===============================
THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1316866&l=11328
===============================
BUSH TOUTS SMALL BUSINESS, PUTS BIG BUSINESS FIRST
President Bush is fond of telling small business owners how much he cares
about them. As he said on December 1st, "We want people to feel like if you
want to be a small business owner, there's a chance for you." But just four
days later, he showed his true colors in a visit to Home Depot - one of his
largest campaign contributors, and a company notorious for taking away
chances for small hometown businesses. In a moment of candor, the President
admitted "When a person has more money in their pocket, they're likely to
come to Home Depot" - not one of the small businesses Home Depot regularly
works to undercut and put out of business.
To make matters worse, when asked about why the President was touting such a
company, a White House spokeswoman said, "Home Depot represents all those
factors that have been keeping the economy going" - a direct insult to the
small businesses that the President purports to care about and that Home
Depot has decimated. The statement also seems to ignore the fact that during
a time of war, Home Depot refused to do business with the U.S. government
and military in order to avoid consumer protection laws.
Of course, the President has a reason to trumpet Home Depot despite these
concerns - Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus has given at least $321,000 in
hard money and $273,000 in soft money contributions to Republicans since
2000. And photo-ops are not the only way the President has gone to bat for
Home Depot over the interests of average people. Since 1999, "at least
three customers and five workers have been killed in accidents in Home
Depots," and in 2002, the number of OSHA violations at Home Depot jumped
45%. Instead of increasing federal oversight, President Bush's most recent
budget proposed cutting OSHA's budget.
Read the Mis-Lead -->
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1316866&l=11329
===========================================================
Subscribe to the Daily Mislead! Go to http://www.misleader.org and enter
your e-mail address in the "Receive the Daily Mislead" box in the
top-left corner of the page.
To unsubscribe send an email to latest@daily.misleader.org with only the
word "remove" in the subject line of your e-mail, or visit
http://daily.misleader.org/unsubscribe/ and follow the instructions
listed there.
