He's a very charismatic individual. :)

That's the way "Osama" Obama is.

How much of your income did you give to charity? If you can't match his percentage you have no basis to attack him. Of course if you're a person that relies on charity the rules change, but I'm going to assume you're not.

He's a fool.

Obama is full of empty demagoguery and rhetoric. Kind of like the little midget-man pretending to be the Wizard of Oz. When will America wake up and see that they are being duped by this green know-nothing politico?

Common Sense, I'm curious what that 2% added up to. Would you happen to know?

There is a difference in taxes and free giving. What he gave was out of pocket. There is a difference. If you're curious I won't be voting for him so I'm not ringing his bell so you do.

To provide a compare/contrast: Between 2001 and 2006, McCain contributed roughly $950,000 to the John and Cindy McCain foundation. That accounted for all of its listed income other than for $100 that came from an anonymous donor. During that same period, the McCain foundation made contributions of roughly $1.6 million. More than $500,000 went to his kids’ private schools, most of which was donated when his children were attending those institutions. So McCain apparently received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by his children. McCain has net assets of between $20 million and $32 million, making him the seventh wealthiest member of the Senate. His wealth is tied to Cindy Hensley McCain, his second wife and heiress to Hensley & Co., a major Anheuser-Busch distributor. The McCain foundation also donated money–roughly $128,000–to Christ Lutheran School, which the McCain’s 15-year-old adopted daughter, Bridget, and their son Jim both attended. In 2001, the foundation also donated $41,667 to tIt’s impossible to know how much McCain has saved in taxes through his foundation’s donations since he has thus far refused to release his tax returns (and won’t commit to releasing them after formally becoming the nominee either). There’s nothing illegal or improper about the foundation’s contributions, but it’s not exactly the pattern of giving you’d expect from someone who has cultivated an anti-elitist image.

I do not think your accurate on your account of 2%. I believe I read that both Obama and The Clintons gave at least 10% of their income to charity.

Yep more money to the government, what will that solve. The government can't even keep track of the money it's receives now. Recession, depression looming over our heads and Obama wants to raise taxes

Obamanation for president!

and the problem is?....seems the rich get richer while the poor have their arses hanging out of their trousers even more ...but sorry I forgot ...greed is good...right?

G'day Common Sense, Thank you for your question. It is yet another reason not to vote for Barack Obama. By the way, does that figure include his donation to his pastor Jeremiah Wright of $21,000. Regards

I think you need to learn a little about how percentages operate. If my taxes went up by 10% from their current levels, the increase would only be less than 1% of my (relatively low) income and they'd get less than $100 more from me and my wife. I lose more than that in two months of high gas prices. --- EDIT 21 APR 08, 2035 EDT At a glance, I am intrigued but reserve judgment as this sounds like a partisan election-year sound-bite. The trouble is that financial matters are not always as intuitive as one would think. For instance, the relationship between tax rates and revenue is non-linear; tax cuts CAN cause an INCREASE in revenue by allowing businesses to keep more of their money for expansion, creating more jobs, etcetera. The key word there is "CAN". In case you haven't noticed, it doesn't always work. If you graph tax rates versus revenue, there is a sweet spot in the curve and the tax cuts W pushed through a few years ago went a little TOO far, pushing us on the other side of that sweet spot. Where Obama's proposal lies on that curve is... something I'd rather leave to those smarter than I. It may well be a pendulum swing back to the other side of the "sweet spot", but I cannot be certain. However, it's obvious that cutting taxes doesn't keep jobs here. It is also obvious that tax cuts don't ALWAYS help the economy. Hell, this is the first time I've ever heard of a wartime economy tanking based solely on the market instead of blockades or sanctions. Also bear in mind that our spending has increased FAR beyond what even the most bleeding-heart tax-and-spend Democrat could ever dream of, and much of it has been pork-laden "supplementals" that are outside the scope of the actual budget. Considering how my income compares to most Americans, and how my parent's (considerably higher) income compares, I think it safe to say that it won't DIRECTLY affect anybody here. Show of hands; how many people reading this earn >$150K/yr? Just out of curiosity, what percentage of your income went to Uncle Sam, and what percentage of your income did you give to charity? For me, it was ~7% taxes and a mere ~0.5% to charity.

well, there are a couple issues that need to be addressed, first he doesn't want to "raise taxes" he wants to stop the tax cuts already provided by the Bush administration. Second, consider the amount of his income (I think it was about 4 million) and consider how much that 2% is. so he actually gave more than the average yearly income of the average American