Unions Send Dues Money to Planned Parenthood

Nearly half a million to top abortionist, mostly for political purposes

Labor groups sent nearly half a million dollars to Planned Parenthood in 2014, according to federal disclosure forms.

Three of the nation’s largest unions—the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), contributed $435,000 to the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Almost all of that money was spent on political advocacy. AFSCME donated $400,000 to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which spent about $1 million helping Democratic campaigns in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. UFCW categorized its $10,000 donation as political activity in federal labor filings.

Not all of the donations were political in nature. Some were categorized as charitable contributions to the billion-dollar organization, which performs more than 300,000 abortions each year. The remaining $25,000 given by AFSCME and SEIU were described as “grants” to a “tax-exempt organization.”

None of the unions returned request for comment about the specific purpose of the donations or whether they intended to maintain relations with the organization in the wake of recent scandals.

The Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group, has released several hours of video of top Planned Parenthood officials discussing organ harvesting and the sale of remains in manner that may run afoul of federal law. The group released a fourth video Thursday showing Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Vice President Dr. Savita Ginde sifting through the remains of “another boy” while drawing attention to various organs and praising a “per item” payment schedule for pieces of the fetuses.

“It’s a baby,” she said on tape as an assistant probed the body for intact body parts to sell to undercover videographers posing as prospective organ buyers.

While donating fetal body parts is legal, federal law prohibits the alteration of abortion techniques to harvest usable parts of the fetus, and also prohibits any sale of the body parts.

Planned Parenthood and Democrats have attempted to shield the group, which now faces three congressional investigations, by saying the “tissue donations” are used for medical research. Ginde, the Rocky Mountain executive, told the CMP actors that the group would use the blanket term “research” to justify its financial benefit from the sale of body parts.

Via: WFB

Continue Reading....

The Uncharitable Joe Biden: Better at Giving Away Your Money Than His

Before he became Vice President, Joe Biden was not exactly Santa Claus. So, one thing I think you will not see during the Vice President debates is a discussion on charity—Joe will not want to discuss this at all.

Just when I thought that there was no politician stingier than Barack Obama—who, before he became President, gave as little as .6% of his income to the poor—lo and behold Obama picked as his running mate, a man who gives far less to the poor than he. While Obama’s tax returns prior to his 2008 election reveal a portrait of a man who privately gives very little to the poor—less than any Republican I know—Joe Biden gives even less.

In fact, Biden’s charitable giving is so abysmally poor that he makes even Obama look like Santa Claus. Biden may well have been the stingiest man in the Senate. For two of the most “liberal” senators in Washington, they were embarrassingly conservative when it comes to reaching into their own pockets and helping the poor, whose cause they pretend to champion. If they thought that the public actually knew how little they did privately to help the poor, these two hypocrites would never again spout their populist drivel about Republican “trickle down” economics or criticize the Republicans for not doing enough to help the poor.

A close look at his returns reveals the true depths of their hypocrisy.

From 1998 through his election in 2008, Joe Biden’s income varied between $200,000 and $400,000. Where I come from, that is serious money. Yet, amazingly, his reported annual charitable giving—as shown on his Schedule A—varied between a whopping $120 during the lean years and a little less than $400 when he felt extra charitable. [The rare exception was 2007, when he was running for office and gave a less than generous $995 to the poor.] No, I have not missed a decimal place. He does not give in terms of five figures, nor does he give in terms of four figures. At least before he became Vice President.

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading...

Romneys to Release Taxes

The Romney campaign is releasing Mitt and Ann Romney's 2011 tax return today. The campaign previews a few of the highlights here:

• In 2011, the Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in mostly investment income.

• The Romneys’ effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%.

• The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income.

• The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions.

• The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

Additionally, the Romney campaign is releasing a summary of 20 years of taxes, between 1990-2009, detailing their tax expenditures during those years:

• In each year during the entire 20-year period, the Romneys owed both state and federal income taxes.

• Over the entire 20-year period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20%.

• Over the entire 20-year period, the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate was 13.66%.

• Over the entire 20-year period, the Romneys gave to charity an average of 13.45% of their adjusted gross income.

• Over the entire 20-year period, the total federal and state taxes owed plus the total charitable donations deducted represented 38.49% of total AGI.

UPDATE: Here's Mitt and Ann Romney's 2011 tax return:

Mitt and Ann Romney 2011 1040

Via: The Weekly Standard

Continue Reading