Tax cut plan helps single people as well as families
Q: What is one example of something in your plans that would improve opportunities for single adults past their college years?
A: There are a number of examples in my plans to improve opportunities for single adults, from my proposed health insurance
credit to my proposal [for people to] invest a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes in personal retirement accounts. If I were to highlight just one example it would be the income tax relief that my plan provides to everyone. It improves the
opportunities for all single adults who pay income taxes because they can take more of their paycheck home. An accounting firm examined five hypothetical single taxpayers. Every one of them got a tax cut under my plan. Four out of five got no tax relief
under Al Gore’s plan. For example, a single person earning $40,000 a year pays $5,772 in federal taxes under current law and gets no income-tax relief under Gore’s plan. That same person would get a $496 income tax cut under my plan.
Source: Associated Press
Nov 6, 2000
Internet filters, ratings, & parental monitorinf for kids
Q: How can we protect children from inappropriate entertainment?
BUSH: You bet there’s things the government can do. We can work with the entertainment industry. We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent.
There ought to be filters in public libraries, and filters in public schools, so that if kids get on the Internet, there’s not going to be pornography or violence coming in. I think we ought to have character education in our schools.
I think we need to have rating systems that are clear. And I happen to like the idea of having technology for the TV, easy for parents to use, so you can tune out these programs that you don’t want in your house.
I’m going to remind mothers and dads: The best weapon is the off-on button, and paying attention to your children and eating dinner with them.
Source: St. Louis debate
Oct 17, 2000
Paying taxes hurts family time for middle class
Bush argued that because tax payments take up such a large percentage of families’ incomes, it effectively forced people to work more and spend less time at home. “Many middle class families work three jobs: his, hers and the joint responsibility of
raising children. High taxes rob families of time to be with each other, and be with their children.” He promised he would reduce taxes, making sure middle class Americans pay no more than 25 percent of their income to the federal government.
Source: Frank Bruni, NY Times
Sep 18, 2000
Blueprint: Focus on community; adoption; fatherhood; safety
The Bush plan will:
Empower parents to protect their children.Protect children from harmful material on the Internet.
Cut the marriage penalty.Provide a new deduction for couples that pay higher taxes merely because they are
married.
Support after-school programs. Provide funding to after-school programs and let community and faith-based groups compete for federal support to run these programs.
Keep families in crisis together.
Provide $1 billion for programs to help protect children.
Promote adoption. Expand and make permanent the Adoption Tax Credit, by increasing the $5,000 tax credit for adoption expenses to $7,500.
Promote strong fathers.
Provide support through mentoring, faith-based programs and community efforts.
Promote child safety in school and at home. Establish Project Sentry & Project ChildSafe.
Source: Blueprint for the Middle Class
Sep 17, 2000
Teach our children the values that defeat violence
My administration will encourage after-school programs that build character, and support mentoring groups that shape and save young lives. We must give our children a spirit of moral courage, because their character is our destiny.
Our schools must support the ideals of parents, elevating character and abstinence from afterthoughts to urgent goals. Most of all, we must teach our children the values that defeat violence.
Source: Speech to Republican National Convention
Aug 3, 2000
Fathers’ registry will promote involvement, responsibility
Bush today promoted a 1997 Texas law creating a Paternity Registry. Fathers of out-of-wedlock children must sign the registry to maintain a legal claim of parenthood. “This is a way to encourage responsibility on behalf of dads on one hand,
but on the other hand, if fathers refuse, for whatever reason, to be responsible, expedite adoptions. Every child deserves to grow up in a loving home with a father and a mother. Too often, however, fathers are absent from the lives of their children.
We need to provide a vehicle for fathers to formalize paternity. Our child welfare system, working in partnership with states and citizens in communities throughout America, must
do more to encourage fathers to care for their families or, failing that, to expedite adoption when that is the mother’s wish or the mandate of the state,“ Bush said.
Source: Ron Fournier in Washington Post
Jul 17, 2000
$75M to support veterans to mentor youth
Bush will outline plans for a five-year, $75 million effort to place former members of the armed forces in contact with youngsters. “There can be no more important mission today than to connect young people with veterans who can pass on the
qualities that have made their lives full and our democracy strong,” Bush said. His “Veterans Mission for Youth Initiative” would provide federal matching grants to community organizations that connect veterans & retired military personnel with the young.
Source: AP article in NY Times
Jul 13, 2000
$2.3 billion over 5 years for adoption & child welfare
Announcing his agenda to “ensure that every child lives in a secure, permanent, and loving family,” Bush today unveiled reforms to improve child-welfare services and make adoption easier for families.
The reform total $2.3 billion over 5 years. “The objectives of the federal-state child welfare system are safety, permanency, and healthy child development. Sadly, this system has failed. When
children come out of the system facing troubled lives, lost opportunities, and shattered dreams - that is
a tragedy. When the very system designed to help them has made them victims yet again - that is a crisis. And that is a call to action.“
Source: “Help for Families & Children”, part of “Renewing America”
Jul 11, 2000
Use Florida courts for Elian, not middle-of-the-night raids
When Elian’s mother gave her life to bring her son to the land of the free, she could not have possibly dreamed that it would have come to this. Ours is a nation of laws, not guns. Custody disputes are resolved in the calm of a courtroom, not in
the terror of middle-of-the-night raids. The Clinton-Gore administration says it was enforcing the law and had no alternative. But the law clearly gives the Attorney General the authority to have Elian’s custody determined by a Florida family court, a
court that exists to protect the best interests of children. All sides have claimed to be acting in Elian’s best interests, but surely no one can argue that taking a young boy at gunpoint is in his best interests. The INS initially recommended that a
Florida family court determine custody of Elian, and the administration should have followed that legal and responsible course. The moral authority of our law comes from the understanding it will be applied in a fair and measured way.
Source: Press Release
Apr 22, 2000
Promote abstinence in schools and via churches
Proposed spending at least as much on abstinence education as on teen contraception programs
Proposed ensuring that faith-based organizations can compete for federal abstinence education grants
Proposed studying the effectiveness of
federally funded sex education programs
Leave no child behind, via improving schools & health care
Q. If you could tell Americans one thing they need to know about your commitment as President to acting on behalf of children, what would you tell them?
A. I have worked to strengthen families, improve public schools, and increase access to quality health care so no child is left behind.
Source: National Association of Children’s Hospitals survey
Jan 8, 2000
More daycare funds; caseworkers; “Second Chance” homes
Bush’s 1999 legislative record included:
Increased funding for child care for low-income families.
Provided funding for an additional 380 child protective caseworkers to “rescue children before they become a tragic statistic.”
Provided
funds for four pilot “Second Chance” homes for unwed teenage moms.
Source: GeorgeWBush.com/News/ “1999 Texas Legislative Record”
Jun 25, 1999
Abstinence Ed should get funded as much as Sex Ed
Bush has long supported sexual abstinence for unmarried couples...announced that if he were elected president, the federal government would channel as much money into abstinence education as it spends on sex education. “The twin epidemics of teen
pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease are a major problem for the future of America,” Bush said.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jun 22, 1999
Appropriate to draw a moral line for children
Some people think it’s inappropriate to draw a moral line. Not me. For our children to have the lives we want for them, they must learn to say yes to responsibility, yes to family, yes to honesty and work. What can be done? We can give schools and
principals more authority to discipline children. We must encourage states to reform their juvenile justice laws. We must say to our children, “We love you, but discipline and love go hand in hand, and there will be bad consequences for bad behavior.”
Source: Candidacy Announcement speech, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Jun 12, 1999
V-chip OK, but cultural changes are better
On questions relating to the influence of popular culture, Bush said he had no problem with Clinton’s initiative to require a V-chip in televisions that parents could use to block objectionable material. He also said the kind of ‘tools’ for parents
Clinton has proposed (such as the V-chip and a television rating system) are less important than cultural changes. “The fundamental question is going to be, can America rededicate itself to parenting as the No. 1 priority for all of us?” he argued.
Source: (cross-ref to Technology) L.A. Times
May 1, 1999
Enforce child protection and child support
Our youngest Texans need our help. Last year, 176 children were killed by abusive parents or caretakers. For every one who dies, countless others suffer in anonymity. This breaks my heart. I urge you to increase funding so our child protection agency
can hire 380 new caseworkers to rescue children before they become a tragic statistic. The early years are critical ones, so I ask you to support the First Lady’s early childhood initiative and to give our Attorney General more tools to enforce child sup
Source: 1999 State of the State Address, Austin TX
Jan 27, 1999
Teach kids right (abstinence) and wrong (drugs & gangs)
We must teach our children right from wrong. We live in a culture of moral indifference, where movies and videos glamorize violence and tolerance is touted as a great virtue. Respect for other ideas must not be confused with tolerance of actions that are
harmful. There are right choices in life and wrong choices. We must teach our children to say no to drugs & alcohol, no to violence & gangs and yes to staying in school, yes to making healthy choices and yes to abstaining from sex until marriage.
