Charitable giving is down because of the bad economy and tanked stock market.
Now, President Obama’s proposed budget cuts the income tax deduction for charitable contributions.
But, only for rich people — those who do the lion’s share of charitable giving.
Sounds anti-social, so why’s he doing it?
Simple, Obama believes that government can do a better job than individuals channeling money to the “right” causes. You can’t trust individuals to give to the right causes, can you?
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March 4, 2009 at 9:41 am |
It’s not surprising that BO would lower the deductions since he obviously won’t be affected much. See 2007 stats (source: USA Today):
– The Obamas donated 5.7% of their income to charity (keep in mind he conveniently started running for office that year). From 2000-2006 their contributions were 1%, 0.5%, 0.4%, 1.4%, 1.2%, 4.7%, and 6.1% respectively. Notice the jump from 2004 to 2005. Interesting that a “community organizer” becomes charitable when he starts to have higher political ambitions.
– The Bidens gave a whopping $995 in charitable donations or about 0.3% of their income (in 1999, it was $120 or 0.1%)
– The Bushes gave 17%, the McCain’s 25%, and the Clintons 15%
Note: More than 2/3 of US households give to charity, with avg donations of about $2000 or 3% of income. The average donations by “wealthy” households ($200K – $500K in income) gave an average of about $41,000 in charitable contributions. Keep in mind that since 2000, the Obamas have been in this “wealthy” bracket (earning >$200K).
I probably shouldn’t blame Obama for donating such a small amount of his income to charity, while lowering the income deductions for those who contirbute the most…..I mean, have you seen the price of arugula these days (as Obama so eloquently noted)???