Bush Administration Spent Over $1.6 Billion on Advertising and Public Relations Contracts Since 2003, GAO Finds

“The government is spending over a billion dollars per year on PR and advertising,” said Rep. Waxman. “Careful oversight of this spending is essential given the track record of the Bush Administration, which has used taxpayer dollars to fund covert propaganda within the United States.”

This is just truly amazing.

“The extent of the Bush Administration’s propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing,” said Rep. Miller. “The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription drug prices, high gas prices, and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this Administration’s priorities for the country and I would hope that my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle would agree that changes need to be made to reign in the President’s propaganda machine.”

Why don't they just establish the Ministry of Propaganda, and get it over with.

Democrats requested that GAO conduct the study after evidence emerged last year that the Bush Administration had commissioned “covert propaganda” from public relations firms. Several federal departments had hired firms to develop “video new releases” to promote department initiatives which appeared to television viewers to be independent newscasts. Other revelations that triggered the GAO report included the disclosure that the Department of Education paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on the radio and in his columns.

The deficit is soaring, and this administration cut basic programs that helped the poor, the starving and the old, in order to afford the continued billion being spent on propoganda. This administration spends more of the taxpayer's money on selling bogus ideas, when it could actually use the money to beef up existing programs. But, that would be an intelligent idea, and that's not what this administration is about.

GAO’s accounting of the Bush Administration’s public relations and advertising contracts is limited. GAO surveyed only seven of the 15 cabinet-level departments, relied on self-reported information from the agencies, and did not include subcontracts, task orders on existing contracts, or public relations work done by government employees.

See, that's only half of the departments. You can double that Billion Dollar amount.

Secrecy, greed, manipulation, lying, deceit are the current attributes of this administration.