Punish the rich, punish the poor

Just a few comments about Pres. Obama's continued attack on the successful. Now he wants to reduce how much one can take off in tax deductions for charity. Dick Morris points out what Obama failed to mention.

Obama claims it will only impact one or two percent of us. The part that he so conveniently left out is that that one or two percent DOES ALMOST HALF THE DONATING to privtate charity in this country.

Obama is just determined to get us coming or going. If we reduce our giving because we don't get to take off as much, then Obama gets more money from us to fund what HE wants to fund. He doesn't care about private charity or church. He never gave even 1% of what he made to those things.

Who will this hurt the most? The poor.

In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, four million taxpayers had adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 or more. They comprised 3% of the tax returns, made 31% of the income, but donated 44% of all charitable contributions. Together, they provided charity with $81 billion in that year.

Obama's plan will cost them $10 billion in extra taxes on the income they allocated to charitable donations. How can the president be so glibly certain that they will not curtail their charitable contributions by a like amount or even more?

Imagine all the harm Obama's program will cause. Churches will be hit most hard. They account for the largest share of charitable donations, but universities, disease research, hospitals, soup kitchens, and cultural institutions will also be hard hit. So will international relief efforts that funnel aid abroad through churches or directly.

It is totally dishonest for Obama to pretend that his curtailment of these deductions won't hurt the poor. It will most directly impact them since most of the charities Obama is hurting focus on helping the impoverished.

Here Dick Morris hits the nail on the head:

This proposal is not about saving money. It is about controlling it. By, in effect, transferring at least $11 billion a year from private philanthropy to government spending, Obama empowers the public sector at the expense of the voluntary one.