President Obama's budget for FY 2014 is to be released tomorrow. Until it is, only speculation about its content is possible. But it is almost certain that the President will again propose some kind of reduction in the value of the tax deduction for charitable contributions. In every budget up to now, the President has advocated, for wealthy taxpayers, capping the value of itemized deductions at 28%. There is no reason to think he won't propose the same limit again. In past years, Congress has ignored the President's proposal, but in the pressured effort to deal with the huge federal deficits and national debt, sympathy for some kind of limit is growing on Capitol Hill. 

 

Cutting back the incentive to give is not a good way to deal with the deficit. As a new website sponsored by the Charitable Giving Coalition points out, "Unlike other tax incentives, the charitable deduction is a unique provision that encourages individuals to give away a portion of their income without getting anything back." The taxpayer gets a tax break-and the charity and those its serves, and our society in general, get a big boost. As the new website points out:

 

• In 2011, Americans gave nearly $300 billion to support charitable causes, much of which is claimed as a charitable tax deduction. Individual contributions to charitable causes account for 73 percent of all charitable giving in America
• For every $1 a donor can deduct, the public receives approximately $3 of benefit. No other tax provision generates that kind of positive public impact
• The charitable deduction is used by people of varying income levels. The percent of people indicating they use the charitable deduction is the same for households with incomes between $50,000-$100,000; $100,000-$150,000; and $150,000+.
• If Congress takes away the deduction, we put at risk billions in private donations that have supported diverse, worthy causes. For example, if the Administration's proposed 28 percent cap on the charitable deduction is imposed, the sector could lose up to $5.6 billion per year.[7] That is the equivalent of more than the annual operating budgets of Red Cross, Goodwill, the YMCA, Habitat for Humanity, the Boys and Girls Clubs, Catholic Charities and the American Cancer Society combined.

 

To track what happens with the charity tax deduction, monitor:

The Alliance for Charitable Reform

The Charitable Giving Coalition

 

For the background and significance of the charitable contribution tax deduction, attend or watch on-line the April 16 event sponsored by the Bradley Center for Philanthropy & Cultural Renewal at the Hudson Institute, "The Charitable Deduction in American Political Thought." Noon to 1:30 pm EDT. Go here for details and a link for the live streamed video.    

The American Civil Liberties Union's 2013 Workplan, not to mention its fundraising letters, public arguments, and legislative commentary, have adopted a wrong-headed, but popular, conception of religious freedom. When people and organizations of faith shape their actions by their religion, the ACLU calls it--not religious exercise but rather "the use of religion to discriminate." These acts of religious freedom, according to the ACLU, are, instead, examples of "religious refusal."

 

Here's what the work plan says:

 

"To most Americans, religious freedom means that each of us is free to make personal decisions about whom to love, when and if to worship and whether or not to have children based on our own beliefs and free of government interference. But, powerful forces in our country want to turn that principle on its head. They claim that religious freedom means they are free to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us. And they are pushing forward a nationwide strategy to do just that."

 

What do they mean?

 

* When a Catholic hospital refuses to perform an elective abortion, the ACLU says this is an instance of Catholics imposing their views on others--even though Planned Parenthood and others are more than happy to perform that elective abortion.

 

* When a religious organization presses the federal government to be free not to include emergency contraceptives in its employee health plan, the ACLU says the employer is forcing its views on the employees--even though the federal government liberally funds the distribution of contraceptives in other ways and even though the employees are free to look for work in organizations more compatible with their convictions.

 

*When a religious adoption agency declines to place a child with a practicing gay person or a same-sex married couple--the ACLU calls this the imposition of religion, even though other private agencies specifically cater to the gay community. And so on.

 

First the ACLU and its allies persuade a legislature to criminalize action that, until then, has been a matter of choice by the person or organization (e.g., who to serve and how), and then, when religious communities push back, asking for an exemption that will protect their right to continue to make their faith-shaped decisions, the ACLU claims that this plea to vindicate the constitutional protection of religious exercise is just a pernicious call for theocracy. And yet the religious voices are calling only for the freedom to be true to their own beliefs, leaving the same freedom for others--other doctors, other adoption agencies, other clubs, other schools--to follow their own convictions.

 

It isn't the religious communities that are seeking to limit freedom in these battles--rather it is the ACLU.

 

If you get the ACLU's fundraising letter asking you to support their current anti-religious freedom campaign, why not instead donate to IRFA? Just go here to make a secure on-line donation! 

The Center for Public Justice's 2013 Kuyper Lecture will be presented on April 25 at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, by Stanley Carlson-Thies. The lecture is entitled, "Prohibiting the Free Exercise Thereof: The Affordable Care Act and Other Threats to Institutional Religious Freedom." 7:30-9 pm, Prince Conference Center. Reception following. Both lecture and reception are free and open to the public. More details here.