Paducah Sun Newspaper: SKINFLINT.
SKINFLINT
Few would accuse Biden of being a generous sort
By David Cox
Campaigning Monday, Sen. Joe Biden said, "My dad used to have an expression: Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."
He intended to spotlight John McCain's voting record, but it was a badly timed comment to make this week, three days after Biden released his tax returns for the years 1998 and 2007. The Delaware senator, hailed as a “lunch-bucket” Democrat for his relatively modest income, wanted to show he has been meticulous about paying his taxes.
But the returns revealed something else about Biden: he is a skinflint.
Biden was most skinflinty in 1999, when he and his wife reported income of $210,979 — admittedly modest for a United States senator but hardly meager compared to most Americans. Their total charitable contributions that year: $120. To put it another way, on monthly income averaging $17,582, Biden contributed $10.
Biden raised his charitable giving to $380 in 2005 on income of $321,379 and contributed the same amount in 2006 and 2007.
The only year of the last decade that Biden gave more than $380 to charity was 2007, when he entered the race for president. On income of $319,853, he gave $995 — still less than one half of 1 percent of his income.
The average American household gives 2 percent of adjusted gross income to charity. But Sen. Biden gave barely one eighth of 1 percent. His average contributions in actual dollars over the past decade were less than one tenth what the average American household gives, despite an income level that puts him well within the category of affluent.
A Biden spokesman said the senator gives in the form of service to charitable causes, adding that the senator makes less than any other member of the Senate and can’t afford to give more. “Like a lot of families that put three kids through college and have an aging parent move in with them,” the spokesman said, “the Bidens aren’t divorced from the realities of every day.”
But the senator hasn’t had a child in college for years. His sons are 39 and 38. Beau Biden is Delaware’s attorney general. Hunter Biden is a Washington lawyer and, until last Saturday, a federal lobbyist. Biden’s 27-year-old daughter, Ashley Blazer Biden, is a social worker.
The Washington Post criticized Al Gore in 1992 for contributing less than 1 percent of his income to charity. He contributed $1,727 on income of $183,558. Gore may be notorious for both his ostentatious lifestyle and his miserly giving, but he is downright philanthropic compared to Biden.
Biden released his tax returns to pressure Sarah Palin to do the same. The Obama/Biden campaign will scrutinize the $17,000 in per diem expenses Palin has charged to the state of Alaska over the past two years to make sure she paid all the taxes due.
But the strategy is already backfiring and could blow up in Biden’s face if the Palin family’s giving is nearer the national average.
Biden’s running mate is more generous. Barack and Michelle Obama’s giving is above the average percentage for Americans, at least for the past two years. They gave 6.1 percent in 2006 ($60,307 on income of $983,826) and 4.7 percent the year before that ($77,315 on income of $1.66 million). Prior to that, the Obamas’ giving was more modest, ranging from $1,050 (0.4 percent) in 2002 to $3,400 (1.4 percent) in 2003.
On the other ticket, John McCain gave 27 percent of his adjusted gross income to charity in 2007, 19 percent in 2006. John and Cindy McCain (a philanthropist worth an estimated $100 million) file separate income tax returns, as they have throughout their 27-year marriage, and as did Sen. John Kerry and Teresa Heinz (worth an estimated $1 billion).
McCain also donates the royalties from his five books to charitable organizations. The total is more than $1.8 million to date. And he has donated all increases in his Senate salary since 1991 to charity, keeping a pledge to refuse the pay hikes, which he opposed. Those contributions have surpassed $450,000.
Sen. Biden was apparently unaware how paltry his giving is compared to most Americans. He would be wise to cool his rhetoric about greed on the other ticket.
The senator’s father wasn’t the first to make the connection between money and personal values. Two millennia ago someone else said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Joe Biden has inadvertently exposed where his heart is.
Few would accuse Biden of being a generous sort
By David Cox
Campaigning Monday, Sen. Joe Biden said, "My dad used to have an expression: Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."
He intended to spotlight John McCain's voting record, but it was a badly timed comment to make this week, three days after Biden released his tax returns for the years 1998 and 2007. The Delaware senator, hailed as a “lunch-bucket” Democrat for his relatively modest income, wanted to show he has been meticulous about paying his taxes.
But the returns revealed something else about Biden: he is a skinflint.
Biden was most skinflinty in 1999, when he and his wife reported income of $210,979 — admittedly modest for a United States senator but hardly meager compared to most Americans. Their total charitable contributions that year: $120. To put it another way, on monthly income averaging $17,582, Biden contributed $10.
Biden raised his charitable giving to $380 in 2005 on income of $321,379 and contributed the same amount in 2006 and 2007.
The only year of the last decade that Biden gave more than $380 to charity was 2007, when he entered the race for president. On income of $319,853, he gave $995 — still less than one half of 1 percent of his income.
The average American household gives 2 percent of adjusted gross income to charity. But Sen. Biden gave barely one eighth of 1 percent. His average contributions in actual dollars over the past decade were less than one tenth what the average American household gives, despite an income level that puts him well within the category of affluent.
A Biden spokesman said the senator gives in the form of service to charitable causes, adding that the senator makes less than any other member of the Senate and can’t afford to give more. “Like a lot of families that put three kids through college and have an aging parent move in with them,” the spokesman said, “the Bidens aren’t divorced from the realities of every day.”
But the senator hasn’t had a child in college for years. His sons are 39 and 38. Beau Biden is Delaware’s attorney general. Hunter Biden is a Washington lawyer and, until last Saturday, a federal lobbyist. Biden’s 27-year-old daughter, Ashley Blazer Biden, is a social worker.
The Washington Post criticized Al Gore in 1992 for contributing less than 1 percent of his income to charity. He contributed $1,727 on income of $183,558. Gore may be notorious for both his ostentatious lifestyle and his miserly giving, but he is downright philanthropic compared to Biden.
Biden released his tax returns to pressure Sarah Palin to do the same. The Obama/Biden campaign will scrutinize the $17,000 in per diem expenses Palin has charged to the state of Alaska over the past two years to make sure she paid all the taxes due.
But the strategy is already backfiring and could blow up in Biden’s face if the Palin family’s giving is nearer the national average.
Biden’s running mate is more generous. Barack and Michelle Obama’s giving is above the average percentage for Americans, at least for the past two years. They gave 6.1 percent in 2006 ($60,307 on income of $983,826) and 4.7 percent the year before that ($77,315 on income of $1.66 million). Prior to that, the Obamas’ giving was more modest, ranging from $1,050 (0.4 percent) in 2002 to $3,400 (1.4 percent) in 2003.
On the other ticket, John McCain gave 27 percent of his adjusted gross income to charity in 2007, 19 percent in 2006. John and Cindy McCain (a philanthropist worth an estimated $100 million) file separate income tax returns, as they have throughout their 27-year marriage, and as did Sen. John Kerry and Teresa Heinz (worth an estimated $1 billion).
McCain also donates the royalties from his five books to charitable organizations. The total is more than $1.8 million to date. And he has donated all increases in his Senate salary since 1991 to charity, keeping a pledge to refuse the pay hikes, which he opposed. Those contributions have surpassed $450,000.
Sen. Biden was apparently unaware how paltry his giving is compared to most Americans. He would be wise to cool his rhetoric about greed on the other ticket.
The senator’s father wasn’t the first to make the connection between money and personal values. Two millennia ago someone else said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Joe Biden has inadvertently exposed where his heart is.
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