High Winds Threaten Constitution

from The League: Reassembled

Conservatives used the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to advance its conservative economic agenda. Among the many ideas proposed (some were adopted), Republicans advocated suspension of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws in disaster areas, imposing a flat tax in the areas, providing exemptions for estate tax, allowing non-itemizers to deduct chartable contributions to disaster relief, and streamlining environmental hurdles to building new oil refineries.

Now the White House plans to exploit the tragedy to advance its Religious Right agenda.

The Boston Globe carried an AP story reporting that the Bush administration has decided to fund religious schools using FEMA aid funds. In essence, the administration plans to divert disaster relief money to religious education programs. The proposal not only forces tax-payers to finance religious activities, it diverts money that could be spent on public education or other services that will be made available to people regardless of their religion.

According to the report, Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said "President Bush believes that hurricanes, floods and earthquakes don't discriminate on the basis of religion and that government's response to them should not either." But the administration proposal would do just that. By spending money on education accessible only by those who are religious (primarily Christian) education, Bush will discriminate against those who do not want to be forced to sit through Christian lectures in order to get to math class.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State's Barry Lynn said that similar actions have not been taken in recent disaster relief initiatives. "If it's a religious building, in general, the courts have not allowed the use of tax dollars to build it or renovate it," Lynn said, "and a natural disaster does not destroy basic constitutional principles."

Hurricane Katrina may have left the Gulf Coast in ruins, but the Bush administration is the force pounding away at the First Amendment.

from The League: Reassembled