The incongruence between sensationalist rhetoric and political reality has been clearly demonstrated in numerous speeches in which the president calls for millions or even billions of dollars for new initiatives to help the poor, then fails to follow through and push hard for the programs on Capitol Hill.

One glaring example of unfilled promises can be found in the president's proposal to extend a $400-a-child tax credit to low-income families. Initially, the president demanded that Congress appropriate funding. However, he quickly retreated from his forceful stance when House conservatives led by Republican majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas threatened to kill the proposal. The issue is now stuck in a dispute between the House and the more moderate Senate. And even though several Republican senators have pleaded with the president to intervene and break the impasse, the president for the moment has remained silent, focusing his energy on wasteful foreign policy ventures such as the invasion in Iraq.

Paying for Americorps, another key item on the compassionate agenda list, ground to a halt this summer under similar opposition from the House Republican leadership. Yet even though the White House has promised to expand Americorps in conjunction with their promotion of volunteerism nationwide, the president was silent last month amid objections by House Republicans to a $100 million emergency infusion that it needed to maintain its current level of operations, leaving AmeriCorps with an uncertain future.

On the education front the pattern is repeated once again. In January 2002, amid great media fanfare, the president signed the No Child Left Behind Act, a landmark bill that mandated annual testing of children in Grades 3 through 8 and greatly enlarged the federal role in public education. All along, the president has assured the American public that once passed, the government would give states enough money to comply with it. But the White House has asked for $12 billion to continue that financing next year, $6 billion less than the legislation authorizes.

Mr. Bolten, the White House budget director has said that the government's budget deficit "would be really way out of control" if the White House asked that all bills be financed to the limits allowed by law. This should not be a surprisng statement to anyone, particularly since it was reported just last week that the federal deficit has increased to $450 billion, mainly because of huge tax cuts for the rich that have been slammed though Congress by the Republicans!

And the last item on the president's "compassionate" agenda relates to AIDS funding for Africa. Here again, the president has failed to follow through on his promise. Last month the president toured Africa and heavily promoted his recently enacted bill to fight global AIDS, a measure that authorizes spending of $3 billion a year for five years.

Yet, as with all other promises, the White House asked for less, only $2 billion in the first year, $1 billion less than authorized for the first of the five years. My guess is that we will not see promises fully met until a new administration is elected to the White House.