What Bush said: The bait:
The proposal, part of the president's "Clear Skies" legislation awaiting congressional action, would for the first time regulate mercury emissions from their largest source, coal-fired power plants. Mercury pollution is linked to several public health problems, and the Clinton administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new regulations on power plants beginning in 2007.
When Bush took office, he extended the deadline, calling for power plants to reduce mercury emissions by 46 percent as of 2010, and 70 percent by 2018.
(Yes, extending a deadline on pumping a poisonous heavy metal into the air, with this administration, is bait.)
What Bush did: The switch:
Some environmentalists say the administration, by design or mishap, has virtually invited Republican lawmakers to weaken what they considered a weak bill to begin with. "They touted it as a big initiative, and now they are quietly tiptoeing away from it," said Frank O'Donnell of the Clean Air Trust.
You can bet that the same bait and switch will happen with the prescription drug benefit.
Watch what they do, not what they say...