Via Mark Hemingway, we see why odd news stories make bad law: Leona Helmsley’s decision to leave $8 billion to her dogs is hardly proof that private charity is more wasteful and capricious than government spending. Yet we end up with a New York Times op-ed worrying about the tax dollars we are losing through the tax deduction for charitable contributions. Don’t get me wrong: some of these perpetual foundations can be as boneheaded in their use of money as the federal government. But I’d rather roll the dice on the former than the latter.
