2004


 * 2004**

As we enter into the year 2004 we lose our former president Reagan may he rest in peace. **More Problems for the U.S.** While Bush was charging ahead with the attacks on Iraq the UN was sending inspectors to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction. At first Saddam blocked the UN from searching certain areas but then allowed the inspectors back. The inspectors found no such weapons. Bush continued his attacks with on of his goals of war to eliminate Iraqi weapons but even he had to admit there were no WMD's. "President Bush and his vice president conceded yesterday in the clearest terms yet that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, trying to shift the Iraq war debate to a new issue – whether the invasion was justified because Hussein was abusing a U.N. oil-for-food program."(Lindlaw). Meanwhile bush was dealing with other problems back home in the U.S. **Increase in Debt.** In 2004 the U.S. expierenced an $800 billion increase in the nations debt. Bush signed a legislation increasing the governments debt limit by $800 billion allowing Congress to send in a $388 billion spending bill to finance federal agency's. The new borrowing limit is $8.18 trillion(70% of U.S. economy) and more than $2.4 trillion higher than the debt Bush started with in 2001. Meanwhile changes were occuring in Massachusetts. Mass. **Legalizes Gay marriage.** ""We declare that barring an individual from the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts constitution," Chief Justice Margaret Marshall wrote in the 4-3 decision."(Burge). The ruling wouldn't take effect for 180 to allow the Legislation to take action in light of this decision but it did not have the power to overrule it.