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| Philanthropy |
Filling Four Fissures
William Jefferson Clinton
05/03/2004
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Almost 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville noticed the enormous proclivity
of Americans to organize themselves in private charitable groups to fulfill
public needs. Today, there is a greater necessity for private philanthropy than
ever before. People at higher levels of income have more money to give away, now
that the number one domestic priority of the current government is to make sure
that nobody ever touches the tax cut. For me, that is kind of nice. For eight
years, the Republicans were so mean to Hillary and me, and now, as millionaires,
we are the most important people in the world to them.
 If the tax cuts become
permanent they will eventually be worth an average of $180,000 per year to every
American in the highest income category. Since we do not need this money and
should not have received it in the first place, we ought to give it all away. I
do not know if abolishing the estate tax would, as the philanthropy community
has always worried, lead to a dramatic reduction in charitable giving. But what
it does mean is that we have to make an appeal for philanthropy explicitly on
its own merits.
Four Challenges
When I got out of office I had to figure out what I wanted
to do, since there is no real job description for former presidents. I could not
play saxophone well enough to be a full-time musician, nor did I play golf well
enough to go on the Senior Tour. What I decided to do was to work on four issues
where I believed I could still have an impact.
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