From The New York Times, 8/26/03:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/politics/26MEMO.html
Bush 'Compassion' Agenda: A Liability in '04?
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON --
President Bush is running for re-election as a "compassionate
conservative" who has sought to bring a new Republican approach to
poverty and other social ills.
Indeed, his campaign Web site is lush with a "compassion photo
gallery" showing him reading to schoolchildren, helping out at a soup
kitchen and visiting an AIDS treatment center in Africa.
But supporters, some administration officials among them, acknowledge
that Mr. Bush's "compassionate conservative" agenda has fallen so far
short of its ambitious goals, in a number of cases undercut by
pressure from his conservative backers, that they fear he will be
politically vulnerable on the issue in 2004.
At the same time, some religious supporters of Mr. Bush say they feel
betrayed by promises he made as a candidate and now, they maintain,
has broken as president.
"After three years, he's failed the test," said one prominent early
supporter, the Rev. Jim Wallis, leader of Call to Renewal, a network
of churches that fights poverty.
Mr. Wallis said Mr. Bush had told him as president-elect that "I don't
understand how poor people think," and appealed to him for help by
calling himself "a white Republican guy who doesn't get it, but I'd
like to."
Now, Mr. Wallis said, "his policy has not come even close to matching
his words."
Joshua B. Bolten, White House budget director and formerly Mr. Bush's
chief domestic policy adviser, responded in an interview last week by
saying that "I think that is one of the most unfair criticisms that
has been leveled against the president."
At issue is Mr. Bush's willingness to demand financing from Congress
on his signature "compassionate conservative" issues, like education
reform and AIDS, with the same energy he has spent to fight for tax
cuts and the Iraq war.
Critics say the pattern has been consistent:
The president, in eloquent speeches that make headlines, calls for
millions or even billions of dollars for new initiatives, then fails
to follow through and push hard for the programs on Capitol Hill.
On one central piece of such legislation, the so-called faith-based
bill to help religious charities, Mr. Bush, after two years of
objections from Democrats, retreated this spring and agreed to strip
the bill of provisions specifically related to religious groups.
Instead, it now largely offers tax incentives to encourage giving to
charities of all kinds.
On a proposal this summer to extend a $400-a-child tax credit to
low-income families, Mr. Bush at first demanded that Congress
appropriate the money, then backed off in the face of opposition from
his conservative allies in the House, most notably the majority
leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas.
The issue is now bottled up in a dispute between the House and the
more moderate Senate, and several Republican senators have called on
Mr. Bush to step in and break the impasse.
Financing for another item on Mr. Bush's compassion agenda, the
national volunteer program called AmeriCorps, faltered this summer
under similar opposition from Mr. DeLay.
Although Mr. Bush forcefully called for expanding that Clinton-era
program in his 2002 State of the Union address, he was largely silent
last month amid objections to a $100 million emergency infusion that
it needed to maintain its current level of operations.
The House rejected that spending, leaving AmeriCorps with an uncertain
future.
"Even the president is not omnipotent," Mr. Bolten said of the House
opposition to the AmeriCorps money.
"Would that he were. He often says that life would be a lot easier if
it were a dictatorship. But it's not, and he's glad it's a democracy."
Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat who called on the White House
to intercede with Republicans to help AmeriCorps, rejects that
argument, saying Mr. Bush has simply been unwilling to spend political
capital by standing up to Mr. DeLay.
________________________________________________
So ya see, Georgie? Being a "Bleeding Heart" ain't much fun. Poor
Georgie. The kid just can't seem ta be able ta do anything right.
Harry
.
|
