Perhaps the most revealing plank of the Progressive agenda is the curious and obsessive attack on the charitable deduction allowance.

It does not require any explanation to conclude that an attack on this deduction is also an attack on the charities themselves.  So, why the attack on institutions that do good, conduct research, nurture, and provide for  the needy?

First we must acknowledge that the charitable deduction allowance is commonly abused.  However, this is not a reason to end the deduction.  Foundations that have charitable deduction status have become a mechanism to hide political contributions, payoffs, and fund personal expenses.  The Clintons have several foundations.  Rahm Emanuel has a foundation. Hank Paulson has a multimillion dollar foundation.  There certainly are quirks in other foundations and charities outside of politics. I am certain that there are Republicans that have foundations as well.  The abuses are not sufficient reason to end legitimate contributions to legitimate charities.  A focus on the issuance of charitable deduction status is a more proper course.

Yet, the Progressives want to toss the charitable deduction allowance baby out with the tub water.  Why?  Who would be against the Salvation Army, the American Cancer Society, the Community Church, parochial schools, et al?  The warm hearted Left, apparently.

Progressives enjoy herding people to the door step of governmental assistance.  Food stamps and disability payments and the entire cornucopia that is federal assistance are their pet programs. Charities are an obstruction to a full and total reliance on government.

Those who contribute to charities do so in what they deem to be the most efficient use of their money.  They decide.  They contribute.  The theory being that those who manage their money do so in the most efficient manner.  This concept, a free market idea, is an anathema to all that is Progressivism. The best charities will receive the most money.  Progressives shun the concept of individual decision making in this instance as well as all others.

Removing the charitable deduction will be devastating to churches and schools affiliated with churches. Without the deduction, churches will lose standing in the community.  Parochial schools will suffer to the predictable delight of the teachers unions. The voucher program initiatives will suffer as these alternate school choices come under financial strain and decline. It is no secret that the secular Progressive Left has little use for organized religion, parochial schools, or the school voucher system.  Ending charitable deductions is a calculated maneuver to knock the pins out of from under these impediments to the Progressive movement.

It has been said that governments do not share power.  The power to provide, the power to subsidize, the power to create a reliant citizenry, are all functions that the Progressives believe should not be shared. 

The discomfort that the Progressives see in charitable deductions is a prominent display of how they think and of what they believe.  The forwarding of the "Mother Government" concept is their game. Charities, and all that are reliant on those charities, are antiquated obstructions to their mission.

Bruce Johnson