Obama damns charities with plan to soak so-called rich; how much money actually defines wealth?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has put out a distress call over President Obama's budget proposal to limit the worth of charitable deductions to households annually earning more than $250,000.

Obama in one instance is proposing to help people with broad new spending plans financed by the taxpayers while robbing from charities and the amount of private money they can raise -- particularly amid a deepening recession.

The Chronicle writes:

Some charities and nonprofit experts are worried that President Obama’s proposal to impose new limits on charitable tax deductions for wealthy people would dampen giving at a time when charities are under severe strain because of the recession.

“During the current economic downturn, which has forced nonprofits to do more with less, any proposal which would result in a decrease in private giving will be a disaster for America’s charities, and for those who depend upon them,” said United Jewish Communities, an umbrella group for Jewish social-service charities.

Mr. Obama proposed the new caps on Thursday as a way to finance changes in the country’s health-care system.

In a document outlining his 2010 budget plans, President Obama proposed limiting the value of the tax break for itemized deductions, including donations to charity, to 28 percent for families making more than $250,000. In other words, taxpayers would save 28 cents on their federal income taxes for each dollar donated.

That would reduce by as much as 20 percent the amount wealthy taxpayers could get in tax breaks. Under the current system, taxpayers who are in the 33 percent or 35 percent tax brackets use that rate to claim deductions.


This class warfare in American politics must stop, along with a bigotry against people with wealth that surmises that they somehow have come about their holdings from an unfair economic system.

A lot of us just worked our asses off, as our parents did. Some of us got college educations and took risks in our careers for advancement, moving and working in places we would rather have avoided. Some of us educated ourselves on how to invest wisely.

We didn't cheat to get where we are at. And we spend wisely even now to preserve and grow our wealth for our family. And many people of wealth donate a lot of money and time to charities and churches and children.

Yet Obama would ignore this truth for bigotry. Racism is not the only prejudice in this nation. From his elitist class, I have noticed a bigotry against people of faith, people living in rural America and the military.

I don't know the exact figure that makes a person wealthy, or me. Even a household making more than $250,000 a year can have a home mortgage, five children, a stay at home mom, a mortgage, retirement to save for, an emergency fund to maintain and funding for college educations to secure. Their spending is what fuels this economy.

So why should they be penalized by their government and its spending that simply is reckless?

The tragic moral to this story is that in going after the wealthy, Obama has actually hurt the very people he supposedly wants to help. Donors he has targeted already are pulling back on their giving when more of our citizens are looking for emergency help. So will I.

This president is just turning the economic evening in this nation to night, one that will leave more people in need gnashing their teeth.

Did we vote for this kind of societal destruction?