Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

The Real War on Christmas: GOP Rejection of Tax Rise on Rich could End Tax-Break for Charitable Giving

Juan Cole 12/22/2012

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

Many worthy institutions in the United States, from universities and cancer research centers to soup kitchens, art galleries and public radio, are supported by donations from private citizens. One of the motivations for this charitable giving is that it typically reduces one’s tax bill. In essence, the government allows us to steer a certain amount of our taxable income away from the government and toward a good cause of our choosing.

The rich give much more than anyone else to these institutions. It just is not clear if they would give as much if there were no tax benefit. But millions of ordinary citizens also donate.

Americans donate about $300 billion a year to their favorite charitable causes. About 70% of that comes from individuals.

The provisions of the “fiscal cliff,” looming as of January 1, could well eliminate tax breaks for this giving as a way of raising revenue for the Federal government. But this step would only be necessary if the GOP continues to block any increases of taxes on the wealthy. (The Obama administration wants to cap the tax deduction, but if the GOP continues to obstruct tax rises for the rich, it could go away altogether.

Conservatives such as Bill O’Reilly at Fox Cable News have been pushing a phony complaint about a supposed ‘war on Christmas’ for years. Apparently they are upset that many companies, institutions and individuals say “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas, in order to be inclusive of Jewish Americans and the other non-Christian religions that make up 5% of the population, as well as of the 14% of Americans who say they have no religion

But will they be upset that the GOP was so opposed to the rich paying their fair share of the nation’s tax burden that they allowed the country to go over a fiscal cliff that may drastically reduce charitable giving.

Isn’t charitable giving in the spirit of Christmas? Indeed, without it isn’t Christmas no more than consumerism and selfishness?

Isn’t the end of the tax break for charitable donations the real war on Christmas?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Libyan Gov't Decries Fake News about Taking 1 mn. Palestinian Refugees: "Committed to the Palestinian Cause"
  • Pope Leo XIV’s Link to Haiti is Part of a broader American Story of Race, Citizenship and Migration
  • Gaza, Yemen, Iran: Trump's Opening Gambits in the Middle East (Juan Cole on The Bitchuation Room with Francesca Fiorentini)
  • For all Trump's new Mideast Contracts, Two Big Deals Elude Him
  • That Sucking Sound you hear is Trump Flushing America down the Toilet

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved