David Kuo, who served as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has written a column critical of the Bush presidency that was published today on Beliefnet.com. Kuo asserts that the George W. Bush never made much of an effort to implement his faith-based initiative designed to assist those living in poverty.

In December 2001, for instance, Sen. Daschle approached the Domestic Policy Council with an offer to pass a charity relief bill that contained many of the president's campaign tax incentive policies plus new money for the widely-popular and faith-based-friendly Social Services Block Grant. The White House legislative affairs office rolled their eyes while others on senior staff yawned. We had to leave the offer on the table.

They could afford to. Who was going to hold them accountable? Drug addicts, alcoholics, poor moms, struggling urban social service organizations, and pastors aren't quite the NRA. Charities haven't quite figured out the lobbying thing yet. More significantly, over time it became clearer that the White House didn't have to expend any political capital for pro-poor legislation. The initiative powerfully appealed to both conservative Christians and urban faith leaders - regardless of how much money was being appropriated.

Conservative Christian donors, faith leaders, and opinion makers grew to see the initiative as an embodiment of the president's own faith. Democratic opposition was understood as an attack on his personal faith. And since this community's most powerful leaders - men like James Dobson of Focus on the Family - weren't anti-poverty leaders, they didn't care about money. The Faith-Based Office was the cross around the White Houses' neck showing the president's own faith orientation. That was sufficient.

Kuo also blames secular liberal groups and democrats that opposed the President’s faith based initiative.  I chaired the faith based initiative policy committee of the National Coalition for the Homeless when the president first proposed his faith based effort. We opposed the plan – just as the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church did. Many denominations, in fact, opposed the president’s plan because it didn’t include any substantial new funding and we knew the promise of poverty relief could never occur if the president’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans were passed. The Bush economic agenda breeds poverty. That fact is demonstrated in the increase in poverty levels during his tenure.

Bush’s former assistant does get part of the story right: this White House has never done much to help those living in poverty. The budget presented this month by the president cuts back even more on anti-poverty programs to help pay for those tax cuts for the wealthy. Kuo says that he is speaking out now because the “White House can still do a great deal for the poor. It can add another few billion to insure every American child has health care. It could launch a program to simply eliminate hunger. Groups like America's Second Harvest have the plan. Bump up the Compassion Capital Fund to $500 million a year and be marveled by change.” Don’t hold your breath, Mr. Kuo. This president just doesn’t give a damn.

Photo credit:  Whitehouse.gov