Charitable Gifts by Politicians Add Up, For Some

Charitable Gifts by Politicians Add Up, For Some
by FOXNews.com
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden has come under criticism in recent weeks for his charitable giving — or, more specifically, the lack of it.

The Delaware senator and his wife, Jill, showed annual earnings of more than $200,000 and sometimes $300,000 between 1998 and 2007. And they gave relatively very little of it away. In 2007, their most generous year, the Bidens gave $995 to charity. In 1999, their charitable donations added up to $120.

Click here to see Joe Biden’s tax returns.

A spokesman for Biden has been quoted by National Review Online as saying that the Bidens’ tax returns do not reveal the extent of the their giving, noting that they regularly give to their church and volunteer their time. The tax returns do not reveal which charities benefited from the Bidens’ donations.

Biden’s Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has yet to release her tax returns.
So how do the other candidates stack up?

Plenty of information is available about the charities favored by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, as well as those of the Republican nominee, John McCain.

A check of Obama’s giving reveals a wide range of interests. According to figures released by his campaign — Obama has released his tax returns dating back to 2000 — Obama and his wife, Michelle, who earned a total of $4.2 million in income in 2007, donated $240,000 to charity that year.

Click here to see Barack and Michelle Obama’s tax returns.

Programs devoted to literacy are among the Obamas’ favorites. For example, the Rochelle Lee Fund received $20,000 in 2005 and $10,000 in 2006. The literacy organization features this quote from the presidential candidate on its Web site: ”The Rochelle Lee Fund is one of the leading literacy organizations in the country.”

The Obamas also have given generously to the international aid group CARE — $35,000 in 2006 alone. In 2006, when the couple reported nearly $1 million in earnings, they also gave $50,000 to the United Negro College Fund. The Obamas also have donated thousands of dollars over the years to their former church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

John McCain does most of his giving through the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation. The Arizona senator, one of the wealthiest members of Congress from his marriage to the heiress of a major Anheuser-Busch distributorship, has net assets of between $20 million and $32 million. In 2007, McCain donated more than 25 percent of his $400,000-plus income to the foundation — money made from his Senate salary, book royalties and Navy pension.
Harper’s Magazine reported that McCain contributed roughly $950,000 to the foundation between 2001 and 2006, almost entirely with proceeds from book sales, and that the foundation made contributions of roughly $1.6 million during that period.

The foundation was very generous to schools attended by McCain’s children, donating more than $500,000 over the years, according to Harper’s. The foundation also supported medical causes, such as charities devoted to craniofacial abnormalities, with Operation Smile and the Craniofacial Foundation getting a total of $35,000 in 2007. The foundation also gave $25,000 in 2007 to the Halo Trust, which is devoted to the clearing of land mines.

Click here to see John McCain’s tax returns.

McCain appears far more generous than another former presidential candidate with a wealthy wife. Democrat John Kerry, who ran in 2004, sometimes did not claim any charitable contributions in the 1990s despite having a six-figure income, although he did report nearly $44,000 in contributions on earnings of nearly $400,000 in 2003, the year before his unsuccessful White House bid. Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is thought to be worth at least half a billion dollars. She files her tax returns separately, and the Kerry campaign never released her tax returns.

As far as other politicians go, tax returns show that Bill and Hillary Clinton gave more than $10.2 million to charity over the past seven years. President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush donated over $165,000 in 2007. Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne, have donated close to $8 million while he has been in office.

Attention remains focused on those running, and Palin’s taxes, when released, will certainly be scrutinized.

But the editor of TaxProf Blog, University of Cincinnati law professor Paul Caron, said Biden’s lack of charitable giving ”is jarring” — that a couple making over $200,000 a year would give so little to charity — between 0.06 and 0.31percent of their income.

Figures show Biden has a poor showing even compared to the average American. Independent Sector, a nonpartisan coalition of approximately 600 charities, foundations and corporate philanthropy programs, reports that 89 percent of American households contribute to charity, with an average contribution of $1,620, or 3.1 percent of income.

But Biden isn’t alone. The Web site Gothamist reports that in 2007, New York Gov. David Paterson earned $269, 815 but gave only $150 in clothing to the Salvation Army.