Lynn C. Woolsey: “when Ronald Reagan was running for President in 1980, he asked voters the question, ``Are you better off now than you…”

“when Ronald Reagan was running for President in 1980, he asked voters the question, ``Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?'' Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election, becoming the 40th President of the United States. Now, in the year 2004, the disarray of world events and the failed economic policies of the Bush administration force us to ask of the American people once more, ``Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?'' Since he became President in 2001, George W. Bush has enacted the infamous policy of preemption. This doctrine asserts that the United States has the right to attack any country that the President thinks may seek to attack the United States without having any proof to back up that assumption. Claiming this policy makes America safer against the threat of terrorism ignores the truth, that the war in Iraq has struck a hornet's nest of hatred in the Arab world against the United States for what it sees as a war against Islam. In his annual budget request, President Bush has pushed hard for billions of dollars to fund an unproven missile defense system and research on new, illegal nuclear weapons. He claims these enormous weapons systems will make America safer against the threat of terrorism, but vast defense spending has squandered money that should be spent at home on health care for the millions of uninsured, on retirement benefits for our Nation's veterans, and funding for new energy sources to stop our dependence on foreign oil.”