CYNTHIA McKINNEY

May, 2001

Washington, D.C.

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney responded to President Bush's first 100 days in office.

Ms. McKinney compiled a list of 80 failures that the Bush Administration has produced in his first 100 days.

Here are her first 20.

1. Bush campaigned on a pledge to provide a $1.6 trillion tax cut to America's wealthiest families.

2. Bush named the wealthiest cabinet in the history of the United States.

3. Bush's Cabinet stumped for the President's tax cut proposal.

4. Bush's number one priority in his first 100 days has been promoting a tax plan that will cost $2. 6 trillion over the next ten years. 45% of his cut will benefit the wealthiest one- percent of taxpayers, people with an average income of $915,000.

5. The Bush tax plan against women and lower income earners gives no tax relief at all to those families too poor to pay income taxes (12 million families with 24 million children), no tax deductions for 53% of Black and Hispanic families; and no tax cuts made for single persons earning between $6,001 to $27,050 nor for married persons earning $12,001 to $45,200.

6. The administration's proposal also fails to make adjustments that would make tax rates truly progressive. Completely untouched is the regressive payroll tax that places the heaviest burden on low to middle income workers, predominately female, while leaving in place a substantial break for high income earners who make no payroll tax contributions above the $80,400 level (most of whom are men, of course).

7. Bush' tax cut would wipe out the rest of any funds available, leaving nothing for future contingencies, including shoring up Social Security.

8. The richest cabinet in history will get a kickback of over $100 million through Bush's efforts to push the Estate Tax legislation through Congress.

9. The Republican party is so devoid of talent that Bush named a record number of George Herbert Walker retreads to his Administration. There's no question about one assignment that's going to get a big, fat "Incomplete" --installing the 487 top officials who will run the executive branch the next four years. 90% of assigned positions are unfilled.

10. Our new Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, recently campaigned on eliminating the Department of Energy, the very program he now runs, while also leading efforts to prevent increased fuel efficiency in vehicles.

11. Our Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, has led efforts to rollback endangered species protection and allowed mining company polluters to escape clean up requirements and liability.

12. Bush appoints Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior because she believes that corporations have a constitutional right to pollute.

13. Gale Norton's first concrete attempt at a regulatory rollback was a proposal to gut updated environmental mining regulations that went into effect at the end of the Clinton administration. Independent reports estimate that taxpayers could be on the hook for about $1 billion in environmental cleanup costs from today's mines.

14. President Bush's choice for the No. 3 spot at the Department of Energy is Robert G. Card, who until recently was CEO and president of a nuclear cleanup contractor that has been fined or penalized more than $725,000 for numerous worker safety, procurement and other violations since 1996.

15. The New Attorney General has a history of blocking enforcement of environmental laws; and throughout his career, Ashcroft has worked tirelessly to restrict a woman's right to choose.

16. The new head of the EPA, Christine Whitman, who doubts that global warming is a serious problem, defended global warming and got kicked by Bush. In a memo from Whitman to Bush, the EPA Administrator stressed the need for Bush to "appear" to be engaged in addressing global warming, as if the environment responds to appearances.

17. Tommy Thompson, the new Secretary of the Department Of Health And Human Services was one of the country's most anti-choice governors and now heads up the department that wields the greatest influence over policies affecting women's reproductive health.

18. Bush named Don Eberly, a right wing activist who was an official with the National Fatherhood Institute, to head up a White House office for faith-based programs. Some women's rights advocates are concerned that Eberly will utilize the office to help funnel even more federal monies to misogynist groups who promote so-called fatherhood initiatives.

19. John Negroponte, Bush's appointee for UN Ambassador has a track record of disrespecting human rights. During his tour as ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte earned his reputation for being soft on human rights abuses. Under the helm of General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, Honduras's military government was both a close ally of the Reagan administration and was disappearing dozens of political opponents in classic death squad fashion. Negroponte turned a blind eye to human rights abuses and even helped to cover up extrajudicial killings.

20. Bush's appointee for Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, does not belong in the arms control job because, as the director of the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project, Joseph Cirincione, says: "Bolton is philosophically opposed to most of the international treaties that comprise the nonproliferation regime."

    Among the countless failures of the last few days is the nomination of an executive of Monsanto Co (a leading developer of biotech foods) to the second-ranking job at the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has now been turned into the a Protection Agency for Industry Pollution.

    Linda Fisher headed Monsanto's Washington lobbying office. She was nominated for the post of deputy administrator. Fisher also served on a U.S. Agriculture Department advisory committee on biotech foods. One of the major issues currently before the EPA is a request from Aventis SA to approve a genetically-modified corn known as StarLink for human consumption. StarLink, a variety altered to repel pests, was barred from human food in 1998 due to concerns that it might trigger allergic reactions in some people.