Barack Obama and uncharitableness

Concerning the matter of of Barack Obama and uncharitablenss, in the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Obama gave less than 2% of his earnings to charity even though he made $250,000 per year.

In the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Obama gave less than 2% of his earnings to charity even though he made $250,000 per year. Since becoming a national figure, that amount has jumped to about 6%.

Below is Obama's charitable giving expressed as percentage of his income for the years of 2000 to 2006:

• 2006: 6.1%
• 2005: 4.7%
• 2004: 1.2%
• 2003: 1.4%
• 2002: 0.4%
• 2001: 0.5%
• 2000: 0.9%

Obama's charitable giving pattern is not surprising given what we know about United States liberal politicians and charitable giving and also the charitable giving in the general population of liberals in the United States.

The political magazine the American Spectator declared:

“

The last two Democratic Party nominees for President have come up short on the charity scale. Al Gore has been famously stingy when it comes to actually giving his own money to charities. In 1998 he was embarrassed when his tax returns revealed that he gave just $353 to charity... Senator John Kerry likewise has a poor record. In 1995 he gave zero to charity, but did spend $500,000 to buy a half stake in a seventeenth century painting. In 1993, he gave $175 to the needy. Later, of course, Kerry married the rich widow Theresa Heinz, and today is active in charitable causes using the Heinz foundation as his vehicle... [Senator Ted] Kennedy’s tax returns are obviously a closely guarded secret. But when he chose to run for President in the 1970s, he released some of them. With a net worth of more than $8 million in the early 1970s and an income of $461,444 from a series of family trusts, Senator Robin Hood gave barely 1 percent of his income to charity. The sum is about as much as Kennedy claimed as a write-off on his fifty-foot sailing sloop Curragh.

”

In March of 2008, George Will cited a study by Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University, which indicated that American liberal households earn more than conservative American households but give less to charity. In addition American conservatives donate more time and given more blood than American liberals.

Barack Obama's Brother George Obama and Poverty

George Obama

In August of 2008 the NY Daily News reported the following concerning Obama and his half-brother George Obama:

“

Barack Obama wants to live in the White House - but his youngest half-brother lives in the poorhouse. George Obama, one of the candidate's seven living half-siblings, lives on pennies a month in a hut in Africa, the Italian edition of Vanity Fair revealed. "No one knows who I am," George Obama, 26, told the magazine. "I live like a recluse, no one knows I exist." He lives on the outskirts of Nairobi in a 65-square-foot shack decorated with posters of the Italian soccer clubs AC Milan and Inter, and a calendar of beaches. I live here on less than a dollar a month," he said.... A spokesman for Barack Obama declined repeated requests for comment yesterday. George Obama said he met his famous brother as 5-year-old, and again in 2006 when Obama toured East Africa and visited Nairobi. "It was very brief - we spoke for just a few minutes," he said.

”

Asked by Harry Smith from CBS about Obama leaving the campaign to visit his ailing grandmother, Obama replied, "Yeah, well, the -- I think most people understand that if you're not caring for your family, then you're probably not the kind of person who's going to be caring for other people."

George Obama's neighborhood