WSJ: Obama Meeting Stiff Resistance on Capping Charitable Donation Deductions; May Drop Provision

Huh. He's too left-wing even for the Congressional Democrats.

You can hardly blame David Brooks and Chris Buckley for not realizing this. After all, there was noting at all in his record to suggest such a thing.

President Barack Obama is meeting strong Democratic Party resistance to his proposal to reduce tax deductions enjoyed by upper-income Americans and could be forced to drop or modify the idea.

Mr. Obama in his budget blueprint last week proposed a cap on itemized deductions for mortgage interest and charitable donations to help pay for his health-care overhaul. The plan would cost wealthier taxpayers about $318 billion in new taxes over 10 years, according to government estimates.

But after objections from Democratic lawmakers, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared to suggest at one point Wednesday that the administration was willing to consider dropping or modifying the proposal.

The resistance from Mr. Obama's own party -- focusing on a single element of the president's tax plans -- could foreshadow broader troubles for the rest of his proposed tax increases.

...

Charitable organizations are also worried. Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy said Wednesday that Mr. Obama's proposals to limit deductions and raise rates, if applied in 2006, would have reduced giving by nearly $4 billion, or 2.1%.

The charitable-deduction cap is truly strange -- it's almost as if Obama wants to reduce private giving so that the state will be the sole font of munificence.

posted by Ace at 12:45 PM

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