Oops! There goes another dollar now……
Across the interwebs the proposed re-jiggering of the tax exemption for charitable giving by high income earners is being debated. A large number of those engaged in this discussion see resistance to the proposal as proof that, if changes in the tax code lead to changes in giving patterns then maybe, these high income earners weren’t really all that charitable in the first place. Some of the commenters sincerely question the veracity of a person who takes into account the full range of financial considerations when looking to their own charitable giving and others simply believe charities are scams or see yet another reason to pillory the “rich”. I will ignore the latter (until they get within rifle range) and suggest that the former are, at best, being short sighted and, at worst, disengenuous.
Suggesting that the specifics of the tax code shouldn’t effect an individuals charitable giving ignores the obvious. It does just that. Over time, changes in exemptions for charitable giving have mirrored changes in giving patterns by individuals of means. Individuals contribute the overwhelming bulk of philatropic giving in the US. Recent studies show that folks who earn in excess of $200,000 (9% of Americans) account for about 44% of the total charitable take. The proposal on the table, regardless its potential impact (pretty small in fact) on federal funding, will have an outsized negative effect on the monies available for worthy nonprofits. A dollar of funding at a charity (yes, there are exceptions) passes through far more intact than a dollar provided to the federal government. There exists a multiplier effect for every charitable dollar donation, attributable to the armies of volunteers they enable. There exists no such effect with federal funding. Federal programs are no match for charitable works.
So, which child continues to go hungry? What disease lingers longer? How many good works get sacrificed for a marginal increase in tax revenue? If it is sacrifice you want Mr. President, just look around you. There is plenty of room for sacrifice (porky little projects, earmarks, bloated budgets) right there in the federal government. For more on charitable giving numbers and impact of tax codes on charitable giving, see the pieces by Bill Beach at the Foundry….. and the peice by John Colombo at the Nonprofit Law Blog….
Spengler over at Asia Times makes a case for the elasticity of American global economic power in these interesting times. He gives us the top slot, going forward, relative to the rest of the muddling herd. Oh, he manages to sneak in a Damon Runyon quote to boot. Thought provoking opinion, as always, from Spengler…..
Attorney General Ron Holder spoke his own version of “truth to power” yesterday at the Department of Justice African American History Month Program when he opined that, in and amongst other things, “…. in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” Oh boy! That set hands a-ringing and tongues a-wagging! White folks immediately assumed the AG was pointedly referring to them. Black folks assumed that, essentially, thats what he was doing too. Everyone else just sat there kinda pissed because whites and blacks were sucking all the air out of the mine shaft - again. I mean really now, why does a simple public moment of honest, if not particularly accurate, assessment on our collective avoidance of “the whole race thing” get everyone going? Cowardly? I don’t know. I think it is just too damn much work for most of us after an already long, tiring day in the rock quarry and not that all that relevant to boot. Read the transcript 
I almost had a Lewis Black moment tonight. Yup, my head nearly exploded! In the runnup to the inevitable passing of the stimulus package, President Obama played Pep Squad Leader in Chief for House Democrats tonight at a resort in Williamsburg, VA. Whilst pressing the case for said package the President took an unfortunate swing at Senate Republicans (and perhaps a few Blue Dog Democrats). Now, the Republicans are not undeserving of few good thumps of the bat and I don’t really care which quadrant the beatings come from. They will have been merited. So, why am I incensed? Well I am all for giving the new President his moment. I do not agree with his policies or his prescriptions but this is his time, his gambit. So preach to the choir and sing to the bleachers but save the audaciousness for literary endeavours not national television. The President said, speaking of the Senate obstructionists, “Don’t come to the table with the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped to create this crisis,”. Huh? A scant few conservatives in the Senate are actually espousing notions that are….you know, conservative and the President tries to depict these paltry (and in some cases baldly disingenuous) push-backs as that what brung us here?!? Pardon me if I think that what got us here is a Republican administration, and mostly Republican congress, trying to out “democrat” the Democrats for 8 years. They spent and borrowed, spent and borrowed some more and enthusiastically supported the citizenry and businesses in doing likewise. The fix we are told is to spend and borrow yet scads more money to fund yet more projects of questionable stimulative value. The cure resembles the disease and these conservatives sound like……you know conservatives, again.
