I’ve got your “compassionate conservatism” right here.
In one of the first signs of the effects of the ever tightening federal budget, in the past two months the Bush administration has reduced its contributions to global food aid programs aimed at helping millions of people climb out of poverty.
With the budget deficit growing and President Bush promising to reduce spending, the administration has told representatives of several charities that it was unable to honor some earlier promises and would have money to pay for food only in emergency crises like that in Darfur, in western Sudan. The cutbacks, estimated by some charities at up to $100 million, come at a time when the number of hungry in the world is rising for the first time in years and all food programs are being stretched.
To you and me, $100 million is an enormous amount of money. To the federal budget, it’s hardly significant.
The affects of Bush’s funding cut will be felt quickly by those who can afford it least. What’s worse, it’s a reversal — yes, a flip-flop — from what the White House had promised before.
As a result, Save the Children, Catholic Relief Services and other charities have suspended or eliminated programs that were intended to help the poor feed themselves through improvements in farming, education and health.
“We have between five and seven million people who have been affected by these cuts,” said Lisa Kuennen, a food aid expert at Catholic Relief Services. “We had approval for all of these programs, often a year in advance. We hired staff, signed agreements with governments and with local partners, and now we have had to delay everything.”
A little Christmas president from the “family values” president to the world. Or, as my friend J.B. put it, this is Bush’s “war on poverty.”