He's cheap too.....Santorum's charitable donations lag rivals

[a kennedy]

By Charles Riley

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- White House hopeful Rick Santorum lags behind both his 2012 competitors and wealthy Americans in general when it comes to charitable giving, according to tax documents.

Santorum gave $81,500 to charity over the past four years, or 2.2% of the more than $3.6 million in total income he earned since leaving the Senate, the documents showed.

The tax returns, provided to CNN on Thursday, did not break down charitable giving by recipient.

From 2007 to 2009, Santorum's rate of charitable giving fluctuated between 2.03% and 2.67% of his earnings.

In 2010, the rate dropped to 1.76% of his $923,411 in income. That same year, President Obama gave 14.2% of his income to charity, while Mitt Romney donated 13.8% and Newt Gingrich gave 2.6%.

Ron Paul has not released his tax returns.

According to data from the IRS and the Congressional Budget Office, taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000 donate 3.4% of their income to charity on average.

"His donation level is on the low side," said Ken Berger, the president and CEO of Charity Navigator, who also noted that research suggests religious individuals donate more than the non-religious.

"When you put it in the context of people of faith, then it really is on the low side," Berger said.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/16/news/economy/santorum_charity/index.htm?source=cnn_bin

[Angry Dragon]

1. The Catholic Church might have to kick him out

they demand 10%

[catbyte]

2. You mean he doesn't tithe? Tsk tsk tsk

[Graybeard]

3. Ronnie Raygun was even worse.

When Saint Ronnie was running for Prez he fought for years not to make his tax returns public. When he finally had to relent it was very embarrassing. Over the years he had zero contributions to either a church or any charity. His excuse was that he gave of
"his time" in personal appearances, etc.