The above was announced by the White House on Friday and you probably think we're about to smear Dick and Lynn (whom we do not like). That's actually not the point of this. The Cheneys list their 2007 income as $2,528,068. Nothing meager to be sure. Their donations to charity (and, yes, we'll wonder about what charities as well) were approximately 5% of their income.
Barack and Michelle Obama haven't released their 2007 income returns. However, The New York Times reported last month that 2004 saw the Obama donate a 'whopping' 1.2% to charity. They're givers! Leslie Wayne's article included this:
"Their charitable giving only went up when it looked like he was campaigning for the presidential office," said Paul L. Caron, a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and editor of the TaxProf Blog, which examines tax questions and has posted the returns.
Ms. Obama's income from the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she was a top administrator until going on leave, more than doubled when Mr. Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004. The couple's 2004 return showed Mrs. Obama earning $115,889 from the university. Her income rose to $317,000 the next year and was $274,000 in 2006.
Wow, a fifty percent raise . . . just because her husband was elected Senator.
File it under The Audacity of Greed.