Government's concept of charity and volunteerism is wrong!

Statistics indicate that Democrats and Liberals, on average, contribute substantially less time and money to charity and volunteer activities than do Republicans and Conservatives. For example, President and Mrs. Obama donated about 1% of their income to charity during the years 2002 through 2004. (Virtually everyone in my relatively conservative circle of friends give to charity at ten times that rate on less than one-third the income of the Obamas.) Vice President Biden is even more stingy with his wealth.

To complement their personal stinginess, Democrats and Liberals, on average, seem to be much more likely than Republicans and Conservatives to prefer to see government filling the role traditionally filled by charity. I am astounded by the arrogance of such people whose concept of charity is forced redistribution of the hard-earned money of somebody else while accumulating power to themselves.

I believe tax policy and law should be designed to encourage self-reliance rather than reliance on government. Tax law and policy should also encourage free and generous giving of time and money to traditional charity.

But the president and many in Congress want the opposite -- they wants to punish traditional charitable giving by increasing taxes on givers!

The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (GIVE) continues to pull volunteerism away from traditional charities and into government control. The GIVE Act dramatically increases funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs that could be done more efficiently by traditional, non-government charities. GIVE also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000 -- an unacceptable growth in government size and influence.

How in the world did we arrive at the point where we self-described Christians believe that charity originates from the tax collector?

Instead of supporting GIVE and other programs which expand the reach and power of government, Congress must work vigorously to enhance the tax incentives for charitable giving of time and money to non-government-affiliated charities.