Monday, February 20, 2012
This is interesting. According to the Washington Post:
“President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, despite having the second-lowest income of the four candidate/spouse combos, gave the highest percentage of their $1.8 million income to charity in 2010.”
The Obamas gave 14.2% of their AGI, while the Romneys gave 13.8%.”
“Santorum and Newt Gingrich, by comparison, gave very little of their income to charity. Gingrich and his wife, Callista, gave 2.6% of their $3.2 million income in 2010. Santorum and wife Karen, who made the least in 2010 (less than $1 million), also gave the lowest percentage of their income to charity, at 1.8%.”
Here is a fuller picture of the charitable contributions of the four candidates:
Obamas:
Romney:
Santorum:
Gingrich:
Chart from Paul Caron, Professor of Law, Cincinnati College of Law.
From the Left 
Newt can’t give to charity because he’s in the hole to Tiffany & Co. $500,000 for bubbles for his space alien third wife, Calista.
The Mormon gave 13.8% to charity?
Were all the charitable contributions to Mormon causes like “pray away the gay” and passing Prop 8 in California? I think a detailed breakdown of where Mitt spread his seed would be interesting.
Santorum tithes I’m sure so there goes 100k
Romney supposedly tithes to the Mormon church so most of his contribution must go there. Santorum apparently does not give 10% of his income of his church, since he obviously is not donating 10% to anyone.
Santorum has eight mouths to feed so I’m not surprised by how tight he is. Gingrich is just a pig and a tightass trying to keep Calista swathed in jewels. She’s his trophy wife. The Obamas are indeed, very generous and it is good to see. Great data. Thanks for posting this.
The Obamas came from humble beginnings. They understand the importance of charity.
Newt is a selfish piece of shit.
It isn’t clear to me what AGI (Gross Adjustable Income) really means in this context. Does AGI include ALL of the income from long-term capital gains, or only that portion of it that is taxable? For example, only about 15-20% of long-term capital gains is considered taxable income. It is known that Romney’s income consists primarily of capital gains, rather than a fully taxable wage or salary. If the figures for AGI include only the taxable portion of long-term capital gains, then Romney’s true income may be closer to $100 million per year, rather than $20 million per year. If Romney’s true income is $100 million per year, then this charitable contributions amount to only 3-5% of his income, rather than the 14-19% that is being reported by journalists.
Ultra,
Romney’s income is a shadow game. As long as he’s sheltering large swaths of income in offshore tax havens like Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Cayman Islands, and the Isle of Man, we only have his US Federal tax returns to base his AGI on.
Romney gifted his sons a staggering $100 million each. I am appalled that Congress allowed him to value that gift at zero, thus avoiding the 31% gift tax.
Meanwhile, more Americans filing “single one” are being told by the IRS that they owe for the first time in in their filing life.