The War on Charity

I have learned to never underestimate President Obama's ability to piss me the hell off.

In his continued campaign of class warfare, he may be claiming another innocent casualty: non-profit organizations. He has proposed a reduction in tax deductions for charitable giving for the ever-maligned "wealthy." It's the latest in a stream of attempts to penalize the successful that the public just seems to love. But usually, it's not so apparent how these measures will actually negatively affect many of us beneath them - a negative trickle-down effect. Things like increased taxes and restrictions on large corporations may sound like justice to those of us who are less fortunate. But we don't realize that when the wealthy have less money and freedom, they have a harder time doing things like hiring people and expanding.

This time, it's different. We are being told point-blank just why this is a bad idea. When this takes effect, we know exactly how it will have a negative impact. If the wealthy, who are the ones who are able to give the most, get less reward for giving, when the reward is one of the biggest reasons they give in the first place, what do you think will happen to charitable donations? Amazingly, some people still think that it's a good idea.

But seriously, reducing deductions for charitable giving? That's his idea? There are so many other ways he could have tried to get more taxes out of the wealthy. And we're getting mixed signals here. He's also been talking about eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, which I have discussed earlier. So we're led to believe that he's increasing taxes for certain activities because they are bad and he wants people to stop. So, does Obama think that wealthy people giving money to charity is a bad thing? Apparently, he does. Why else would he be punishing them?

Seriously, folks. It's a pretty simple concept that has been proven over and over: the more you tax an activity, the less of it you get.

Here's a helpful article that does a good job of representing both sides. It also has some good comments from educated people, which you don't find very often on the internet.

Obama's Plan to Reduce Charitable Deductions for the Wealthy Draws Criticism

I just want to point out a few things from the article. First is this absolutely outrageous comment from Obama on why he's doing such a terrible thing:

"The plan is an effort to 'rebalance the tax code so that the wealthiest pay more,' the document says."

For those of us who know that communism is bad (a sliding tax scale is one of the tennants of communism), realize that the wealthy are already paying more and understand what the word "balance" means, this is one of the dumbest statements ever.

Here's a little lesson for Obama on the concept of balance. When one group of people is paying more than other groups, that is the opposite of balance. Balance would mean that everyone pays the same.

The tax code is already way out of balance, anyway. If you didn't already know that, just read this: The Top 50% pay 96.54% of All Income Taxes (The top 1% pay more than a third: 34.27%)

Here's another point for those who enjoy sticking it to the rich: the only rich people being punished by this measure are those who give to charity. Those scumbags who give nothing are getting away scot free (in this case, anyway). This is just a horrible, horrible idea.

And to those of you who like this whole class warfare thing, answer this: have any of you benefitted one dime because of what has been taken from the wealthy? Anyone? Has your life improved because they can't fly their private jets as much or can't go on lavish retreats? I'll tell you whose lives have NOT improved: the companies who would be getting more income and the workers who would be getting more tips if they could take more retreats and upgrade more offices.

This whole thing is an attack on one of the main principles that I hold that keep me a conservative: non-profits, especially Christian-based, are way better for the people than government programs. Why? One main reason, really. What do the poor (like all of us) need the most? They need Jesus. And they aren't going to get that from government. That isn't allowed.

"Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain."