The Neoconservative [Bush] Administration’s Bad Deeds Master List – An assessment of the 128 executive branch failures since 2000.
• Consumers & Workers
- Limited Ability To Block Dangerous Imports
- FDA Enforcement Actions Way Down
- USDA Challenged Over Meat Safety
- Lack of Adequate Foreign Drug Oversight
- Problems in Oversight of Food Safety
- OSHA’s Laissez-Faire Attitude
- FDA Failure To Ensure Drug Safety
- Failure To Protect Consumers From Unsafe Products
- Oversight Collapse Leads To Mine Safety Issues
- Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Stumbles
- Eroding Budget Erodes Consumer Safety
- Lack of Quorum at the CPSC
• Contracting & Workforce
- A Failure of Whistleblower Protection
- Labor Relations Authority: Low Morale, Backlogged Cases
- Contractors Failing Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Human Capital Issues Plague Government
- Surge in Outsourcing Creates Problems in Performance, Oversight
- Chronic Understaffing at the EEOC
• Education
- No Child Left Behind: A Few Bumps in the Road
- Reading First: Scandalous and Ineffective
- Student Loan Scandal Costs Students
• Elections
- Paralysis at the Federal Election Commission
- “McCain-Feingold†Fails To Solve Campaign Finance Problem
- Election Assistance Commission Has Not Met Mandates
• Emergency Management
- Hurricanes Expose FEMA Woes
- FEMA Trailers Filled With Formaldehyde
- We Can’t Afford Another Flood
- SBA Emergency Assistance Failed for Katrina
- Flood “Protection†in New Orleans
• Energy
- No Robust, Sustained Alternative Energy Policy
- Foreign Oil Dependence Has Grown
- Refinery Bottleneck Puts Squeeze on Gasoline Supply
- Move to a 21st Century Electricity Grid Is Stalled
• Entitlements
- Unsustainable Medicare Spending
- Failure To Reform Social Security
- Social Security Disability Backlogs
• Environment
- Climate Change: Hide the Assessment
- Failure To Advance Climate Change Policy
- EPA Deprives Public of Information on Toxics
- Science Policy Politicized
- Politicization at Department of Interior
- EPA Stalls on Perchlorate Regulation
- Mountaintop Coal Mining Alters Appalachia
- EPA and OMB Slow Toxic Chemical Risk Studies
- Scandal, Incompetence at Minerals Management Service
- EPA Misleads on Air Quality After 9/11 Attacks
- EPA Ignores Advisers on Particulate Matter Standards
- Everglade Restoration a Man-Made Disaster
- Superfund Program Loses Funding, Momentum
- Toxic Mercury From Coal Plants Unregulated
- Nuclear Waste Problem Unsolved
- EPA Fails To Put Children First
- Failure To Launch: Satellite Delays
- EPA’s Free Pass for Aging Power Plant Emissions
• Finance
- Shaky Start for Troubled Asset Relief Program
- Skyrocketing Deficit
- Oversight Fails To Keep Pace With a Changed Market
- Lax Oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
- SEC Allows Investment Banks To Go Unregulated
- More Corporations Pay Less in Taxes
- Audit Rates of Rich Fall, Audits of Poor Spike
- Lack of Regs Fueled Accounting Scandal
- U.S. Companies Hiding Revenue Offshore
- Mismanagement and Cronyism at HUD
• Health
- Medicare Fraud Out of Control
- 45 Million Americans Without Health Insurance
• Information Protection
- Failures in Cybersecurity
- Millions in Equipment Missing From Indian Health Service
- An Epidemic of Missing Laptops
• Justice & Security
- Too Close to the Edge on Torture
- CIA Renditions Draw Controversy
- Politicization of Department of Justice
- Failure To Protect Sensitive Technology
- Arbitrary Detention at Guantanamo
- Osama bin Laden Still at Large
- Lack of Progress on Immigration Reform
- WMD Nonproliferation Needs More Attention
- National Security Agency Mismanages Info Technology
- $30 Billion Virtual Border Fence Faces Problems
- First Responders Still Can’t Communicate
- FBI Abuses Power To Request Personal Information
- Agencies Failed To Share Intelligence on 9/11 Terrorists
- Pakistan Remains an Al Qaeda Haven
- FBI Failure To Create a Modern Computer Network
- Nuclear Sites Lack Adequate Security
- Losing the Battle for Hearts and Minds
- DHS Still Getting Up to Speed
- Terrorist Watch List Mismanaged
- Poor Retention of Counterterrorism Staff
- Inability To Track Foreign Visitors to U.S.
- Lack of Due Process for Terrorism Suspects
- FBI Struggles To Confront Multiple Threats
- NORAD, FAA Unprepared for Aerial Attack
- U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Cartels
• Military
- False Premise for Going to War
- Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal
- Mismanagement at National Reconnaissance Office
- Poor Health Care for Veterans
- Failure To Regulate Security Contractors
- Pentagon Office’s Misleading Intelligence
- Military Failure To Secure Iraq After Invasion
- Lack of Armored Protection for Troops
- Pentagon’s Slow Adaptation to a War-footing
- Inadequate Planning for Post-Invasion Iraq
- Failure To Secure Weapons in Iraq
- Mismanagement of Major Weapons Acquisitions
- Veteran Disability Claims Languish
- Delay in Opening U.S. Embassy in Iraq
- Air Force Failure To Maintain Nuclear Weapons Accountability
- Taliban Resurgence in Afghanistan
- 190,000 Missing Weapons in Iraq
• Other
- NASA Inspector General Lack of Oversight
- NASA’s Failure To Ensure Safety in Human Space Flight
- Massive Backlog at Patent Office
- Census 2010 Stumbles at the Starting Line
- FCC Chairman Martin Under Fire
• Transportation
- Failing To Modernize Air Traffic Control
- Human Fatigue in Transport Accidents Still Unaddressed
- Close Calls on the Runway
- FAA in the Dark on Maintenance
- Record Delays in Air Travel
- FAA Inspectors Cozy Up to Airlines
- Highway Funding Woes
• White House
- Controversial Assertion of Executive Power
- Excessive Executive Secrecy
- Signing Statements Thwart Congressional Intent
- Vice President’s Office Exempts Itself From Information Safeguards
- Executive Office of the President “Loses†E-mails
The Bush Legacy
– Eight Years in Eight Minutes
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey