Conservative Compassion

While Maine officials tried to put a good face on the situation, the news was still bad: The AmeriCorps program in Maine will be cut by more than one-half. True, this is better than earlier this summer when the downsizing was more to the tune of 90 percent. Still, it is disheartening that a president who ran on a platform of “compassionate conservatism” and even praised AmeriCorps in speeches allowed the program to be gutted.

Yes, there were problems with the program’s bookkeeping and financial planning, but that does not mean that its funding should be so drastically cut. In fact, President Bush vowed to increase the size of AmeriCorps by 50 percent to 75,000 volunteers nationwide. Instead, it was cut by more than half as lawmakers in Washington failed to agree on a budget that would allow the program to continue to operate at current levels. In Maine, that means 66 volunteer positions will be available on Sept. 1 instead of 165. More importantly, it means that children will not be tutored, affordable housing not built and parks not cleaned.

When it became clear AmeriCorps was in trouble, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins joined a large group of colleagues in urging the president to include $200 million in a supplemental budget to keep the program running. He didn’t and Sen. Snowe then led efforts to include $100 million in the Senate’s appropriations bill. The House, however, did not include the money in its bill. Now, Sen. Snowe has vowed to work to include the funding in the Veterans Affairs-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill to be debated this fall.

A bill that was passed by Congress and signed by the president requires that changes be made to AmeriCorps funding system and that an independent audit of its funding formula be undertaken. These changes are warranted and should silence criticism that the program deserves less money because of past financial management problems.

The AmeriCorps debacle is one example cited in a Tuesday New York Times story that recounts how the Republicans’ compassionate conservatism agenda has failed to live up to its billing. While the president makes speeches about the need for new initiatives to help those most in need, there has been little action behind the rhetoric. In addition to allowing AmeriCorps to be cut in half, President Bush told Congress to include millions of low-income families in the increase in the child tax credit, but then watched as House Republicans ignored his word and allowed them to be denied the $400-a-child checks that were sent to other families this summer. Funding for the sweeping No Child Left Behind school improvement initiatives and for the global fight against AIDS has also fallen short of what the president initially called for.

In Bangor to raise money and sign up members for the party, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie discounted such criticism saying there are different definitions of compassion.

Most people would agree, however, that watching a highly successful program that you have touted being cut to the core isn’t very compassionate.