On
60 Minutes last night, David Kuo, who was the second in command in the president's
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, spoke about his new book in which he claims the Bush Administration essentially used the office for political ends despite the president's insistence that it remain non-partisan.
Among the claims, Kuo said administration officials mocked evangelical leaders, used the faith office to entice voters for Republican candidates and shortchanged the office by hundreds of millions of dollars that was supposed to combat poverty among other things. During the 2000 campaign, Kuo said, Bush proposed "for the first time that would spend $8 billion on programs for the poor.
"I think it's one of the most important political speeches given in the last generation. I really do," says Kuo. "It laid out a whole new philosophy for Republicans."
In its first two years, the faith-based office received about $60 million.
"When you hold it up to a promise of $8 billion, I don't know how good I am at math, but I know that's less than one percent of a promise," says Kuo.
Kuo's claims that the administration used the office to help Republicans win political races will no doubt receive the bulk of attention and hopefully will be formally investigated. But I think an equally significant comment is what he said about the lack of attention paid to poverty among evangelical groups. When he took "60 Minutes" on a tour at a convention of evangelical groups, he sought any reference to the poor.
"You've got homosexuality in your kid's school, and you've got human cloning, and partial birth abortion and divorce and stem cell," Kuo remarked. "Not a mention of the poor."
He pointed out indifference among the religious right on this subject, but I'll take it a step further. Most of us - the public, media and lawmakers - are indifferent. I myself give poverty lip service in attention, aid and attitude.
How many times have I ignored a homeless man holding up a sign along a roadway or ramp or along a sidewalk? How many times have I looked away or lowered my eyes? When's the last time I donated to a shelter? When is the last time I lobbied my representative on the issue? How many times have you?
According to the Census Bureau, the official poverty rate in 2005 was 12.6 percent, or about 37 million people. The rate has steadily worsened since 2000. According to 2004 statistics, the poverty threshold for one person is $9,645 and for a family of four it's $19,307. But if you think about how many more people just miss the official government "cut," then there are probably several million more people teetering on poverty and their need for adequate health care, food and shelter.
So what can we do? We need to fight poverty. I'm tired of the political debate of gay marriages, abortion, flag burning and school prayer, among other issues. I'm not saying they're not important issues but they've had a disproportionate amount of deliberation, especially among federal lawmakers. We need real deliberation and real action on poverty. The federal government must earmark real dollars to help the poor.
But we also need to get together with conservative and right wing groups and convince them that this is as an important issue for them to focus on as their other issues. We can't point fingers on this issue and play one-up-man-ship. David Kuo, among many, many others, is a sincere conservative Christian who really cares about this issue. On the left side, we have people like Sen. John Edwards, who's been inspirational. We need more people like them in the forefront speaking about this issue and getting people to act.
As for myself, I promise to donate some money each month, buy canned food and even volunteer at shelter over the coming year.