The One is sticking to his guns on limiting the
deduction for charitable donations -
essentially sticking a finger into the eye of the donor base.
QUESTION:
Mr. President, are you -- thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Are you
reconsidering your plan to cut the interest rate deduction for
mortgages and for charities? And do you regret having proposed that in
the first place?
OBAMA: No, I think it's -- I think it's the
right thing to do, where we've got to make some difficult choices.
Here's what we did with respect to tax policy.
What we said was
that, over the last decade, the average worker, the average family have
seen their wages and incomes flat. Even in times where supposedly we
were in the middle of an economic boom, as a practical matter, their
incomes didn't go up. And so, well, we said, "Let's give them a tax
cut. Let's give them some relief, some help, 95 percent of American
families."
Now, for the top 5 percent, they're the ones who
typically saw huge gains in their income. I -- I fall in that category.
And what we've said is, for those folks, let's not renew the Bush tax
cuts, so let's go back to the rates that existed back in -- during the
Clinton era, when wealthy people were still wealthy and doing just
fine, and let's look at the -- the level at which people can itemize
their deductions.
And what we've said is: Let's go back to the
rate that existed under Ronald Reagan. People are still going to be
able to make charitable contributions. It just means, if you give $100
and you're in this tax bracket, at a certain point, instead of being
able to write off 36 percent or 39 percent, you're writing off 28
percent.
Now, if it's really a charitable contribution, I'm
assuming that that shouldn't be the determining factor as to whether
you're giving that $100 to the homeless shelter down the street.
And
so this provision would affect about 1 percent of the American people.
They would still get deductions. It's just that they wouldn't be able
to write off 39 percent.
In that sense, what it would do is it
would equalize -- when I give $100, I'd get the same amount of
deduction as when some -- a bus driver who's making $50,000 a year, or
$40,000 a year, gives that same $100. Right now, he gets 28 percent --
he gets to write off 28 percent. I get to write off 39 percent. I don't
think that's fair.
So I think this was a good idea. I think it
is a realistic way for us to raise some revenue from people who've
benefited enormously over the last several years.
Breathtaking.
The
Ego-in-Chief is essentially saying he knows better than the charities
themselves how to raise money and how they will be affected by his tax
increase on their donor base. He's saying he knows the charity large
donor bases better than the charity fund raisers who know their largest
donors personally.
What the EiC apparently hasn't figured out is
that although that provision affects about 1 percent of the American
people, that 1 percent of donors represents a HELL of a lot more than 1
percent of charitable donations.
The difference comes directly
out of much needed programs for the widows, orphans, the poor, the
environment, and a whole host of causes... and yes, the Special
Olympics.
Atlas to EiC: I'm getting some mighty twitchy shoulder muscles, if you
know what I'm saying.
Splash, out
Jason
(It's gonna be a busy for years for the 'stupid' tag, I'm afraid.)
Labels: economy, Obama,
stupid,
taxes
: 9:39 AM
