This is very bad. In a comparison of speeches by George W. Bush and outgoing president Bill Clinton, Cato Institute's president Edward Crane has noted that Bush is downright, well, Clintonesque on this point. OK - but it might also result in government becoming involved where it has no business being and indeed, in time, thwarting efforts by its very helping hand. These ideas are good because they get government out of the way of compassionate Americans. The more that happens, the better.
Some civil libertarians squawk over church-state considerations.
They are shrill, and wrong in their assumption. Their concern is over guarding government. But more to the point, the original church-state argument was all about protecting the church from the state. This should be of paramount concern, of course. The other consideration is protecting the poor from the state.