The Lieberman/Santorum faith-based bill, the Charity Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act (S. 1924), represents a positive compromise from the Bush charitable choice proposals. Yet one provision, dealing with charitable giving, raises some concern.
The bill proposes to let taxpayers who do not itemize get a tax break for charitable contributions. While this sounds very good, in today's economy it may prove yet another straw that is breaking the back of spending on domestic programs.