Well, here's a little proof as to the fact that he is the very opposite of a good guy. In an article posted to Newsday.com's web site on February 23, 2003, James Toedtman points out that King George quoted a report that doesn't actually exist. See, KG wanted to get the world to trust his insane tax cut plan (so insane that other members of the G7 summit have publicly criticized the plan) that he decided it would be okay to lie about a newly released Blue Chip economists forecast that supposedly said that his plan would bring substantial economic growth. Why was it a lie? Well, according to the editor of the forecast in question, Randell E. Moore,there was no such claim made in the forecast.But wait! There's more!
King George also quoted an International Atomic Energy Agency report that promised Saddam was a mere six months away from developing a nuclear weapon. Well, in a Washington Times article posted last September, Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesperson is quoted admitting that no such report exists. It's beginning to look like George W. Bush will say just about anything to convince America and the World that anything he does is justified. This makes one wonder what he's told the American people that was the truth...
From the Financial Times:
Europeans attack US tax cut plan at G7 forum By Alan Beattie and Christopher Swann in Paris Published: February 23 2003 20:58 | Last Updated: February 23 2003 20:58 The heads of the European Central Bank and eurozone finance ministers have expressed deep scepticism about the US administration's $690bn tax cut plan.
Wim Duisenberg, ECB president, and Nikos Christodoulakis, the Greek minister who chairs the "eurogroup" of eurozone finance ministers, attacked the plan at the meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations in Paris at the weekend, saying it endangered the world economy.
Mr Christodoulakis said the re-emergence of "twin deficits" - fiscal and balance of payments - "may create sustainability risks, which in case they materialise would have significant ramifications well beyond the US itself". The tax proposal "in terms of size, composition and timing" did not dissipate these concerns.
Gordon Brown and John Manley, the UK and Canadian finance ministers, said deficits were appropriate during weak growth. Hans Eichel and Francis Mer, their German and French counterparts, were less committal.
John Snow, US Treasury secretary, pushed hard for international support for the Bush administration's tax plan during Saturday's meeting of finance ministers and central bankers.
He said the move, criticised in the US for pushing up deficits, would benefit global growth, especially in view of the uncertainties over Iraq.
Mr Duisenberg hinted heavily that the ECB was preparing to cut interest rates to stimulate growth. He appeared to reverse course from his previous argument that uncertainties would probably make rate cuts ineffective. "The prospect of an economic recovery to potential growth this year is not supported by the latest information," he said. "Whatever the events in this world of uncertainty, if we get new information or make new assessments about the medium-term outlook for price stability or the economy, we will not hesitate to act."
Inflation would drop below the ECB's 2 per cent target during the course of the year, despite volatility induced by oil price movements, he said.
The ministers said there was no pre-ordained global strategy such as releasing global oil stocks to cope with the effects of geopolitical tension.
Mr Mer said: "We have no hidden plan. What counts is that we are sufficiently reactive together if there were a need." Strategic government stocks of oil "are not in place with a view to influencing market prices".
Mr Duisenberg denied he had come under pressure from G7 finance ministers during the meeting to cut interest rates. But there was implied criticism afterwards from Mr Brown, who said there "remained issues on the demand side in Europe" which needed to be tackled.
The final communiqué issued by the G7 - who were joined by Russia for discussions on combating terrorist finance - largely comprised a reiteration of previous statements.
It said the European economies would accelerate labour, product and capital market reforms, Japan would commit to restructuring its banking sector and the US would boost savings and capital formation.
Newsday.Com:
Editor: Bush Cited Report That Doesn't Exist
By James Toedtman
CHIEF ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT
February 23, 2003
Washington - There was only one problem with President George W. Bush's claim Thursday that the nation's top economists forecast substantial economic growth if Congress passed the president's tax cut: The forecast with that conclusion doesn't exist.
Bush and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer went out of their way Thursday to cite a new survey by "Blue-Chip economists" that the economy would grow 3.3 percent this year if the president's tax cut proposal becomes law.
That was news to the editor who assembles the economic forecast. "I don't know what he was citing," said Randell E. Moore, editor of the monthly Blue Chip Economic Forecast, a newsletter that surveys 53 of the nation's top economists each month.
"I was a little upset," said Moore, who said he complained to the White House. "It sounded like the Blue Chip Economic Forecast had endorsed the president's plan. That's simply not the case."
Deputy White House Press Secretary Claire Buchan insisted Friday that the survey, which mentioned "the likelihood that some version of the Bush administration's latest stimulus package will be enacted," justified the president's claim. Moore said that a survey taken in January before the president announced his plan forecast 3.3 percent annual growth between the last quarter of 2002 and the last quarter of 2003. A survey taken in February reached the same consensus.Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
From Washingtontimes.com:
The Washington Times y disavows report on Iraq armsJoseph Curl
www.washingtontimes.com
THE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished 9/27/2002The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq in 1998 was "six months away" from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist.
"There's never been a report like that issued from this agency," Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
"We've never put a time frame on how long it might take Iraq to construct a nuclear weapon in 1998," said the spokesman of the agency charged with assessing Iraq's nuclear capability for the United Nations.
In a Sept. 7 news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Bush said: "I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied � finally denied access [in 1998], a report came out of the Atomic � the IAEA that they were six months away from developing a weapon.
"I don't know what more evidence we need," said the president, defending his administration's case that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction.
The White House says Mr. Bush was referring to an earlier IAEA report.
"He's referring to 1991 there," said Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan. "In '91, there was a report saying that after the war they found out they were about six months away."
Mr. Gwozdecky said no such report was ever issued by the IAEA in 1991.
Many news agencies � including The Washington Times � reported Mr. Bush's Sept. 7 comments as referring to a 1998 IAEA report. The White House did not ask for a correction from The Times.
To clear up the confusion, Mr. McClellan cited two news articles from 1991 � a July 16 story in the London Times by Michael Evans and a July 18 story in the New York Times by Paul Lewis. But neither article cites an IAEA report on Iraq's nuclear-weapons program or states that Saddam was only six months away from "developing a weapon" � as claimed by Mr. Bush.
The article by Mr. Evans says: "Jay Davis, an American expert working for the U.N. special commission charged with removing Iraq's nuclear capability, said Iraq was only six months away from the large-scale production of enriched uranium at two plants inspected by UN officials."
The Lewis article said Iraq in 1991 had a uranium "enrichment plant using electromagnetic technology [that] was about six months from becoming operational."
In October 1998, just before Saddam kicked U.N. weapons inspectors out of Iraq, the IAEA laid out a case opposite of Mr. Bush's Sept. 7 declaration.
"There are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance," IAEA Director-General Mohammed Elbaradei wrote in a report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair on Sept. 7 cited an agency "report" declaring that satellite photography revealed the Iraqis had undertaken new construction at several nuclear-related sites. This week, the IAEA said no such report existed.
The IAEA also took issue with a Sept. 9 report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies � cited by the Bush administration � that concludes Saddam "could build a nuclear bomb within months if he were able to obtain fissile material."
"There is no evidence in our view that can be substantiated on Iraq's nuclear-weapons program. If anybody tells you they know the nuclear situation in Iraq right now, in the absence of four years of inspections, I would say that they're misleading you because there isn't solid evidence out there," Mr. Gwozdecky said.
"I don't know where they have determined that Iraq has retained this much weaponization capability because when we left in December '98 we had concluded that we had neutralized their nuclear-weapons program. We had confiscated their fissile material. We had destroyed all their key buildings and equipment," he said.
Mr. Gwozdecky said there is no evidence about Saddam's nuclear capability right now � either through his organization, other agencies or any government.Copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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