Saturday, October 4, 2008

Palin More Generous Than Biden

Sarah Palin may make a lot less than rival Joe Biden but she gives a lot more to charity.

The Palin family has donated more money to charity in the last two years than Biden has in the last eight years - combined.

Palin's just released tax records show that her family made $127,869 in income during 2006 and donated $4,880 to charity. The next year, they took in $166,080 and donated $3,325 to nonprofits.

Biden, on the other hand, has donated just $3,690 since 1998. As a Senator, he made $320,000 last year but gave only $995 to charity. That’s less than 1% of his income.

1 comment:

CJ said...

Over at The Khaki Elephant blog, the blog owner observes that "Biden Talks The Talk, Palin Walks The Walk", saying that "when it comes to charitable giving, Joe Biden talks the talk, but Sarah Palin walks the walk", and he had provided graphs and charts to show us that "according to contributions adjusted by gross income, the Palins are around 12x more charitable than the Bidens."

...AND, on a talk forum earlier this morning, I was directed to a YouTube video pertaining to Joe Biden's charitable donations last year, or the lack thereof:

Bob wrote,
"As for that article you posted from the Huffington Post,none of that even checks out at all.It's just talking points for Obama.
Now,I have a good You Tube link that brings out documented proof about Obama,the person even tells you exactly what to Google so you can check it out for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/themouthpeace ...."

After watching the video, I responded:
"Bob, that YouTube site didn't have a lot of facts that I could check out. It was mostly music and sound effects and was designed to appeal to its audience's emotions, rather than their intellect. I did google "Biden charitable donations" and saw that he was recorded as giving $369 yearly to charity, but all that that tells me is that:

A.) he isn't using charitable contributions as a tax deduction
AND
B.)that any deductions he may be making over $369 per year are not a matter of public record."

Three hundred sixty-nine dollars a year... what a piddly amount. Charities and such are a big deal in Washington, socially and politically. Certainly someone of Biden's stature can afford to give more, and Joe's been in politics long enough to know that money given to charity is money well spent, when it comes to raising oneself in the eyes of one's peers and the voting public.

But maybe Joe doesn't care what people think. Maybe that's because he's such a tightwad that he only gives away $369 yearly and doesn't care who knows it or what that will do to him politically, or maybe he doesn't care because he's obeying Jesus's instructions regarding charitable giving:

Mat 6:2 Therefore when thou doest [thine] alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Mat 6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: Mat 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Now, both Biden and Palin are churchgoers, and certainly denominations do differ in how literally they interpret the sixth chapter of Matthew, but taking into account that the Palins are very upfront about (and inclined to trumpet?) both their Pentecostal "the-world-is-6000-years-old-and-the-Bible-is-to-be-taken-literally" faith and about the amount of money they "give" to charity (and recieve back again in the form of tax deductions and social and political attaboys)
... WHO'S talking the talk, and who's walking the walk?