Why don't conservatives like AmeriCorps?

With a government shutdown looming due to federal-budget deadlock, House Republicans are proposing a stopgap measure--not a compromise but a short-term enactment of the massive budget cuts passed last week by the House but dismissed by the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

Along with hurting economic growth--that's according to Goldman Sachs, not some liberal think tank--this proposal would make deep cuts to a wide variety of programs and eliminate some altogether. It would mean the end of AmeriCorps, which played a huge role in, among other things, Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Here's an anecdote from AmeriCorps alumnus Nathan Rothstein, who served in New Orleans:

When we had a spare moment, we would walk down to Frenchmen street or go to neighborhood meetings in the evening where we met other young AmeriCorps volunteers working in relief organizations around the city. It became clear that AmeriCorps volunteers led the majority of the volunteer coordination in the city. Anyone who picked up a hammer or painted a wall in the past five years in New Orleans was most likely managed by an AmeriCorps volunteer.