Promises To Keep

Free Trade
Mar 2002: "I believe strongly that if we promote trade, and when we promote trade, it will help workers on both sides of this issue."
Mar 2002: Imposed tariffs on imported steel.
Dec 2003: "Facing a potential global trade war, President Bush on [December 4, 2003] lifted tariffs he imposed on foreign steel 21 months ago, declaring the U.S. steel industry healthy and ready to compete despite the industry's claim that it needs more time to recover." [Chicago Tribune]

Gay Marriage
Campaign 2000: "The state can do what they want to do. Don't try to trap me in this state's issue like you're trying to get me into." [Gov. George W. Bush on Gay Marriage, Presidential Primary Debate, 2/15/00]
Feb 2004: "If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America. Decisive and democratic action is needed, because attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country."
Feb 2004: "Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife."

Great Lakes - Diverting Water
July 2001: "Even though experts say 'diverting any water from the Great Lakes region sets a bad precedent' Bush 'said he wants to talk to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien about piping water to parched states in the west and southwest.'" [AP]
Aug 2004: "We've got to use our resources wisely, like water. It starts with keeping the Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes Basin...My position is clear: We're never going to allow diversion of Great Lakes water."

Health Care - Patient's Bill of Rights
1997: Texas Governor Bush opposed a patient's bill of rights [Houston Chronicle, 5/23/97]
Campaign 2000: Stated support in debate with Al Gore
Mar 2004: The administration fights it. [LA Times, 3/24/04]

Health Care - Prescription Drugs
November 2003: Administration pressure led Congress to pass a prescription drug bill that was supposed to cost no more than $400 billion, according to the White House.
January 2003: Almost immediately after passage, White House raised the estimated cost to $534 billion. [Washington Post]

Homeland Security
Oct 2001: "[T]he president has suggested to members of Congress that they do not need to make this a statutory post, that he [Ridge] does not need Cabinet rank, for example, there does not need to be a Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security is because there is such overlap among the various agencies, because every agency of the government has security concerns." [White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, 10/24/01]
Mar 2002: "So, creating a Cabinet office doesn't solve the problem. You still will have agencies within the federal government that have to be coordinated. So the answer is that creating a Cabinet post doesn't solve anything." [White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, 3/19/02]
June 2002: "So tonight, I ask the Congress to join me in creating a single, permanent department with an overriding and urgent mission: securing the homeland of America and protecting the American people."
Mar 2004: "In just 12 months, under the leadership of your President...you faced the challenges standing up this new Department and you get a -- and a gold star for a job well done." [Remarks at one-year anniversary of DHS implies this was a Presidential initiative.]

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