Let’s do four more quick Bush flip flops.
First up is the Bush position on tax credits for fuel efficient vehicles. The AP reports:
It was just two years ago that Bush mocked such a tax credit proposal when it was part of then-Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign platform. The tax credit is now part of Bush's energy plan, which is stalled in the Senate.
Next is Mr. Bush’s widely reported flip flop on the issues of same sex marriage and states rights. CNN reports that during an appearance on Larry King Live during the 2000 campaign, King asked Bush “"If a state were voting on gay marriage, you would suggest to that state not to approve it?" Bush responded “the state can do what they want to do.” Now, of course, Mr. Bush wants a constitutional amendment to make sure that states can not do anything they want.
The third flip flop concerns Mr. Bush’s position on a Texas version of a Patient’s Bill of Rights. As Governor of Texas, George W. Bush opposed such a law. Salon reports:
Bush fought such a bill tooth and nail as Texas governor, vetoing a bill coauthored by Republican state Rep. John Smithee in 1995. He had his insurance commissioner draft into law some of the less controversial bits of the bill -- like letting women choose gynecologists as their primary-care doctors -- but constantly opposed a patient's right to sue an HMO over coverage denied that resulted in adverse health effects. Faced with a vetoproof majority in 1997, he had his legislative aide, Vance McMahan, do everything he could to sabotage the bill, to the point that Republican legislators complained on the floor of the Texas Senate. Then, faced with a vetoproof majority, Bush let the bill become law without his signature.
During the 2000 Presidential campaign, Mr. Bush flip flopped, saying:
I do support a national patient's bill of rights. As a matter of fact, I brought Republicans and Democrats together to do just that in the State of Texas to get a patient's bill of rights through."
Mr. Bush really is shameless.
Today’s final flip flop has to do with the funding of the Sarbanes-Oakley bill providing for enhanced SEC oversight of corporate misdeeds. I first reported on this flip flop here.
When signing the bill, Mr. Bush said:
My administration pressed for greater corporate integrity. A united Congress has written it into law. And today I sign the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This new law sends very clear messages that all concerned must heed. This law says to every dishonest corporate leader: you will be exposed and punished; the era of low standards and false profits is over; no boardroom in America is above or beyond the law…
Corporate misdeeds will be found and will be punished. This law authorizes new funding for investigators and technology at the Securities and Exchange Commission to uncover wrongdoing. The SEC will now have the administrative authority to bar dishonest directors and officers from ever again serving in positions of corporate responsibility …
This law gives my administration new tools for enforcement. We will use them to the fullest…
It is now my honor to sign the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Once Mr. Bush had reaped the political benefit of the signing ceremony, he quickly reversed course on actually funding the measure. As I previously wrote:
The New York Times reports that the White House now opposes the increased funding of the SEC called for under Sarbanes-Oxley. That funding is necessary to accomplish the goals Mr. Bush lauded at the signing ceremony (the Times story is now behind the $ wall, the abstract of the story is here).
Even Harvey Pitt, Bush’s handpicked Chairman of the SEC, has acknowledged that the level of funding now supported by the White House would not allow for the proposed new enforcement provisions. The level of funding supported by the White House ... does not allow for new initiatives according to Mr. Pitt’s spokesman.
