PICKET: Obama’s war on private charity

Washington Times ^ | 3/27/09 | Kerry Picket

[paltz]

Two items on President Obama's legislative agenda are not particularly friendly to the idea of charitable giving. First, he went after charitable donors whose incomes are $250,000 or more. Under Mr. Obama's proposal, for every dollar these income earners donate to charity, they will receive 28 cents as tax deductions as opposed to the current 35 cents.

Those defending the Obama plan say the president is just moving the charitable tax deductions back to what they were under the Reagan administration. What is being omitted from that argument, though, is that President Reagan also lowered the income tax rate to 28% for the wealthiest earners. This would mean more money was available to give to charities compared to today.

[doc1019]

If you want complete government control of charities (and charities complete reliance on the government), you go the Obama rout.

[BobL]

He’s really going after churches with this move...no surprise here.

[unkus]

0bama and his ilk are evil bastards.

[Stosh]

Simplest way to explain this to a friend:

In the past, if you were in the 35& bracket, and you got a $10,000 bonus, and you gave it all to charity, you got nothing from that bonus, the feds got nothing from that bonus, and the charity got $10,000.

Under Obama, in the same circumstance, the charity would get $10,000, the feds would get $700, and you’d be out $700 - in other words, you’d have to pay the government $700 for the privilege of donating 10 grand to a charity!

[Texas Eagle]

Those defending the Obama plan say the president is just moving the charitable tax deductions back to what they were under the Reagan administration.

Well, hell. While you're at it, why don't you just move EVERYTHING back to what they were under during the Reagan administration ya big bonehead.

What a lying sack of crap.

[Graybeard58]

He’s really going after churches with this move...no surprise here.

A week or so ago, I posted a vanity on the religion forum asking the question of: "If charitable deductions were no longer allowed, how would this affect your giving to the church or synagogue"?

The consensus was "not at all". People might slow down their giving to other charitable causes as a result but not to the church. I think that is true of conservatives anyway maybe not to the libs. Generally conservatives want to give to help, not for the tax deduction.

[BobL]

I agree...but I doubt his bunch understands that.

[KarlInOhio]

That might be true for the typical weekly contribution, but what about someone with a lot of money giving to a church building fund. If he tells his accountant “I want to give $10000 out of pocket, how much is that pretax?” With Obama’s desired return to a 39% tax rate, that $10,000 out of pocket would be $16400 gross with the current tax deductibility rules. With a limitation to 28% deductibility it would be reduced to $13800.

[liberty or death]

my giving has Zero to do with a tax deduction. The reward will be infinity times what any government has the power to offer.

[Arthur McGowan]

Under Mr. Obama's proposal, for every dollar these income earners donate to charity, they will receive 28 cents as tax deductions as opposed to the current 35 cents. Those defending the Obama plan say the president is just moving the charitable tax deductions back to what they were under the Reagan administration.

That kind of argumentation is so vile, and so Obama. When they cut the deduction to zero, they can say: "We're just returning the deduction to what it was under President Taft."

[AndyTheBear]

0bama and his ilk are evil bastards.

I am trying to think differently about him. For instance I don't think he is literally a bastard. But its just gotten even harder to challenge you on the evil part.

But I don't think he is pure evil, he just got himself rotted out with hate with pride. I'm pretty sure he thinks himself a great benefactor of society and buys into a bright Utopian future which he feels he can bring about by opposing the "oppressors" (i.e. the people that make our great albeit imperfect society work).

I pray we all survive the obmanable Obama-session we are in.

[AndyTheBear]

my giving has Zero to do with a tax deduction. The reward will be infinity times what any government has the power to offer.

God bless you, but it would effect charitable giving. Count on it.

I had heard Rick Warren does a reverse-tithe where he gives away 90% and keeps 10%.

Now if the tax deduction were moved to zero, the IRS would get all of the income he keeps and then demand: "Where's the rest?!?"

[aruanan]

Those defending the Obama plan say the president is just moving the charitable tax deductions back to what they were under the Reagan administration.

The way it used to be before Bill Clinton screwed it over was like this: after figuring the adjusted gross income at the top of the second page of the 1040, you subtracted the dollar amount of the charitable contributions to arrive at the figure you'd use on the tax tables to calculate your tax. The charitable contribution deduction was not part of the itemized deductions. So it didn't matter whether you itemized your deductions or not, you still got to deduct the charitable contributions right off the top.