By David Swanson
Who even remembered that Bush lied to the public and the Congress (by the way, that’s a felony) during his effort to destroy Medicare? Well, Congressman Dennis Kucinich remembered. He made that act into Article Number 30 of his 35 articles of impeachment. But there’s no reason he couldn’t have pulled out a dozen other similar incidents or even patterns of incidents. There is every reason to take him seriously when he threatens to come back in a month with 60 articles of impeachment, if by that time the House Judiciary Committee has not acted on the first batch. And perhaps at that point, Congressman Kucinich will force a vote on the floor on the question of impeachment. Perhaps, as he has already hinted, he won’t go it alone but share the podium with colleagues. Or perhaps the threat of unrelenting pressure will restore the impeachment power to our Constitution in less than 30 days. Already there are Democrats sounding more positive on impeachment than they ever have before, and Republicans saying they’d vote for it if it was put to a vote.
Crimes that we yawn at because they’re committed by Bush would stand out as horrors during someone else’s presidency. This one is no exception:
ARTICLE XXX
MISLEADING CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN AN ATTEMPT TO DESTROY MEDICARE
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed”, has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice President, pursued policies which deliberately drained the fiscal resources of Medicare by forcing it to compete with subsidized private insurance plans which are allowed to arbitrarily select or not select those they will cover; failing to provide reasonable levels of reimbursements to Medicare providers, thereby discouraging providers from participating in the program, and designing a Medicare Part D benefit without cost controls which allowed pharmaceutical companies to gouge the American taxpayers for the price of prescription drugs.
The President created, manipulated, and disseminated information given to the citizens and Congress of the United States in support of his prescription drug plan for Medicare that enriched drug companies while failing to save beneficiaries sufficient money on their prescription drugs. He misled Congress and the American people into thinking the cost of the benefit was $400 billion. It was widely understood that if the cost exceeded that amount, the bill would not pass due to concerns about fiscal irresponsibility.
A Medicare Actuary who possessed information regarding the true cost of the plan, $539 billion, was instructed by the Medicare Administrator to deny Congressional requests for it. The Actuary was threatened with sanctions if the information was disclosed to Congress, which, unaware of the information, approved the bill. Despite the fact that official cost estimates far exceeded $400 billion, President Bush offered assurances to Congress that the cost was $400 billion, when his office had information to the contrary. In the House of Representatives, the bill passed by a single vote and the Conference Report passed by only 5 votes. The White House knew the actual cost of the drug benefit was high enough to prevent its passage. Yet the White House concealed the truth and impeded an investigation into its culpability.
In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.
You can say that again.
And again.
And again.