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White House overstates its commitment to religious charities, a former deputy director says in an online essay.

A former White House official on Monday accused the Bush administration of overstating its commitment to faith-based charities and failing to live up to the president's promise of "compassionate conservatism." David Kuo joined the White House staff in January 2001 and left in December 2003 as deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He lodged his complaints in an essay published Monday on the website beliefnet.com. Kuo wrote that he was "saddened" by the administration's failure to fully fund the faith-based initiative — hailed by Bush since the 2000 campaign as a centerpiece of his effort to transform the social welfare system. Instead, Kuo said, the faith-based initiative was "a whisper of what was promised." The initiative was created to direct money to religious organizations that Bush contended were more effective than government bureaucracies in helping the needy. Disagreements in Congress over how to implement the program forced the president to enact a scaled-down version through executive order. Kuo said the administration did not push hard enough for the program, citing the failure to support a tax incentive, promised by Bush, to promote charitable giving. The measure, which by some estimates would have cost as much as $30 billion over 10 years, would have allowed taxpayers who do not itemize deductions to get a break for donations to charities. [more]