Obama Gave Only 1% Of Income To Charity

Bloomberg:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign.

The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[hank48188]

03:21 PM on 03/26/2008

Obama and his wife have a hard time making ends meet on only $480,000 a year, plus the money they receive from book sales, I heard his wife complain about that, you know paying for piano and dance lessons and everything else for themselves. That must be the reason she doesn't like this country.

[jayburd]

10:49 AM on 03/26/2008

And this is relevant why...?

[harriscrl3]

08:45 AM on 03/26/2008

Goodness the man has a grandmother in one of the poorest country in the world not to mention other families also in Kenya. I'm actually suprise that he gave as much as 1% to charity.

Carol

[PeaceCzar]

09:13 AM on 03/26/2008

I'm sorry, Carol, how exactly does your reasoning validate anything? It's total, whiny pretzel logic.

The man was a member of the Illinois State Legislature, and then the US Senate. Granted he was in the midst of many things (a Senate campaign etc) during these years, but don't make excuses that don't make any sense whatsoever. Otherwise you're just acting like the same old hyperdefensive Obama apologists.

GRAVEL/VENTURA 2008

[pilgrim7]

12:14 AM on 03/26/2008

How much did YOU give? Not that your or Obama's amount of giving is anybody else's business but God's. Since Obama is a poor misguided ignoramus who needs us to tell him where he should or should not attend church as well as whom to choose for his pastor, friend and "spiritual" advisor, are we now to look further down our pompous, hypocritical noses and demonize him also for ONLY giving 1-5% of HIS money to charity? Does that prove he's not a Christian in YOUR sight or does it just prove he'll be never be good enough for YOU?

[PeaceCzar]

09:15 AM on 03/26/2008

Easy there. Bottom line: 1% out of Obama's paycheck went to charity. Can you digest that, or is your head going to explode first?

[kipmartin]

06:59 PM on 03/25/2008

who cares? how much did you give? bought some girlscout cookies? you should feel good for yourself!

[drmavis]

06:11 PM on 03/25/2008

We could see how much the Clintons gave to charity if they released their tax returns.

[Advocate123]

06:07 PM on 03/25/2008

The Cheneys gave more than three-quarters of their income - $6,869,655 - to several charities, including George Washington University's Cardiothoracic Institute and a charity for low-income high school students in the Washington, D.C. area, Capital Partners for Education.

[caywen]

05:24 PM on 03/25/2008

What a crappy news article - it contradicts itself almost immediately after the misleading headline.

"The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income. "