Free Republic

It is interesting how the birth of Jesus has come to support gift giving, elaborate decorations, and jolly old Santa Claus. Certainly, believers and many non-believers alike enjoy the music, the festive atmosphere, and the joyous spirit and family traditions that Christmas brings. Giving gifts also helps drive economic growth, brings profit to corporations and small businesses, puts smiles to the faces of many children, but unfortunately increases the debt of many families already struggling to cover their monthly bills. Only two of the four Christian Gospels highlighting the life and ministry of Jesus even mention the birth of Christ....

Placing someone in the Oval Office who has proven that she will always serve personal gain above the national security with which she has been entrusted, is, in the colloquial, inviting the fox into the henhouse Clinton Foundation corruption runs deep in access peddling, its management absorbing lessons by sitting at the feet of a master manipulator. For decades, George Soros set the standard for entrenching philanthropic agencies in governmental policy development overseas. After years of perfecting methods of infiltration into foreign politics, he turned his full attention onto his adopted country, one to which he emigrated with an eye...

When Susan and I married in 1976, I joked about a future career editing a small-town newspaper and aspiring to be a cracker-barrel philosopher. Through God’s mercy I can edit a magazine for a national town of several hundred thousand readers, some of whom are foolish enough to ask for advice, all too often on one of three topics: What college should my son or daughter attend? What movies should Christians watch? How, now that God has enriched me, can I help the poor? People ask me that last question because I’ve written four books on aspects of effective compassion,...

There is a common saying on Capitol Hill that those who do not come to the table will become the lunch. This refers to those who fail to hire sufficiently well connected lobbyists or make large campaign contributions. Even those who do come to the table may get carved up. When President Obama called the parties making money from medicine into the White House to discuss what would become of Obamacare, most of the special interests tried to make a deal. With the Democrats controlling Congress and the White House, they knew that defiance would likely backfire. The major insurance...

Talk Radio—in the parlance of music radio—is known for playing the hits. Obamacare, NSA spying, legalization of marijuana, Supreme Court rulings on forced unionization, and (thanks to Gov. Chris Christie) the on-ramps of Fort Lee, New Jersey. It is the ongoing mission of your friendly neighborhood talk host to toss out issues, offer a personal opinion on them, and then watch the phones light up like a Christmas tree. It is a programming formula that—to talk radio’s critics—appeals to the lowest common denominator in society. To those critics, talk hosts are the linear equivalent of militia members challenging the...

BDAtlanta wrote: Then maybe try to repeal it through a majority vote which is obtained through elections. Sorry you are such babies about this. Obamacare is the law, upheld by the Supreme court. last year's election solidified its standing with the majority (51%) of Americans backing the guy who was President when Obamacare was passed. Grow up. - Obamacare is Killing Us Dear Comrade BD, Yes, we are in the process of attempting to repeal it through a majority vote. That’s what elections are about. That’s what next year’s elections will be about for sure. Thanks for pointing that progressives...

Do you give money to charity? You do if you're a typical American. More than 70 percent of US families contribute every year, and the average household gives at least $1,000. Charitable donations in America add up to about $300 billion annually — which is more, as Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute points out, than the entire gross national product of Finland, Portugal, or Peru. Americans give 12 times as much to charity each year as they spend on professional sports, and almost 30 times as much as they spend going to the movies. By any yardstick,...

Liberals never tire of discussing their own generosity, particularly when demanding that the government take your money by force to fund shiftless government employees overseeing counterproductive government programs. They seem to have replaced "God" with "Government" in scriptural phrases such as "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37) This week, we'll take a peek at the charitable giving of these champions of the poor. In 2009, the Obamas gave 5.9 percent of their income to charity, about the same as they gave in 2006 and 2007....

So, my place of employment has been pressuring us with high-profile donation campaigns for a month or so. Now, I'm getting emails from the Chairman of the Board who has pledged a one-for-one dollar donation, and wants me to be a first time donor. I have several problems with this, mainly that the United Way nationally does fund Planned Parenthood. Now, locally they say they do not. However, United Way says you can make donations to specific charities. The issue I have with that is does United Way take something of the top for handling these donations? If so, why?...

The Germantown woman was loading boxes of food from the Manna food bank into a shiny sport-utility vehicle one recent afternoon when she was approached by a donor dropping off food. "What group are you with?" the donor asked the woman, who promptly burst into tears. With her Toyota Sequoia and quilted Vera Bradley bag, she had been mistaken for a volunteer -- rather than a client waiting to take home a bag of potatoes. "I'm a mother of four just trying to feed my kids," the woman sobbed to the donor, who was taken aback, then sympathetic. Such awkward...

Is Israel Ready? By Ari Bussel and Norma Zager “To change your circumstances you need to change your thinking and subsequent actions…” Adlin Sinclair “We wrote, Rabbi Mendele, we wrote, even special emissaries we sent to the Diaspora, to collect handouts for us, and from all there is no sound and no respondent!” Mendele Book Seller’s The Burned People, 1886 The US has earmarked $2.775b in military aid to Israel for fiscal year 2010. The money can only be spent here in the USA for defense related projects, thus contributing to local employment, taxation and technological advances. Pressure is mounting...

The Chronicle of Philanthropy News Updates March 06, 2009 Estimated Impact of Obama's Charitable-Deduction Proposals Detailed Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy has posted a paper explaining how it calculated how much giving would fall under proposals by President Obama to limit charitable deductions and raise the upper tax brackets. The center announced last week that charitable donations would have dropped almost $3.9-billion in 2006 if the two measures had been in effect that year. President Obama has proposed capping the tax break for itemized deductions on federal taxes, including donations to charity, at 28 percent as a way to raise...

If it were not so important, we should be able to laugh at the tax returns and U.S. Senate disclosure forms of Senators Obama and Biden. In 2004, obviously neither Senator Biden nor Senator Obama realized that their tax returns would be made available to the public. And neither of them “walked their talk”. In 2004, the Bidens reported that they had $234,271 in adjusted gross income and made contributions of $380. Biden spokesman David Wade said the deductions on the tax forms ``are not the sum of their annual contributions to charity.'' The Bidens ``contribute to their church, and...

Rather stark for a US Senator who can afford a family compound, who has one son who has been enriched by having a Senator as a father, and by having the drop-dead gorgeous wife who happens to be a Doctor. This miserly amount is all he can give as charity? Despite income ranging from $210,432 - $321,379 over the ten-year period, the Bidens have given only $120 - $995 per year to charity, which amounts to 0.06% - 0.31% of their income. Don't so many on the left denigrate Americans as being cheap? Well, at least one Senator seems to...

According to Arthur Brooks, author of Who Really Cares, there are many myths surrounding which Americans give to charity and why they give. In comparing the red Republican states versus the blue Democrat states, it is the red states hands-down that come out on top as having the most generous givers. In fact, 24 out of the top 25 states for charitable givers are red states. Another interesting comparison of charitable giving is the difference between people that identify themselves as "conservative" compared to those individuals that identify themselves as "liberal." Again, it is the conservatives that gave 30 percent...

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- New England continues to lag the nation in charitable giving, with upper-income Vermonters and Mainers showing a decline in generosity during the 10 years ending in 2004, according to a study based on federal tax data. "If those people who are below the national average would give to the average, there would be a lot of money generated into the philanthropic pie," said Martin Cohn, spokesman for the Catalogue for Philanthropy, which compiles an annual "generosity index." The Needham, Mass.-based nonprofit group issues its annual ranking of states and their residents' charitable giving by using Internal Revenue...

N.Y. State attorney general candidate Andrew Cuomo made 710-thousand dollars last year as a partner in a real estate investment firm and from investments. That's according to documents provided by his campaign. A summary of his 2005 income shows that Cuomo, the elder son of former Governor Mario Cuomo, was paid 545-thousand dollars as a vice president with Island Capital Group, a luxury marina firm. He has yet to file his tax return for 2005 and has requested an extension. Cuomo's campaign says his estimated state and federal tax liability for the year was 270-thousand dollars. The records, made available...

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 - A week before world leaders gather here to set a course for combating global poverty, a United Nations report released on Wednesday names the United States and Japan as among "the least generous donors" and says American and European trade policies are hypocritical and contribute to impoverishing African farmers. The report also highlights shortcomings in developing countries. It notes that India's and China's progress in reducing the easily preventable deaths of children has slowed even as their economic growth has surged. India has 2.5 million deaths of children a year, while China is second, with...

The Catalogue for Philanthropy has given even more ammunition to those who like to take cheap shots at New Jersey - in this case, proof that we're cheap.While the Garden State ranks second in the nation according to earned income, it ranked only 47th in charitable donations, according to the catalogue's annual Generosity Index, which ranks states according to charitable donations. New Jersey residents averaged $3,022 in charitable gifts in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, while the national average was $3,455. Mississippi, the poorest state in the country, ranked first, averaging charitable donations of $4,484."We're not...