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by Mark Silva
A few years back, President Bush had a practice of meeting certain people along the routes of his campaign travels: “Tax families.’’ People who symbolized the savings to be reaped from the president’s first-term tax cuts, with details of each family’s savings.
These days, the president is meeting a different mix of people: Many who symbolize the policy that has come to dominate his second term. Call them war families.
As he returned from a campaign-styled appearance in Cleveland last week, the president stepped off of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base and on to a huge C-17 military transport at the base which was carrying about 30 wounded members of the Army and Marines who had flown in from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
Most of the war-wounded being transported by the Mississippi Air National Guard were bound for the Bethesda Naval Medical Center or Walter Reed Army Medical Center and some were headed to a burn unit in San Antonio. Some were on stretchers, some amputees in “very critical’’ condition, according to the White House. Some were unable to speak, the president spent about 20 minutes with them, privately.
On Thursday, as the president arrived at the Tennessee Air National Guard base at Nashville International Airport, en route to a campaign-styled appearance in Nashville, he was greeted by Sgt. James Kevin Downs of the Army National Guard, who had lost both legs to an improvised explosive device and rocket propelled grenade attack in Iraq in August 2005.
Downs, 21, sat in a mechanized wheelchair, his hair shorn close, dark sunglasses wrapped around his eyes and the two stumps of his legs exposed in the heat of the tarmac.
As he waited for the president to step out of Air Force One, Downs held an arm up to shield his eyes from the sun. His mother, Cathy, standing beside him, held a paper over his head to shade him. His father, Joe, stood on the other side wearing shorts, sneakers and a red-white-and-blue shirt.
The president descended the stairs, reached down and hugged Downs, and then lingered for several minutes with words inaudible to the pool reporters at the wing of the aircraft. Bush posed for photographs with Downs and his parents, of Kingston Springs, Tenn., then headed to his motorcade.
Later, in the presidential ballroom of the Opryland Convention Center, where Bush praised his budget cuts and health care plans and fielded questions about immigration and the war in a town hall-styled session in which he paced the stage with a hand-held microphone, as he had done the week before in Cleveland, Bush acknowledged a special guest who had joined him in the audience: Downs.
“There’s no more amazing experience than to meet those who have served in harm's way and to realize the strength of spirit of American citizens who volunteer during a time of danger,’’ Bush said.
“And one of the young men I have met during my presidency -- I did so in my home state of Texas -- who is with us today, a man who is recovering from terrible injury, but has never lost the spirit of life: Kevin Downs,’’ the president said, acknowledging the soldier’s parents as well.
“He's a good man,’’ Bush said of Downs. “We're going to get him some new legs, and if he hurries up, he can outrun me on the South Lawn of the White House.’’
Comments
The reason he isn't meeting the "tax families" nowadays is because they were set up to help a few regular people in the very begining but help only the richest in the later years.
Posted by: bill r. | July 20, 2007 6:53 AM
I am one of the tax families that are being destroyed by the IRS. I am a single parent that has a tax debt that belongs to my ex-husband and a child with a chronic disease. Because the ex-husband is slippery and they are unable to do anything to him, they have crucified me. Not only am I unable to received the child support that was ordered by the courts, the IRS now has decided to take 75% of my net income, which will drive me directly into poverty and possibly homelessness. This administration is brutalizing the regular working class!
Posted by: Linda | July 20, 2007 7:53 AM
Gee I thought that your not supposed to use the military as photo ops. George Bush breaking laws wherever he goes.
Posted by: david | July 20, 2007 8:35 AM
Bill R., I know reality and your world have little to do with one another. But Bush tax cuts, cut for everyone. If you were in the 28 percent bracket, it's now 25 percent. If you make less than $18,000, you pay no federal income taxes. If you have children, the tax credit per child was doubled. If you are married, the marriage penalty was removed. All of these help the middle class and lower classes today, yesterday and tomorrow.
Posted by: John D | July 20, 2007 8:49 AM
The article should be aptly entitled: "bush meets his victims". Clearly, this man is delusional to think someone is honored by his presence. He has caused the world to shudder in pain and agony; and has scarred a generation with his stupidity. How can he speak honorably about the pain of those he sacrifices for his warped logic? A special wing in hell is being built for this guy.
Posted by: EL | July 20, 2007 9:27 AM
The big phony! Why doesn't he do somethinbg about the abuse to our service men like freeing the eight marines accused by an enemy; stop the harasssment of Col Chessani; free the two border patrol men doing their duty and accused by a filthy drug dealer. Come on Prez, get real, put your action where your mouth is.
Posted by: John Powers | July 20, 2007 9:48 AM
How about instead of meeting the wounded, Bush could take the time to look at a pardon for the two border patrol agents? I saw him yesterday say, "they were convicted by a jury of their peers" so he doesn't see any reason. Yet he can set his buddy Libby free before he spends a day in jail. Honor among thieves I guess.
Posted by: bill r. | July 20, 2007 10:09 AM
On the fight against the terrorists, reporters like Mark Silva should be talking to soldiers like Kevin Downs, rather than talking to Beltway pundits and politicians.
Posted by: Bruce | July 20, 2007 10:31 AM
“He's a good man,’’ Bush said of Downs. “We're going to get him some new legs, and if he hurries up, he can outrun me on the South Lawn of the White House.’’
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New legs! Goodie Goodie! You are so kind and wise, Dear Leader. The old legs had more than 20 years of wear and tear and, frankly, carried some unsightly hair, not to mention a sweat pimple or two. If I'd have known things would be so great, I'd have gotten my arms blown off too!
Posted by: a blinkin | July 20, 2007 10:32 AM
Here's a little reality for you John D...Under the Bush tax plan, taxpayers in the top fifth of the income scale, except the top one percent, would see their apparent tax cuts sharply reduced because the President's tax cut plan would push millions of these taxpayers into the Alternative Minimum Tax. The "AMT," as the name implies, is an alternative income tax that taxpayers must pay if it exceeds their regular income tax. The AMT was originally intended to curb upper-income tax sheltering, but because its brackets have not been adjusted for inflation, it threatens to affect many taxpayers without shelters over the upcoming decade.
Posted by: bill r. | July 20, 2007 11:06 AM
Linda, did you guys jointly file? Who did your taxes? Did you have full knowledge of your tax returns? Did you get most everything from your husband in the divorce: money, the home, etc?
If you got the money and you filed jointly when married, then you are liable. If you defrauded the government in a joint return, then you are both guilty. If your husband did something otherwise and you had no knowledge of it and can prove it, then the IRS may change focus.
The Bush administration is not responsible for your situation nor has anything to do with it!
Posted by: John D | July 20, 2007 11:53 AM