Liberal Pols Don't Give Charity-They Want to Tax You and Give Your Money Away

Byron York at National Review reports that for the 10-year period from 1998 through 2007, Joe Biden donated a total of $3690 to charity, out of an aggregate income for those years of $2,450,042. That is a giving rate of 0.15%. York points out that this revelation concerning Biden's "generosity" is reminiscent of 1992, when the Washington Post reported that Al Gore had donated a total of $1,727 out of a reported income of $183,558. Actually, this is worse, because Biden's highest amount of annual chartible donations, in 2007, was only $995 out of a total reported income of $319,853. On the other hand, by most reports, Senator Biden is the least wealthy member of the Senate, while despite his low reported income in 1992, Al Gore had and still has very substantial personal wealth.

I may bite my tongue when Sarah Palin's tax returns are released, but I doubt it. The difference between liberals and conservatives would appear to be that conservative politicians want each of us to decide where to give our money, while liberals would rather tax you and give your money away to where they think best. (HT-Hugh Hewitt)