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The article focuses on U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign aid program known as the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). George W. Bush's flagship foreign-aid programme is under fire. Since 2002, when the president promised to set it up, the Millennium Challenge Corporation has found only four relatively small poor countries to give money to. Last week, the MCC's chief executive, Paul Applegarth, announced that he was quitting. The MCC is unloved by both left and right. A Republican-led House of Representatives sub-committee has just recommended nearly halving its budget, to $1.75 billion next year. American liberals suspect it is part of Bush's conspiracy to conservatise the world. And Europeans mock the MCC as slower, meaner and more ideological than their own aid programmes.

The article comments on policies of U.S. President George W. Bush toward the poor in the U.S. Bush has laid out proposals for reforming Social Security, a public-pension system. The proposals, as stated, make a contrast to Vice-President Albert Gore's refusal to touch the pension programme at all. On education, Bush has offered voters more choice and competition in schools. By offering more choice, as also stated, he is focusing on the poor.

The article discusses whether United States President George W. Bush means what he says about being a compassionate conservative. Back in 2000, Bush defined himself as a compassionate conservative. This was partly a matter of branding: he softened the image of his party by talking about spending more money on education and health. But compassionate conservatism was also presented as a new way to help the poor: its aim was to use public money and private donations to involve churches, temples and mosques in America's social policy. Yet compassionate conservatism has been inadequately financed, not supported by any real political commitment and representative of a huge gap between the president's rhetoric and practice. David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, argued in Beliefnet.com, a religious website, that Bush's "promises remain unfulfilled in spirit and in fact."