MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JOHN THUNE (R-SD)

SUBJECT: THE PRESIDENT'S PROPOSED CUT IN TAX DEDUCTIONS FOR CHARITABLE GIVING INTERVIEWER: NORAH O'DONNELL

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MS. O'DONNELL: Joining me now is Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota. Senator, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. THUNE: Good afternoon, Norah.

MS. O'DONNELL: We're going to talk about your new resolution that you're putting forward, but first I just want to ask you quickly, do you think that Senate Republicans are going to support and back this budget alternative that the House Republicans put forward today?

SEN. THUNE: Senate Republicans will probably offer a lot of their own amendments. I know that the House Republicans are putting forward an alternative to the Democrat budget. There's consideration, of course, being given here. We're going to have this bill on the floor, the budget on the floor, at some point next week. My guess is we will try and improve it by the amendment process.

We'll be offering a lot of amendments that we think will make the bill stronger and better. And you could characterize them as alternatives, however you want to characterize it, but there will be plenty of Republican alternatives for people to vote for.

MS. O'DONNELL: Just the other night, we heard the president in his press conference defend his proposal to cut those tax deductions that wealthy Americans can claim for their charitable contributions. Let's listen to that.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From videotape.) If you look at the evidence, there's very little evidence that this has a significant impact on charitable giving. I'll tell you what has a significant impact on charitable giving is a financial crisis and an economy that's contracting.

MS. O'DONNELL: You disagree strongly with the president, don't you?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I don't disagree with the point that the economy is affecting charitable giving. That's the very -- the very point that I'm making. The amendment that I offered to the piece of legislation that was on the Senate floor today was simply to affirm the Senate's commitment to retaining the favorable tax treatment that charitable giving currently gets today, because we think that now is terrible time.

And if you look at a lot of the charitable organizations around the country, the giving has dropped off. Many of them are stepping up and opposing this proposal simply because they don't believe that, in the current economic climate, it's a very good time to change the tax treatment that's accorded people who make charitable contributions.

And I happen to agree with -- I happen to agree with his premise that the economy is leading to a drop-off in contributions, but I also believe that changing the tax treatment on charitable giving will also lead to a big drop-off in contributions.

MS. O'DONNELL: Do you have any evidence that it will lead to a huge drop-off in contributions?

SEN. THUNE: There's -- there's substantial work been done on that. And there are a number of studies out there -- a wide range, but all conclude that it will lead to a drop-off in charitable giving. I mean, it varies from somewhere to 2 billion (dollars) a year, to up to 10 (billion dollars) to $15 billion a year, depending on which study you look at.

But there's a lot of study that's been done on this subject, and it suggests that for every 10 percent that you reduce the tax benefit that's afforded the people who give to charities, you get about a 10 percent reduction in giving.

MS. O'DONNELL: Yeah, I mean, there was that piece I saw on A-2 in The Washington Post early this morning when I read the paper, that they -- that some analysts are saying that it could result in a drop of nearly $3.9 billion for the non-profit sector. I mean, that's a huge amount of money. But at a time like this, when we've got to have big expenditures, some argue, of government funding in order to jumpstart this economy, who should pay more, Senator?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I don't know that -- I'm not --

MS. O'DONNELL: Where do you get the revenue?

SEN. THUNE: Well, first off, I would question some of the expansion that's being done, and then the need to have the kind of spending. I think this -- the budget that the president's proposing spends way too much money and taxes too much and borrows too much to pay for that spending.

But I do think that if you're going to find ways to pay for it, don't do it out of charitable giving. My gosh, this is something that's a great American tradition. People in this country, if you can believe this, gave $300 billion in 2007. That's 2 percent of our GDP.

MS. O'DONNELL: Yeah.

SEN. THUNE: And that's a big -- a big influx of dollars coming into a lot of these charitable organizations that are doing good work out there. I don't think that's where you ought to go to try and find savings to pay for some of these other government expansions.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator John Thune of South Dakota, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SEN. THUNE: Thanks, Norah.

END.

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