BuckeyeBlog

Apparently being President doesn’t take up enough time of Obama’s day, because in the midst of his official visits to ESPN and Jay Leno, he’s managed to create a new duty for himself:  CEO of the charity that is the United States Government. President Obama has decided that the best way to fix all of the problems in America – and his floundering charity – is to reduce the tax deductions individuals get for charitable giving.

Reality Check: The President’s proposal to reduce charitable tax deductions isn’t going to close the income gap in America or improve education, health care or housing. Instead, it will do the exact opposite by removing funding from organizations that actually succeed in their social reform attempts.

The big problem for the Obama administration isn’t that social reform is succeeding, though. It is that the social reform that is succeeding is of the free-market – and generally conservative -nature. Instead of seizing an opportunity to eliminate wasteful and useless government programs and give Americans more of a chance to invest their money in churches, non-profits and independent charities that work, it is more important to President Obama that the “wealthiest” citizens pay their societal dues – also known as higher taxes.

The New York Times reports “The tax increases would raise an estimated $318 billion over 10 years by reducing the value of such longstanding deductions as mortgage interest and charitable contributions for people in the highest tax brackets. Households paying income taxes at the 33% and 35% rates can currently claim deductions at those rates. Under the Obama proposal, they could deduct only 28% of the value of those payments.”

Under the guise of wanting to stimulate the economy and improve “important” social programs, the Obama administration is underhandedly attempting to squash organizations that don’t subscribe to his progressive agenda, and is doing so at the cost of taxpayers.

It is individuals, not government, that achieve the greatest and most important social change and it would behoove Mr. President to put politics aside and remember that before we’re all “comrades.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.