E.J. Dionne, a liberal's liberal and often a leading indicator of the liberal line, twists himself into a pretzel defending President Obama's plan to tax charitable deductions. Here is his indictment of the unfairness of it all under the current tax structure (update* - logic taken from President Obama's press conference:

Obama's proposal is based on a sound intuition: Do we really believe it's fair that when a married couple with a taxable income of $50,000 gives $1,000 to charity, they get a tax benefit of $150, while a couple earning $1 million making exactly the same contribution gets back $350? Is it fair that the higher-income couple also gets a bigger tax advantage on their mortgage payments?

The value of the deductions is currently worth more to the higher-income couple because they pay taxes at a higher rate. Obama wouldn't even close the whole gap. Applied to this example, his 28 percent cap would still let the wealthier couple deduct $280.