The Clintons released their joint tax return for 2015 today. It shows ten million dollars plus in income, mostly from speaking fees and the advance for Hillary's last book. What interested me, however, was the listing of charitable contributions made by Bill and Hillary Clinton. They only took deductions for contributions to two organizations. They gave $42,000 to Desert Classic Charities and they gave $1,000,000 to The Clinton Family Foundation.
Think about that. For those who don't know, Desert Classic Charities is the organization that runs the PGA event called the Desert Classic each year in California. The organization does use the profits of the event for charity, there is no question about that. The contribution by the Clintons, however, was most likely a fee for Bill to play in the pro-am portion of the event. It's called a contribution, however, so that those who put down all that cash to play in the event can deduct it for tax purposes.
The gift to the Clinton Family Foundation is clearly something other than just charity. We already know that the foundation spends only 19 cents out of every dollar on actual charitable giving. The other 81% goes to administration costs. Those administration costs include enormous travel expenses that covered much of the travel of Bill and Hillary (at least until Hillary started charging her travel to her campaign). The administration costs also cover the salaries of various Clinton staff people who have been waiting in the hope that Hillary wins the White House. For example, we know that Ira Magaziner was paid $450,000 per year nominally to run the Clinton Foundation office in Boston. That office does next to nothing, but even if it were busy, the salary for Magaziner is exorbitant. Huma Abedin also got a salary from the Foundation even when she worked for Hillary at the State Department. The same was true of Cheryl Mills. Who knows how many other Clinton people were getting cash from the foundation for activities that had nothing to do with charity.
The Clinton Foundation is so far from being an actual charity that the most important group that rates charities, Charity Navigator, says that it cannot rate the Clinton Foundation because it cannot actually tell what charitable acts it is doing. Just to be clear, a charity that spends 30% on administration is looked at by Charity Navigator as having serious deficiencies; the Clinton Foundation spends 81%, so it is just unacceptable.
Hillary released these tax returns today to pressure Donald Trump to release his own. The media will no doubt use that as the story of the day. The real story, however, is that in 2015, the Clintons earned ten million dollars and gave nothing, NOTHING to charity.
Think about that. For those who don't know, Desert Classic Charities is the organization that runs the PGA event called the Desert Classic each year in California. The organization does use the profits of the event for charity, there is no question about that. The contribution by the Clintons, however, was most likely a fee for Bill to play in the pro-am portion of the event. It's called a contribution, however, so that those who put down all that cash to play in the event can deduct it for tax purposes.
The gift to the Clinton Family Foundation is clearly something other than just charity. We already know that the foundation spends only 19 cents out of every dollar on actual charitable giving. The other 81% goes to administration costs. Those administration costs include enormous travel expenses that covered much of the travel of Bill and Hillary (at least until Hillary started charging her travel to her campaign). The administration costs also cover the salaries of various Clinton staff people who have been waiting in the hope that Hillary wins the White House. For example, we know that Ira Magaziner was paid $450,000 per year nominally to run the Clinton Foundation office in Boston. That office does next to nothing, but even if it were busy, the salary for Magaziner is exorbitant. Huma Abedin also got a salary from the Foundation even when she worked for Hillary at the State Department. The same was true of Cheryl Mills. Who knows how many other Clinton people were getting cash from the foundation for activities that had nothing to do with charity.
The Clinton Foundation is so far from being an actual charity that the most important group that rates charities, Charity Navigator, says that it cannot rate the Clinton Foundation because it cannot actually tell what charitable acts it is doing. Just to be clear, a charity that spends 30% on administration is looked at by Charity Navigator as having serious deficiencies; the Clinton Foundation spends 81%, so it is just unacceptable.
Hillary released these tax returns today to pressure Donald Trump to release his own. The media will no doubt use that as the story of the day. The real story, however, is that in 2015, the Clintons earned ten million dollars and gave nothing, NOTHING to charity.
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