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Washington Prowler
To the Left
Obamism marches on: Shauna Daly’s new assignment. Charity ends with Obama. ACORN’s national portal.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Shauna Daly, who for
about a month was ensconced in the White House Counsel’s Office
as research director there, didn’t stay very long in that
position. It was announced late last week that Daly was leaving
her White House post to become Research Director at the
Democratic National Committee.
But DNC, White House, and Congressional Democrats say she was at counsel’s office long enough. Daly did not waste her time in an office that had reams of Bush Administration documents related to such things as the firings of U.S. Attorneys, the use and internal debate over the USA PATRIOT Act, FISA, and the Scooter Libby and Karl Rove investigations, among others.
“She saw everything, and who knows what she was able to scan and pull out on data sticks,” says a Senate Republican Judiciary Committee staffer. “We’ll find out soon enough when we see what the DNC is putting out during [Sen. Patrick] Leahy’s ‘truth committee’ hearings.”
Daly, according to White House staff, was often in her office early and one of the last to leave the Old Executive Office Building, which does not jibe with official White House claims that Daly was not doing much in the office, which was one reason for her leaving.
“She realized that she could do more with all the material she saw outside of the building than inside, where she’d be bound by the rules and legalities of the White House Counsel’s Office. Now she isn’t,” says a DNC staffer who works in the communications field. “She’s good at what she does; her time at the White House means we’ve got a mother load of material that will have Republicans scrambling. At least that’s what we hope.”
OBAMA CHARITY CENTRAL
Lost in the coverage
of the Obama Administration’s 2010 budget proposal to limit the
tax rate at which taxpayers can take itemized deductions for
charitable giving is the administration’s plan to create a
government-financed fund that would mitigate losses charitable
groups might suffer as a result of the tax increase on charitable
giving.
“Obama is telling charities, ‘Don’t worry about the tax increase on your donors, government will be here to make up the difference if you have a down year because of my policies,’” says a Senate Joint Tax Committee staffer. “We’re still trying to figure this one out, because it doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense.”
Some House Democrat leadership aides believe the fund could be in the hundreds of millions. “We can’t have charities losing desperately needed funds in times like this, because our wealthier citizens aren’t willing to give,” says one staffer in the Speaker of the House’s office. When it was pointed out that the decrease in giving was due to the Obama Administration’s essentially raising the tax on deductible giving, the aide said, “We’re not raising the tax, we’re making it harder for the wealthy to take advantage of a tax write-off.”
That isn’t accurate, however. In Obama’s budget document, “A New Era of Responsibility — Renewing America’s Promise,” the administration outlined a plan capping the tax rate that families with incomes over $250,000 can claim for itemized deductions at 28 percent. Those individuals subject to the 33 or 35 percent bracket who now claim itemized deductions at this rate will would find five to seven percent of their charitable contributions subject to income tax.
For example, a prospective charitable donor in the 35 percent bracket who gives a homeless shelter $100,000 under current law would reduce his income taxes by $35,000.
Under the Obama plan, the donor would only be able to deduct his gift at the 28 percent rate, meaning a $28,000 savings in taxes. This would mean an additional $7,000 in taxes and an almost 11 percent increase in taxes on the donation.
Sources in the Office of Management of Budget report that when the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2010, charitable givers in the 39.5 percent tax bracket will be hit with a 19 percent tax on giving.
According to a Senate Democrat aide, who has been briefed on the federal fund to offset charitable losses, the government funds would come with strings attached. “If, say, a Catholic hospital sought and received those funds, it would be required to adhere to federal polices on issues like abortion. Or the hospital could simply not seek the funds to make up the difference,” says the aide.
LEFT TECH
Several left-leaning nonprofit
or community-based groups are seeking $250 million in funds
budgeted in the stimulus bill for high-tech or Internet projects,
to create what some Democrats in the House and Senate describe as
a web portal modeled on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
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drudge ette obama| 3.2.09 @ 6:26AM
Did anyone check her pant legs and socks as she left. Sandy Berger anyone? Is there any real security in this White House?
So, if I copy data from my employer's database or scan confidential files, take it with me and use it in another job, won't I rightly be prosecuted? And if illegally obtained data is used against me in a criminal proceeding, don't I have the right to have that excluded?
If this woman was put in the position or took it with the goal to pilfer/steal to advance a Leahy witchhunt, then everyone involved should be prosecuted. But then, who is watching the wolves?
This reminds me of the 900 FBI files and the Clintons.
drudge ette obama| 3.2.09 @ 6:31AM
Charitable contributions are a big deal to Obama or Biden. Just look at their tax returns to see the income to contribution ratios. What this White House is good at it redefining charity. What was once an individual's private choice and personal gift is now a federal budget item to which we individuals are mandated to contribute. How do you like this now, Warren Buffet?
Remember Rev Wright| 3.2.09 @ 8:09AM
Remember how we were told Obama only spent twenty years listening to the Revs anti American and anti White rants to gain street cred? Remember how we were told Obama writing in his first book that the Rev was the greatest influence in his life was nothing to worry about? Well guess what, the Rev and all his hatred for everything that made this country great are evident everyday in Obamas actions and speech. Obama doesnt sound like the hate mongering racist Wright but his philosophy is evident in all of Obamas speech,plans,and actions. The media failed to sound the warning signals of the dangers of the influence of the Nazi like Wright and now the country is in true peril. He has packed his cabinet with every crooked lobbyist and tax cheat in DC,and his budget and stimulus plans are aresenic to the economy.
Deborah | 3.2.09 @ 8:33AM
These people scare me more and more everyday. Just when you think they can't possibly top their Stalinist ways, they insinuate themselves into another aspect of everyday life: charitable giving.
Now, let me see. Seems like Nixon was headed toward impeachment when theft of DNC records was discovered. Hey, Washington Post, any Woodwards and Bernsteins looking into this? Or does it not count when a DNC political operative steals White House records for political gains? This is what a police state really looks like. So, until you media folks stop being complicit in this -- I'll just call you all Pravda.
TennesseeVolunteer| 3.2.09 @ 8:51AM
We have to battle this invasion of our rights as hard as possible for the next two years. The libs know they can't get this stuff by after 2010 when we take a huge bite out of their minority. we have to let both the Republican and Democrat congressmen and senators know that these invasions of our rights and the goal of making this a socialist coup before 2010 will not stand.
Tell everyone you know, be a Paul Revere!
rick| 3.2.09 @ 10:18AM
Deborah-
we should all know by now there is NO limit to the Left's ambitions. Total destruction and total control-it is a madness that has no limit. See Stalin et al.
Appleby| 3.2.09 @ 10:57AM
If there's anybody left who doesn't think this man is the Antichrist, I'd like to meet her (and it will be a Her.)
Stan Redmond| 3.2.09 @ 11:48AM
This is CHILLING!!! The government will have a fund to make up for the loss of charity group income??? And I'm sure these will be fairly [sic] distributed by the dunderheads in control right now? I'm sure "Focus on the Family" the NRA local churches and their missions will all be compensated just as much as Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Moveon.org.
Anyone who supports this is ignorant, stupid, or a power hungry marxist.
David Govett| 3.2.09 @ 12:07PM
Pink dove carrying green. The associations are telling.
Jack Preston| 3.2.09 @ 12:39PM
Say what you want this whole economic collapse started a few months after Dems took over Congress so this is not Ws crash,same way when Repbs took congress under Clinton the mkt rallied. The socialists are now in charge and the president appears to be a socialist tyrant bent on destroying the economy to strengthen government hold on the masses. The only thing that enables him to avoid revolt is the masses opium,the TV. We are zombies,letting this madman destroy our country.
I bought my first gun last week and plan on registering as a Democrat this week just to be safe.
Gill O'Teen| 3.2.09 @ 1:14PM
Jack Preston,
My friendly local gun shop has a pistol class. If your first gun is a handheld and you have not yet been trained, please enroll in a similar class in your neck of the woods. Your gun will not be a valuable tool if you lack the skills to use it.
The same rules apply to any other weapon.
Buy gold, silver, platinum and lead!
Bring two by fours to your next Tea Party!
Marc Jeric| 3.2.09 @ 1:23PM
There is a total 0f $9 billion destined to ACORN brownshirts ans similar groups under "community redevelopment" organizations in the porkulus bill. Community organizations indeed! Do you know the translation of "soviet" in the name of the defunct USSR? Soviet means the local community organization.
Michael Tomlinson| 3.2.09 @ 1:47PM
Sell outs like Rick Warren and other evngaelicals who are impressed by Obama's "inclusiveness" are going to be shocked when their donations drop and then to make up for there losses have to turn to Obama for help. Like his political forefathers in 1930's Europe Obama is seeking to co-opt and compell people of faith to embrace his ideology of hate, anti-life and neo-fascism. Obama truly is the most dangerous man in the world to freedom and individual liberty.
ruth| 3.2.09 @ 2:25PM
Obama didn't waste any time, did he? The demos' dirty tricks are a continuation of Hillary's purloined FBI files skullduggery. Obama is just taking up where Hillary left off. The Chicago thugocracy has gone national.
bobmontgomery| 3.2.09 @ 3:01PM
When local United Way contributions fall off because Americans decide they don't want to "LiVE uNITED", WILL THE FEDS BE THERE AFFIRMING e.g., LGBT celebrations, which the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts won't do and thus won't be allowed to 'partner' with United Way?
It's a culture war, folks.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 3.2.09 @ 6:26PM
Another tax cheat in the Obama administration. This is the change some hoped for!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/ap_on_go_pr_wh/kirk_taxes
Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.
The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.
The disclosure made the former Dallas mayor the latest in a string of top-level Obama administration appointees found to have underpaid their taxes, following Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle, who withdrew as candidate for Health and Human Services secretary. Nancy Killefer, Obama's pick for chief performance officer, also bowed out amid tax problems.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said Kirk was working to clear up "a few minor issues" uncovered by the committee and expressed confidence he would be confirmed.
Despite the error, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a statement calling Kirk "the right person for this job," and said he would attempt to have the nomination moved through the panel quickly.
Jack Preston| 3.2.09 @ 6:57PM
at least Obama is d0ing his part in bringing in back taxes from tax cheats by hiring so many scoundrels. It has to be clear to even the most ardent Obama supporter that he is a pathological liar. He has broken every promise so many times you can barely remember the promises of ethical administration,no lobbyists,and of course fiscal responsibility. The guy is a madman. The Dems did not wait this long in the first W term to start calling for impeachment,where is the loyal opposition? Where are the gutless republicans? Someone needs to start screaming from the rooftops
Alan Brooks| 3.2.09 @ 7:05PM
FDR was a pathological liar, and he is on the obverse of the dimes in our pockets.
if we have any left.
Howard| 3.2.09 @ 7:07PM
What was described above makes perfect sense for Obama's goals of creating a Soviet style America.
1. Have "show trials" to smear your "enemies". This creates fear and passivity amongst the masses
2. Eliminate private charity. This will help remove religion from the country, and further create dependency upon the government.
Pingback| 3.2.09 @ 7:14PM
The Working File » Charitable Donations, Fairness, and Freedom links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
TJ in Chicago| 3.2.09 @ 7:31PM
Correct, Pinback! Statistically, Conservatives give a good more than our misguided (yet cheap and selfish) liberal friends.
The comical thing about all of this class-envy, tax-the-wealthy approach is that we've seen it all before. People are not stupid. Once higher income earners change behavior, and revenues are not even close to what the Dems 'projected', they'll reach down into the brackets for more of your $$. Its all coming, folks..........
Robert| 3.2.09 @ 8:27PM
Obama is creating the same paradigm for charities as he has for media: "Toe the line, reporters, or your media access to me will cease. D0n't ask any probing questions that might embarrass me or you will remain in the airport parking lot, not on Air Force One when I'm Prez." At his first press conference, Obama delivered on this threat first intimated when he threw off conservative press from his campaign plane in favor of compliant reporters from Ebony and MTV.
Now he is effectively removing charitable donation writeoffs from those most capable and willing to make them, replacing the money with cash from a government distributed fund. Of course, if you believe in God, are pro-life, or don't hew to the Obama moral compass (an oxymoron if I ever heard one!), you won't be allowed on the charity gravy train. Only 'government approved' charities need apply.
Charities, this is the beginning of the end of a sacred tradition in America. How much more does it take before Americans realize this administration is engineering a Stalinist state coup?
Bongo Straits| 3.2.09 @ 9:09PM
Since some of the devout leftists believe in anarchy and rebellion, perhaps it is time to
create chaos in their ranks. Targets need to be
picked, fixed, neutralized and eliminated. At least
challenege them, intimidate them before they destroy all of our liberties.
Alan Brooks| 3.2.09 @ 11:18PM
thing is, being a liar-politician (and liar-lawyer) helps, not hinders.
FDR is the utterly outstanding example of a liar who is eternally venerated.
ruth| 3.2.09 @ 11:54PM
Alan, if you are going to be a Conservative you have to first and foremost, fervently believe that GOOD WILL OVERCOME EVIL. It has to, what alternative do we have? No fear, damn it! Okay?
John Smith| 3.3.09 @ 2:23AM
Prowler: It's 'mother lode'...not 'load' (you spelled the phrase incorrectly when you were quoting the 'DNC staffer who works in the communications field'.)
uytuyt| 12.2.09 @ 1:44AM
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