Promises to Keep

North Korea
Nov 2002: "We developed a bold approach under which, if the North addressed our long-standing concerns, the United States was prepared to take important steps that would have significantly improved the lives of the North Korean people. Now that North Korea's covert nuclear weapons program has come to light, we are unable to pursue this approach." [President's Statement, 11/15/02]
2003: "I have been charged by the President with making sure that none of the tyrannies in the world are negotiated with. We don't negotiate with evil; we defeat it." [Dick Cheney, quoted in American Progress]
June 2004: "[W]hat you would see would be some provisional or temporary proposals that would only lead to lasting benefit after North Korea dismantles its nuclear programs. So there would be some provisional or temporary efforts of that nature." [White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan]

Oil Prices
Campaign 2000: "What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots...And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price."
Apr 2004: As gas prices in the US continued to rise, the Miami Herald reported that Bush refused to "personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds."

Osama bin Laden
Sept 2001: The President says he wants bin Laden "dead or alive".
Mar 2002: "I just don't spend that much time on him. ... I truly am not that concerned about him." [Press Conference]
16 Jan 2003: "And one way to secure the peace is never to forget what happened to us on September the 11th, and hunt the killers down one by one and bring them to justice, which is what America is going to do." [Speech, Scranton PA]
Aug 2004: No mention of bin Laden in speech at Republican National Convention.

Social Security
Mar 2001: "We're going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding the Social Security surplus." Also, " [F]or years, politicians in both parties have dipped into the Trust Fund to pay for more spending. And I will stop it..."
Feb 2002: The New York Times: "[T]he president's new budget uses Social Security surpluses to pay for other programs every year through 2013, ultimately diverting more than $1.4 trillion in Social Security funds to other purposes."
Jan 2004: "In his first three budgets, Bush (who had the good fortune to take office at a time when the surpluses were growing rapidly) and Congress used $480 billion in excess Social Security payroll taxes to fund basic government operations — about $160 billion per year!" [Slate]
2005 Budget: Budget projections (Table S-10, receipts; Table S-12, outlays) show the entire Social Security surplus being used to fund the general government operations of government through at least FY 2009.

Troop Deployment - Nation Building
Campaign 2000: "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road."
Campaign 2000: "I'm worried about an opponent who uses nation-building and the military in the same sentence. See, our view of the military is for our military to be properly prepared to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place." [6 Nov 2000]
Sept 2002:"The American people know my position. And that is that regime change [in Iraq] is in the interest of the world." [CNN]
Oct 2002: A senior administration official said, "The administration, with its international partners, is doing something akin to nation-building... "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell confirmed...that Bush was considering, among other options, installing a U.S.-led occupation government if Hussein's regime is removed." [Baltimore Sun]
Mar 2003: "We will be changing the regime of Iraq, for the good of the Iraqi people."

War on Terror
Apr 2004: "One of the interesting things people ask me, now that we're asking questions, is, can you ever win the war on terror? Of course, you can."
Aug 2004: "I don't think you can win [the war on terror]."
Aug 2004: "Make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win [the war on terror]."

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