WASHINGTON (ABP) — Another former White House official has publicly criticized the Bush administration's efforts to support its “faith-based initiative.”
David Kuo, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, criticized his former colleagues for failing to back up their rhetoric on the plan with money and lobbying power.
In a column published Feb. 14 on the Internet site Beliefnet, Kuo noted that while he thought President Bush was sincere in his desire to provide more opportunities to fund government social services through religious charities, his administration did not live up to its promises to provide a larger pool of funding for all charity programs.
“There was minimal senior White House commitment to the faith-based agenda,” Kuo wrote, pointing out that Bush promised about $8 billion in funding for faith-based charities when he announced the initiative in 2000, during his first presidential campaign. However, only a small fraction of new funding has been delivered, and overall funding for social services remained essentially the same during Bush's first term. Meanwhile, overall government spending increased dramatically.
Responding to Kuo's charges during his regular Feb. 15 briefing, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan noted Bush had been aggressive in implementing aspects of the plan that made it easier for religious groups to compete for existing pools of federal funds, and blamed Congress for failing to increase the overall pool of funds significantly.
“Congress has to act, as well, on these efforts. We've made clear what our views are; we've called on Congress to act on those,” McClellan said.
But Kuo dismissed that argument.
“Capitol Hill gridlock could have been smashed by minimal West Wing effort,” he wrote. “No administration since LBJ's has had a more successful legislative track record than this one. From tax cuts to Medicare, the White House gets what the White House really wants. It never really wanted the 'poor people stuff.'”
However, Kuo also criticized “knee-jerk opposition” to the plan from Democrats in Congress concerned with church-state and discrimination issues. And he lambasted “secular liberal advocacy and interest groups,” which he said “attacked every little thing the faith initiative did.”
With his comments, Kuo became the second former official in the faith-based office to accuse the administration of failing to live up to its promises. The first director of the office, John DiIulio, quit only seven months after beginning. Later, he garnered headlines by criticizing the administration for playing politics with the initiative to drum up support among conservative Christians, but then putting little real muscle behind getting it completed.