Ronald Reagan's Administration looted the U.S. Treasury, and current president Bush's Administration is, also, deliberately siphoning the wealth of working America from the Treasury and placing it into the pockets of wealthy Americans and their corporations. The consequent future deficits are expected to take their toll on social programs—including social security surpluses.

"Fascism" is a belief that advocates the marriage of business and government. Benito Mussolini, Italian partner of Adolph Hitler, gave this belief—or philosophy—its name. He, later said the name, more appropriately should have been "corporatism".

Mr. Bush has sent to Congress a $2.23-trillion budget recommending another $670-billion in tax cuts—mostly for the wealthy, which follows his $1.35-trillion tax cut in 2001. His Adminisraton also recommended for 2004 another big boost of nearly $400-billion for military and defense contractors, following a 2003 record boost.

"The president is pursuing a policy that will dramatically increase the republic's deficits, expand its debts, and accelerate its economy," said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota. It's obvious the Republican party is running true to form as the representative of America's wealthy families.

Both the Bush and Reagan policies are, also, removing many individual freedoms from current generations of Americans that past generations have given their blood and their lives to secure. Consequently, the U.S. is quietly and steadily heading down the path toward open fascism, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism.

Under the authority of the Patriot Act of October 2001, the FBI was given clearance to search library records and check reading preferences of suspected "terrorists." It's a practice that was stopped in the 1970s for fear of government abuse, but it seems to be perfectly acceptable to this Republican Administration. Before a search, however, the FBI must get approval from a secret court, but the new law threatens anyone mentioning an FBI visit to a library is with prosecution. How tyrannical!

Bush ordered the military to prepare a tribunal with the power to try terrorism suspects. Theoretically, the tribunal is to try only non-citizen suspects and guidelines indicate that Mr. Bush, alone, holds the power to decide who will be tried, and when and where the trials will be held. Trials are to be held in secret, away from public sight, giving the accused fewer rights than American citizens. This procedure establishes a double standard of justice in the U.S. and is reminiscent of the inquisitional methods the Nazis used during WWII.

The Pentagon plans to use the Army's Green Berets, the Navy's SEAL commandos, and the Air Corps special operations forces to hunt down and kill suspected terrorists. The 2004 military budget includes $1-billion to increase the size of these special forces.

The Administration reinstated a practice of cash bonuses for federal political appointees. The practice had been discontinued during the Clinton Administration when Mr. Clinton discovered that the first president Bush paid nearly $400,000 to political cronies and departing bureaucrats after he had lost the election. The decision to renew the policy was made March of 2002, but it wasn't announced until recently. The policy affects 21,00 administration appointees. The announcement came one week after Bush denied thousands of federal workers pay raises—asked by Congress —on the grounds of austerity and the need to tighten belts.

The president gave his State of the Union message and as before, his war talk consisted of implications, but few facts to back them. So we wonder, why accusations before proof? Is this how honest people behave? Are we to be suspicious and wonder if Mr. Bush's certainty of forthcoming proof is because American "intelligence" forces—namely the CIA—is busy planting or setting up such evidence? If you watched the TV talks-shows on the days following Mr. Bush's speech, many Americans were dubious of the president's claims, some accusing him of outright fearmongering and lying to the American people.

Mr. Bush also claimed aluminum tubes the Iraqis had tried to import were for a nuclear program and that "Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as... scientists... coached by Iraqi officials on what to say" The top nuclear inspector in Iraq, Mohamed ElBaradei, disputed Mr. Bush's claims by claiming that the tubes were obviously imported for rocket use and not nuclear, and that "we know all the scientists from the past and I think our people could easily detect whether a person is a scientist or not."

The day after Mr. Bush's speech, 11 of the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council supported giving inspectors more time to do their job. In Brussels, Belgium NATO, which had been asked by the U.S. to make preparations to protect Turkey from a retaliatory attack by Iraq, claimed that ordering military preparations now could harm UN efforts for Iraqi disarmament and preferred waiting for undeniable proof that the Iraqi dictator was, indeed, rearming

Mr Bush also claimed in his State of the Union talk that "more than 60 percent of international food aid comes as a gift from the people of the United States." He did not, however, clarify whether or not the people of the United States first bought this food from the agribusinesses who grew the food, or whether the food corporations donated the food. Nor did he reveal that although among the richest nation's, the U.S. foreign aid budget is among the lowest.

The Pentagon asked Congress to loosen environmental regulations on its millions of acres of military training ranges. "Protecting natural resources is not incompatible with protecting access to the land, air, and sea space necessary for that realistic combat training," said the deputy undersecretary of defense for installation and environment. "e;The essence of what they're saying is national defense requires destroying what it is they're trying to defend,"e; said Jeff Ruch, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Washington-based environmental organization. "And for the military on environmental issues to say, 'trust us' given their horrendous record, is insane."

In its annual survey of human rights, the Human Rights Watch said that the U.S. government's "tendency to ignore human rights in fighting terrorism is not only disturbing in its own right....the smoldering resentment it breeds risks generating terrorist recruits, puts off potential anti-terrorism allies, and weakens efforts to curb terrorist atrocities."

The general attorneys of nine Northeastern states filed suit against the federal government challenging its decision to modify the Clean Air Act of 1970. The changes would relax national industrial pollution restrictions for the first time since the act was passed into law. The states charge that the Administration exceeds its authority and undermines state efforts to adopt stricter protection.

The Administration's announcement that it proposes to change the rules by which the government regulates pollution of small waterways and the destruction of isolated wetlands has roused the hackles of environmentalists. They fear the new rules will dilute protections in the Clean Water Act to allow polluters to avoid having to get permits and developers to fill in more swamps and bogs.

A Republican majority passed changes to the House ethics rules that would allow charities to give lawmakers free travel and lodging at resorts, and makes it easier for lobbyists to send complimentary food to congressional offices. A Democratic effort to kill the bill was defeated.

The Administration is now demanding universities receiving grants for research, allow the government to approve the research before scientists can talk about it, and before papers are published. Some major universities have begun to turn down much needed government assistance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology refused a $404,000 grant because the government wanted to restrict participation by foreign students.