Demagogue

Dubya talked a good game about exporting freedom and liberty in his inauguration speech. He exulted over the Iraqi election. But where the rubber meets the road, he apparently doesn't give a damn about democracy at home.

The excellent but wonky electionline.org reports the following on its "alerts" page:

February 8, 2005 ALERT -- Good news, bad news in President's budget

President Bush's fiscal year 2006 (FY06) budget has both good news and bad news for election reform.

The good news is that the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is slated for a $4 million increase from $14 million to $18 million. The increase is split evenly between $2 million for research and $2 million for travel and administrative costs of the Commission.

The bad news is that the White House is not requesting any additional funds at this time for Help America Vote Act grants to states.

Details are available in an excerpt from the President's budget located at site/docs/pdf/White.House.EAC.budget.2005.pdf (EAC piece begins halfway down the first column).

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was passed in the aftermath of the 2000 fiasco. It was a compromise between Democrats who wanted votes to be counted accurately and Republicans who wanted to stop poor people from voting prevent fraud. Grants to states are essential to the former goal. HAVA required states to submit plans for how they were going to upgrade their voting machines. The feds were supposed to chip in a bunch of money for this expensive process. Considering that the state plans are supposed to be implemented by the 2006 election, not appropriating any money for grants in the next budget seems, shall we say, unhelpful. At best, Bush has created that GOP bogeyman, an unfunded mandate. At worst, he's pissed away the best chance in a generation to get reliable voting equipment into the (largely poor and minority) precincts that sorely need them. (By the way, the $4 million increase for the EAC is nice, but it's a fraction of the amount required actually to do something about the problem, even if it's enough to fly commissioners around to find out how bad it really is out there).

And just in case you think that was an oversight, check out this:

January 25, 2005 ALERT -- HAVA House co-sponsors urge full funding

The two House co-sponsors of the Help America Vote Act, House Administration Chairman Bob Ney (R-OH) and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD), sent a letter yesterday to Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolten requesting that the White House Fiscal Year 2006 budget include full funding for HAVA. The FY05 budget included no funds for HAVA grants to states, and HAVA is currently underfunded by over $850 million. The Ney-Hoyer letter, which can be read here, calls upon the Bush Administration to address that shortfall in the FY06 budget.

That's right: Bob "Freedom Fries" Ney, a tool of the banking lobby and a conservative Republican if there ever was one (and from Ken Blackwell's Ohio, no less), asked for this to be fixed. And it wasn't. That's two years running with zero money for election improvements. Considering that the states had until at least 2003 (it might have been early 2004; I can't remember exactly) to come up with their plans, that failure speaks volumes about the President's commitment to enabling states to follow through.

Oh, well, why should voters be any different from African AIDS victims, New Yorkers, and Martians, among others to whom Dubya has promised much and delivered little?

By the way, if you're interested in the Dems' spin on their new proposal to improve HAVA itself, look here.