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.
“It would be a federally funded nonprofit entity, which would
fund national, state and local websites designed to meet a public
need,” says one House member, who has been in a meeting with the
organization called One Economy, which is one of the groups
seeking money for the web-based project. “For example, if an
organization wanted to create a state-based website of
educational materials for its Hispanic citizens, the national
online portal would be in a position to fund it, and allow other
groups or other citizens to access the material.”
“It’s the kind of project that could become as important to the
Internet as CPB was to television; it’s a 21st century CPB if we
can get it off the ground,” says another House aide.
One Economy, and others, view the project as an organizing tool
around its issues. Its stated goal is to focus on getting
high-tech tools like high-speed Internet and computers into the
hands of low-income individuals. But its political activities
focus on such issues as living wages, organized labor,
nationalized health care, affordable housing, among others. ACORN
is provided its own links and resources on the One Economy
site.
Other organizations beyond One Economy are said to be seeking
funding for such a project, all of them with ties to organized
labor or the Democrat party.
