Tom Daschle in State of the Union address
On Education:
Bush has not upheld NCLB deal with schools
Two years ago, the president signed a new education law. The heart of that law was a promise: The federal government would set high standards for every student and hold schools responsible for results. In exchange, schools would receive the
resources to meet the new standards. America’s schools are holding up their end of the bargain; the president has not held up his. Millions of children are being denied the better teachers, smaller classes and extra help that they were promised.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Education:
Our children deserve affordable college
The president’s tax cuts have put states in such a bind they’re being forced to raise the cost of college. Since President Bush took office, the average tuition at a four-year public college has increased nearly $600.
The America that our parents gave us was a place in which everyone had a chance to go to a good school and then to college, community college or vocational school, regardless of family income. Our children deserve nothing less.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Health Care:
More people without insurance under Bush
Our opportunity society is built on the belief that affordable, available health care is not a luxury but a basic foundation for a truly compassionate society. Today, 43 million Americans-almost all of them from working families-have no health insurance.
That’s over 3 million more than when President Bush took office. Those Americans lucky enough to have health insurance have seen their premiums go up each of the last three years. The increase in premiums that middle-income families have seen over the
past three years is actually larger than the four-year tax cut that they’ve been promised. This is an invisible tax increase on middle- class families.
Tonight, the president acknowledged that the rapidly rising cost of health care and the increasing
number of Americans with no health coverage are problems. But the tax cuts he proposed are not a solution. Tax cuts will do little to make health care more affordable, and they will weaken health coverage for those who have it now.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Health Care:
Allow more affordable drugs via Canadian imports
We believe that the federal government should use the power of 40 million Americans to lower prescription drug prices and to allow us to get more affordable drugs from Canada, instead of forbidding both.
Drug companies and insurance companies are the only ones who benefit from that restriction, not the American people, and that’s why we want to change it.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Jobs:
Make America an opportunity society
Rather than a society that restricts its rewards to a privileged few, we need an opportunity society that allows all Americans to succeed.
Our opportunity society has at its foundation good jobs, a solid education and quality health care that is affordable and available. Our first challenge is to strengthen the economy-the right way.
The true test of America’s economic recovery is not measured simply in quarterly profit reports; it’s measured in jobs.
To make up for the 3 million private-sector jobs that have been lost on the president’s watch, the economy would have to create 226,000 jobs a month through the end of his term. Last month, the economy created only 1,000 new jobs. That’s not good enough.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Principles & Values:
A union as strong as the American people
Only when every American who wants to work can, when every child goes to a good school and has the opportunity to go further, only when health care is available and affordable for every American,
when a lifetime of work guarantees retirement with dignity, and when America is secure at home and our strength abroad is respected, not resented-only then will we have a union as strong as the American people.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Social Security:
Keep retirement promise instead of Endowment for Democracy
In his State of the Union speech, the president asked us to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy. He asked us to make permanent the tax cuts already passed.
And he asked us to use Social Security money to pay for it. We believe that we have to honor the promises we’ve made to the millions of families who worked hard, played by the rules and have earned a retirement of dignity.
And in our vision of an opportunity society, promises made to those who have worked a lifetime will be honored in retirement.
That’s why we believe that America’s pension system needs to be strengthened and that Social Security’s benefit should a guarantee, not a gamble.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
On Tax Reform:
Good cuts create jobs-Bush’s cuts created economic exodus
The massive tax cuts that were supposed to spark an economic expansion have instead led to an economic exodus. America can’t afford to keep rewarding the accumulation of wealth over the dignity of work.
Instead of borrowing even more money to give more tax breaks to companies so that they can export even more jobs, we propose tax cuts and policies that will strengthen our manufacturing sector and create good jobs at good wages here at home.
Source: Democratic Response to the 2004 State of the Union address
Jan 20, 2004
Page last updated: Feb 23, 2019