War on Philanthropy Revisited
One week ago, the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Give & Take blog featured my reply (in a July 22 post in LA Philanthropy Watch) to a critical attack on Obama’s tax proposal to fund health care. David Billet’s lengthy article titled “The War on Philanthropy” had been featured previously by Give & Take. The two Give & Take posts nicely summarize the issues on both sides of the debate for anyone interested in taking a look.
As of this morning, there were fourteen comments on the Give & Take post featuring my response to Billet. As I read them, six respondents flatly oppose Obama’s proposal. Three of these comments suggested that limits on tax-deductibility would harm philanthropy; two argued that that Obama’s health care proposal would stifle economic growth; and one saw “this whole thing as Obama’s attempt to drive more charities to dependency on government.”
Three respondents suggested that tax-deductibility is less crucial in philanthropic giving than are a donor’s commitment to the mission and activities of the nonprofit; a fourth, suggested that recognition was more important than tax-deductibility in giving. One of these four respondents offered vigorous support for health care reform.
Four commentators offered general comments related to the debate without coming down clearly on one side or the other.
While hardly a statistically significant sampling of opinion, I think the comments probably provide a more or less fair balance of views on Obama’s tax proposal (and his health care ideas).
