Dem
47
GOP
53
It is clear to us that this presidential administration claims to be governing in accordance with Biblical principles. It is also clear to us that the Bible has many good things to say about being charitable. To take but a few examples:
Putting these two things together, one would therefore assume that this administration is a big fan of charitable works. One might even suppose that would extend to the folks who have as much chance of entering heaven as a camel does of passing through the eye of a needle, at least when the charitable works don't require any sacrifices from them.
One such no-skin-off-my-back charitable endeavor is the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), which is operated by the federal Office of Personnel Management, and allows government employees to donate their time, or part of their salary, or both to a long list of charitable projects. Since the CFC was instituted, it's raised over $9 billion for the various charities it supports. And all of that is at no cost to the federal government, as the administrative expenses are covered by the charities themselves.
Undoubtedly, readers can see where this is heading. A couple of weeks ago, the administration issued a stop-work order for the project. The website for this year's fundraising drive was supposed to launch on September 2; it's been indefinitely postponed. And, reportedly, administration insiders are using this extra time to discuss canceling the program entirely.
We can certainly understand part of what is going on here. Among the beneficiaries of the CFC are groups that are currently unfavored, like NPR, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. It's predictable that Trump, or one of his many fanatical underlings, would want to cut those groups off. But many of the other beneficiaries are politically neutral (e.g., the World Wildlife Fund) or are the kinds of things that MAGA Nation swoons over (e.g., the Wounded Warrior Project).
It is certainly possible that, after this "review" period, the CFC will continue, but with the unfavored groups excluded. In that case, it would at least make sense. But if the White House kills the whole thing? In that case, the only explanation we'd have is that they want to kill the unfavored giving, but they don't want to be too obvious, so they decided to kill all the giving in order to avoid looking bad.
If the program is indeed killed, particularly for that reason, it would really be selfish and petty (after all, every other president since John F. Kennedy allowed funds to be raised for charities they did not agree with). It would also be, if we may say so, very unchristian. Maybe Trump isn't telling the truth about the Bible being his favorite book after all. (Z)