill, charging that it favored drug companies at the expense of the public.
“[President Bush has] put $139 billion of windfall profit into the pockets of the drug companies right out of your pockets,” said Kerry
In this case, Kerry’s figures are difficult to prove or disprove. Kerry’s numbers are drawn from a Boston University study. Competing figures from a Pacific Research Institute (PRI) study show no such windfall for drug companies as a result of the President’s Medicare bill. PRI describes itself as a free-market think tank and has no official political affiliation.
Kerry also criticized the President’s refusal to allow the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries.
“It wasn’t just my administration that made the decision on safety.ÿ President Clinton did the same thing, because we have an obligation to protect you,” Bush responded.
In 2000 and 2003, Congress approved a bill that would allow for the importation of drugs by these groups, but with one caveat-the Secretary of Health and Human Services would have to certify that the imported drugs would be safe and would lower costs.
While it is true that the Clinton administration, through then-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, also refused to certify the bill, it does not appear that their motivation was solely security concerns. In addition to citing some safety issues, the Clinton administration called for fundamental changes to the bill because they felt that consumers would not realize real cost savings from it.
At the time, Clinton called the program “little more than a false promise” because of “several loopholes that effectively render the provision meaningless.”
Stem Cells
On the topic of stem cell research, both sides have lobbed misleading or deceptive charges.
“And the president’s chosen a policy that makes it impossible for our scientists to do that,” said Kerry, speaking of the potential to pursue research that could cure diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s Disease.
Bush responded by noting that he is “the first president ever to allow funding-federal funding” for such research.
In these remarks, Kerry scaled back past charges that the President’s policy was tantamount to banning embryonic stem cell research altogether. In reality, Bush has banned federal funding going towards new embryonic stem cell lines. He has given funding to existing lines and has never denied scientists the ability to perform embryonic stem cell research.
While Kerry’s charges may be deceptive, he is correct in saying that access to stem cell lines is limited.
$84 Lumber Company?
Kerry protested a Bush claim that his tax policies would adversely affect over 900,000 small businesses by noting that that number was inaccurate because Bush himself would qualify as a small business in his own study.
According to Kerry, by Bush’s study’s methodology he himself would be counted as a small business because of $84 of earnings he derived from a stake in a timber company. Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, would also be counted as a small business.
“I own a timber company? That’s news to me,” Bush said in response to Kerry’s claim.
The Tax Policy Center estimates that in actuality only about 470,000 small businesses would be affected by Kerry’s tax. Even using the Bush definition of small businesses, 32 million small business would not be affected by the Kerry plan.
In his argument, Kerry relied on a study by factcheck.org, which has since updated their article to note that the $84 Bush received was from an oil and gas business holding company which later purchased a stake in a timber company.
Regardless of their origin, those earnings would still classify Bush as a small business using Bush’s methodology-and ultimately, Bush indeed owns at least part of a timber company.