While the old adage tells us that “Charity begins at home,” it apparently doesn’t start at Joe Biden’s home!
Joe Biden released 10 years of tax returns today. Joe would be considered amongst the wealthy, according to Barack Obama, as he’s averaged about $270,000 of income over the past five years. And, while Joe managed to pay nearly $185,000 in mortgage interest during that five years, he was only able to find $2,655 to give to charities! No, that’s not $260,000, it’s not even $26,000. Joe Biden gave $2,655 to charities over the past five years.
While Barack Obama has increased his charitable contributions since he has received a significant income bump from his book royalties, the maximum he and Michelle were unable to give prior to that bump was $3,400. In fact, prior to his bump, even though he and Michelle averaged over $240,000 per year, they could only find an average of $2,154 of contributions in the same years.
In Barack Obama’s mind the “wealthy” including himself and Joe Biden who make around $250,000 contribute less than 1% of their income to charity. In fact, in Joe Biden’s case the contribution is only .3% of his gross income.
Like so many other things in life, our opinions about charity are often derived by our own actions and influenced by the actions of those close to us.
I’m beginning to understand Barack Obama’s desire to raise the taxes on the rich. I’m beginning to understand why Barack Obama doesn’t believe that individuals are better set to support charities that support the unfortunate rather than bloating the government ranks with more and ever less efficient, welfare programs. Barack Obama believes the government needs to do that task because his own experience, and that of his friends shows that they don’t support charities.
In the world of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, charity does not begin at home it begins and ends with government!
I said it before, and I’ll say it again – for liberals, charity is what they can take from you to soothe their guilt.
Read an interesting article today along the same lines. Obama makes ten times what McCain makes, but McCain gives away over four times as much of his income (in terms of percentage). It’s despicable!
Great blog, BTW.