$1.6 billion : Nancy Pelosi

[cal04]

I haven't seen many people online talking about a new GAO report that Rep. Henry Waxman, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Elijah Cummings and I released yesterday, so I wanted to draw your attention to it. I'll say it again, $1.6 billion. You can do a lot of good with that kind of money -- support the rebuilding of our Gulf Coast, invest in medical research, increase scholarship and student loan programs, even pay down the deficit.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's diary :: ::

But the Bush Administration has other priorities.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) has discovered that the Bush Administration has spent more than $1.6 billion in tax payer dollars on PR and advertising in a two and a half year span. Instead of using that money to improve our schools, pay for books or classroom supplies or teachers' salaries, the Bush Administration used it for propaganda to promote No Child Left Behind. Instead of using it to support families suffering in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that money was used to advertise "marriage-related research initiatives." Instead of buying equipment for the nation's first responders, it was used to promote "the Army's strategic perspective in the Global War on Terrorism." And instead of lowering prescription drug costs, that money paid for a FDA contract to warn the public of the consequences and potential danger of importing prescription drugs from other nations.

And the GAO's report just scratches the surface. The GAO surveyed only seven of the 15 cabinet-level departments, relied on self-reported information from the agencies, and did not include subcontracts, task orders on existing contracts, or public relations work done by government employees.

The truth is, no amount of money will successfully sell the Bush Administration's failed policies, from the war in Iraq, to its disastrous energy policy, to its confusing Medicare prescription drug bill. But $1.6 billion dollars?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/14/1784/69126

[XOKCowboy]

1. CNN reporting on this now

The lead was "While cutting programs for the poor...". I was impressed with them.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Seriously! How very unFAUXlike of them.

[XOKCowboy]

4. Yea no kidding..

Maybe there is hope. It was Lou Dobbs saying it too.

[MissMarple]

Actually, that sounds just like Lou Dobbs.

He doesn't care for this administration much.

[Beaverhausen]

3. She lays it out so it should be obvious to anyone who still thinks...

...that Bush "cares" about them.

[Stephanie]

5. I'd like to know what Bush's personal PR budget is

for backdrops and fancy podiums. and giant jets to fly him around to photo-ops with his entourage.

[XOKCowboy]

6. 1.6 Billion for PR and advertising.. in 2 YEARS! That's really outrageous

False commercials. Hiring the likes of Armstrong Williams. It's sickening when they're cutting social programs right and left. 1.6 Billion would have funded a lot of programs for the needy but the Bush Administration thinks it's more useful funding propoganda.

:puke:

[slor]

7. Why do I think that $1.6 Billion is actually...

the tip of the iceberg.

[Kagemusha]

10. Because Pelosi said the report was limited to agency self-reporting?

Based on that, I sure as hell think it's the tip of the iceberg. That's pretty much a classical definition of the expression.

[rodeodance]

8. Lou Dobbs just reported on it.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. 1.6 Billion is incomprehensible. Even these days it's a lot of money

that could go a long way to build schools, roads, help small businesses and so on.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. !