George Rebane

[This commentary was broadcast today 11May 2010 by KVMR FM85.9 as the latest of my regular bi-weekly contributions.]

In times thick and thin we Americans are world champion philanthropists – by any measure our voluntary contributions to charities and worthy causes have been unbeatable.  But our federal and state governments are working hard to change that.

When hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans recently, the media reported the outpouring from Americans to the tune of $6 billion.  We all instinctively reached for our wallets and checkbooks because those people needed help, and they would do the same for us.  But we hear of such generosity only during times of disaster and crisis.

What few people realize is that Americans voluntarily give that much out of their own pockets every week after week all year long, to the tune of over $300 billion annually.  And with millions of eyes, ears, and brains, we determine where that money should go to help the people and institutions we favor.

Most of the givers turn out to be religious people according to the Philanthropy Roundtable.  But people of faith don’t limit their contributions just to their own churches, synagogues, and temples.  Giving freely, Americans of faith and secular persuasions support untold causes to benefit our nation and people in need across the globe.

$300 billion a year is a lot of money, and it has been attracting the attention of spendthrift bloated governments at all levels.  Politicians, bureaucrats, and activists of a certain ideological bent have turned their gimlet eye on all that freely flowing cash not in their control.  To some of those people, that much giving clearly indicates that taxes are not yet nearly high enough.  Vote buying politicians are asking ‘what are those people doing with our money in their pockets?’  To others, who back causes to which no one would contribute voluntarily, all that money would be much more accessible if it were available to them through grants given by a like-minded government.

Today private giving and private charitable institutions are under fire from three sides.  The first is a desire at all levels of government to limit the flow of contributions by proposing added regulations, accreditation boards, and commissions to establish new levels of bureaucracy and oversight to charitable giving.  Many of these are to assure that charities implement and report on gender and racial quotas being met in their institutions and their recipients.

The second threat is the new notion that charitable gifts become public monies, and therefore should fall under political control of the state.  Finally, the government wants to redefine what kind of giving is charitable – they want to pick the winners and losers.  Put together, it all means that  an individual’s freedom to give should come under new and tougher government constraints.

I’m George Rebane, and I expand these and other themes in my Union column, and on georgerebane.com.  The opinions here are mine and not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.