Citing the AP, Mark Wolf notes that Obama likes Bush’s faith-based welfare so much that he wants to expand it.
Obama (citing Wolf citing Politico) said:
I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don’t believe this partnership will endanger that idea — so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we’ll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.
It is morally wrong to force people to transfer their resources to religious organizations, regardless of how those groups use the money, whether they “proselytize” with the money (though it’s impossible to avoid), and whether their “programs” work (according to some federal bureaucrat).
And it’s as disturbing as it is predictable that Bush’s religious-right welfare program, designed to pander to that group, has been gleefully picked up by the Democrats. The GOP keeps thinking it can out-welfare the left, but, somehow, it keeps not working out that way.