Barack Obama and uncharitableness

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In the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Barack Obama gave less than 2% of his earnings to charity even though he made $250,000 per year (In the years 2000 to 2002, Barack Obama gave less than 1% of his income to charity).[1][2]

Concerning the matter of Barack Obama and uncharitablenss, in the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Barack 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%.[3]

Below is Obama's charitable giving expressed as percentage of his income for the years of 2000 to 2006 when he was earning about $250,000 per year:

  • 2000: 0.9%
  • 2001: 0.5%
  • 2002: 0.4%
  • 2003: 1.4%
  • 2004: 1.2%
  • 2005: 4.7%
  • 2006: 6.1%[4]

Obama's charitable giving pattern is not surprising given what we know about the charitable giving of United States liberal politicians and the charitable giving of liberals in the United States.[5][6]

Barack Obama's Brother George Obama and Poverty

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....[7]

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.[8]

In September of 2008, National Review featured an article by Dinesh D'Souza which declared:

George Obama’s shack measures six feet by ten feet, and yet he says that Barack Obama has done nothing to reach out to him or to help him. “I live like a recluse. If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed.”[9]

A critic of Barack Obama's uncharitableness towards his brother wrote:

Well, they say charity begins at home, but it hasn't apparently in this case. Hearing about what George is going through, you can't help but wonder why his brother Barack won't send the guy $20? I mean it would double his annual income.[10]

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." [11]

Barack Obama and Liberal Elitism

For more information please see: Barack Obama and Liberal Elitism

Obama has consistently shown himself to be a liberal elitist who looks down on "ordinary" Americans. Asked to explain why many small town Democrats do not support him while campaigning for the Pennsylvania primary, Obama replied "it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." When Obama made this remark he was alluding to small town people who had experienced long periods of joblessness. In response to outrage when his remarks were unexpectedly publicized, Obama did not recount his statement but instead replied, I "didn't say it as well as I should have."[12] Although many rural counties went for McCain, Obama carried the state with 54.6% of the vote, compared to 44.3% for John McCain.[13]

In an attempt to counter the view by many that Obama is an elitist, he began running campaign ads claiming that he "worked his way through college and Harvard Law." This claim is at best an exaggeration, as Obama only held summer jobs while in college and law school[14], and he would have likely benefited from special scholarships not available to most students.

Liberal politicians and uncharitableness

For more information please see: Liberal politicians and uncharitableness

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.[15]

Liberals and uncharitableness

For more information please see: Liberals and uncharitableness

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.[16] In addition American conservatives donate more time and given more blood than American liberals.[17]

See also

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