Bush misleads public: In debate denied owning timber company


Bush's Timber Company

Kerry: The president got $84 from a timber company that owns, and he's
counted as a small business. Dick Cheney's counted as a small
business. That's how they do things. That's just not right.

Bush: I own a timber company?

That's news to me.

(LAUGHTER)

Bush's Timber-Growing Company

Bush got a laugh when he scoffed at Kerry's contention that he had
received $84 from "a timber company." Said Bush, "I own a timber
company? That's news to me."

In fact, according to his 2003 financial disclosure form, Bush does
own part interest in "LSTF, LLC", a limited-liability company
organized "for the purpose of the production of trees for commercial
sales." (See "supporting documents" at right.)

So Bush was wrong to suggest that he doesn't have ownership of a
timber company. And Kerry was correct in saying that Bush's definition
of "small business" is so broad that Bush himself would have qualified
as a "small business" in 2001 by virtue of the $84 in business income.