By Larry Snyder and Brian Gallagher
Brian Gallagher is president and CEO of United Way Worldwide. Father Larry Snyder is president of Catholic Charities USA.
The season of giving is a time to focus on what we hold dear. Hurricane Sandy certainly demonstrated that what we take for granted is what we miss most when it is taken from us. As leaders of nonprofits providing a broad cross-section of services to our communities, we worry this might be the case with the charitable tax deduction.
President Obama and Congress are considering caps or cuts to the 100-year-old tax benefit for those who give to charities and redirecting these dollars to federal coffers. Doing away with the charitable deduction at a time when people are still reeling from the recession and facing the consequences of government cutbacks is bad timing and bad logic. In short, fewer charitable dollars and government cutbacks are a double hit to those who need help the most.