A familiar, if disturbing, pattern is emerging on President Bush's vision of compassionate conservatism: Speak loudly, and carry a small stick.

Time and again, from his promises to deliver a faith-based social policy initiative and follow through on welfare reform, to the conspicuous absence of tax breaks to benefit social action through charities and still-unseen mentoring and volunteer initiatives, the president erects a grandiose rhetorical vision that upon close examination turns out to be nothing more than a Potemkin Village of unpursued, unfunded, or just plain unmet promises. Just watch what happens with his African AIDS initiative, a $15 billion promise that is likely to melt away into a far smaller injection of hope as the reality of the funding promise scrapes up against a budget drained by tax cuts for the wealthy.

The latest Potemkin Village can be found in AmeriCorps. Recall the president's key promises from last year's State of the Union Address: increasing enrollment in AmeriCorps by 50 percent to 75,000 members in 2003 so that more Americans would have the opportunity to serve "goals larger than self." As of last Friday, the Bush administration had again delayed the official announcement on the size of the 2003 class of AmeriCorps members -- an announcement already more than five months overdue.

While thousands of young Americans wait anxiously on the sidelines, administration officials have spent the last five months arguing over just how badly the AmeriCorps program was hurt by the deep cuts the president signed into law as part of the 2003 omnibus appropriations bill. The GAO says the reduced budget for AmeriCorps can support only 13,000 new members for the upcoming year (a 75 percent cut from last year), the OMB says it can support up to 28,000 members (a 45 percent cut from last year). Either way, one thing is clear: Bush broke his promise to the young Americans he called upon to serve.

Even assuming the OMB's more optimistic projections, the sharp decline in AmeriCorps slots this year will mean that 22,000 fewer young Americans than last year will have the opportunity to go to college on an education scholarship earned through a year of national service. In addition, this sharp decline could cause almost half of the 900 AmeriCorps programs operating in communities across this country to close their doors.

Finally, at a time when state and city governments are in financial crisis and the national unemployment rate is at a nine year high, the loss of these AmeriCorps members will mean that 4.4 million children will not receive academic support from tutors, 5 million homeless will not be provided food, clothing, and other necessities, 1 million at-risk young people will not be served in after-school programs, 650,000 seniors will not receive the assistance that has allowed them to continue to live independently, and 550,000 people will not receive job or career counseling in these tough economic times.

With the White House silent on how it plans to remedy this dramatic shortfall, last week Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and John McCain (R-AZ) stepped forward with a new version of their bipartisan "Call to Service" bill. They also picked up a powerful new co-sponsor: Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the ranking Democrat on the committee with jurisdiction over AmeriCorps.

Building on the Bayh-McCain legislation first introduced in November of 2001, this new Bayh-McCain-Kennedy bill would expand AmeriCorps by 25,000 members per year over the next five years, putting the program on track to reach 175,000 members by 2008. The legislation also increases the education award provided for each year of full-time service from $4,725 to $5,250 to keep pace with the rising costs of college, links AmeriCorps to the new mission of homeland defense, increases funds for service learning programs, expands the opportunities to participate in the Senior Corps, and strengthens accountability measures to assure outcome-based results.

Fully funding Bush's proposed 50 percent increase, and putting AmeriCorps on the path of expansion spelled out in the Bayh-McCain-Kennedy bill, would require an additional $240 million. Yet Bush appears to be moving in the opposite direction, asking for $72 million less for AmeriCorps in his 2004 budget than he did just one year ago. The doubling of AmeriCorps applications since the president first made his call to service demonstrates young people across this country are eager to do their part. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen whether the president and his allies in Congress are ready to do theirs. It is time to call the president's hand on compassionate conservatism, and see the vision for what it is: empty rhetoric.

Blueprint Keywords: Extra Compassion