A Matter of Character: on Welfare & Poverty
George W. Bush:
Compassionate conservatism means self-help over gov’t help
Rove recommended books to Bush to read that mirrored Bush’s thoughts that the feel-good, permissive values of the 1960’s undermined the strength of families and helped create dependency on government, ultimately harming the disadvantaged classes.
Bush, in discussions with the authors, fashioned the concept of “compassionate conservatism.”It was not a catchy phrase, and conservatives didn’t like it because it implied that there was something wrong with being a conservative
-like calling someone a realistic liberal. But the phrase accurately described Bush’s philosophy. His goal was to help people. He believed the best way to do that was to develop government programs and policies that allowed them to help themselves.
He did not see the government as the enemy, as the traditional conservatives did. Often, adjusting existing programs could achieve results while saving taxpayers money. Reducing taxes, in turn, was yet another way to help people.
Source: A Matter of Character, by Ronald Kessler, p. 58
Aug 5, 2004
George W. Bush:
Faith-based charity doesn’t violate church-state separation
Bush pushed to allow religious groups to compete for federal money to operate programs for the needy. At first blush, mixing religion with government appeared to be a violation of the principle of separating church and state. But, if organizations were
already in place to help the needy, why not give them more funds to do their jobs? Those funds were available for organizations that had no religious affiliation. The fact that an organizations that was affiliated with the Catholic, Jewish, Protestant,
or Muslim faiths received federal money did not mean the money would be used to fund religion. It meant the money would be channeled to help those who are hungry, addicted to drugs, or illiterate in the most efficient way possible because the overhead
for attacking those problems and the volunteers to work on them already existed. Thus, taxpayers would not have to pay for the new layers of bureaucracy to distribute the aid. In effect, it was a way to leverage the government’s money.
Source: A Matter of Character, by Ronald Kessler, p.122-25
Aug 5, 2004
Page last updated: Feb 15, 2019