Archive for » July 11th, 2012«

11 Jul 2012

Baby boomers face mental health care crisis, Institute of Medicine says

(AP) WASHINGTON – Getting older does not just mean a risk for physical ailments like heart disease and creaky knees: A new report finds as many as 1 in 5 American seniors has a mental health or substance abuse problem.

And as the population rapidly ages over the next two decades, millions of baby boomers may have a hard time finding care and services for mental health problems such as depression – because the nation is woefully lacking in doctors, nurses and other health workers trained for their special needs, the Institute of Medicine said Tuesday.

Instead, the country is focused mostly on preparing for the physical health needs of what has been called the silver tsunami.

“The burden of mental illness and substance abuse disorders in older adults in the United States borders on a crisis,” wrote Dr. Dan Blazer of Duke University, who chaired the Institute of Medicine panel that investigated the issue. “Yet this crisis is largely hidden from the public and many of those who develop policy and programs to care for older people.”

Already, at least 5.6 million to 8 million Americans age 65 and older have a mental health condition or substance abuse disorder, the report found – calling that a conservative estimate that does not include a number of disorders. Depressive disorders and psychiatric symptoms related to dementia are the most common.

Baby boomers becoming more obese, could result in high Medicare costs

While the panel could not make precise projections, those numbers are sure to grow as the number of seniors nearly doubles by 2030, said report co-author Dr. Peter Rabins, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University. How much substance abuse treatment for seniors will be needed is a particular question, as rates of illegal drug use are higher in people currently in their 50s than in previous generations.

Mental health experts welcomed the report.

“This is a wake-up call for many reasons,” said Dr. Ken Duckworth of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The coming need for geriatric mental health care “is quite profound for us as a nation, and something we need to attend to urgently,” he said.

Merely getting older does not make mental health problems more likely to occur, Rabins said, noting that middle age is the most common time for onset of depression.

But when they do occur in older adults, the report found that they are too often overlooked and tend to be more complex. Among the reasons:

-People over 65 almost always have physical health problems at the same time that can mask or distract from the mental health needs. The physical illnesses, and medications used for them, also can complicate treatment. For example, up to a third of people who require long-term steroid treatment develop mood problems that may require someone knowledgeable about both the medical and mental health issues to determine whether it is best to cut back the steroids or add an antidepressant, Rabins said.

On the other side, older adults with untreated depression are less likely to have their diabetes, high blood pressure and other physical conditions under control – and consequently wind up costing a lot more to treat.

-Age alters how people’s bodies metabolize alcohol and drugs, including prescription drugs. That can increase the risk of dangerous overdoses, and worsen or even trigger substance abuse problems.

-Grief is common in old age as spouses, other relatives and friends die. It may be difficult to distinguish between grief and major depression.

That also means a loss of the support systems that earlier in life could have helped people better recover from a mental health problem, said Dr. Paul D.S. Kirwin, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Adding stress may be loss of a professional identity with retirement, and the role reversal that happens when children start taking care of older parents.

“There’ll never be enough geriatric psychiatrists or geriatric medicine specialists to take care of this huge wave of people that are aging,” Kirwin said.

The Institute of Medicine report recognizes that. It says all health workers who see older patients – including primary care physicians, nurses, physicians’ assistants and social workers – need some training to recognize the signs of geriatric mental health problems and provide at least basic care. To get there, it called for changes in how Medicare and Medicaid pay for mental health services, stricter licensing requirements for health workers, and for the government to fund appropriate training programs.


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11 Jul 2012

Romney bests Obama donations with help of rich few

The Associated Press

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 | 3:13 a.m.

President Barack Obama on Monday said he raised $71 million in June for his re-election campaign, after Republican candidate Mitt Romney reported $106 million during the same period. It was the second consecutive month that Romney collected more cash and underscores the challenge for Obama ahead of November.

The grim news for Obama came as his campaign officials have publicly worried they were on track to lose the money race. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, in an email to supporters just three days ago, said: “Their gap is getting wider, and if it continues at this pace, it could cost us the election.”

Obama is fighting on two fronts to keep the presidency: On one hand, he faces Romney’s own war chest that pays for campaign operations. On the other, he has to push back against the hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to GOP-aligned “super” political action committees, or PACs, which have aired continual attack ads aimed at Obama and his record.

Indeed, wealthy donors have been instrumental in helping Romney beat Obama. When he broke fundraising records last month, Romney’s campaign praised small-dollar donors it said made it possible. But it was actually a small and often wealthy number of donors responsible, who gave an average of about $2,400 each, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Like Obama, Romney often touts the high percentage of donors who gave less than $250, underscoring the perception that a large, grassroots group of Americans want him in the White House. Romney’s campaign said that about 94 percent of 571,000 donors gave those amounts in June, or about $22 million.

But that leaves a little more than 34,000 responsible for the rest of the $83.8 million, the AP found. That’s about $2,400 on average per person.

Just as first-class passengers pay the bulk of an airline flight’s costs, wealthy donors to Romney and Obama often make the difference for campaigns. Even for Obama, who harnessed the power of small, grassroots donations to help clinch the presidency four years ago, more than two-thirds of his supporters gave $200 or more.

Both men have broad geographic appeal, with contributions from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Discounting small donors would ignore an important measure of support for the candidates, particularly as Romney is gaining on the president in terms of cash left in the bank.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Romney surrogate, said June’s contributions point to an increasing grassroots-fundraising movement that he said is exceeding expectations. “People feel the country is on the wrong track,” Pawlenty said in an interview. “They’re hopeful and excited. And they’re willing to chip in.”

Meanwhile, large contributors _ up to the legal limit of $2,500 for the campaign during the primary and another $2,500 during the general election – are vital in an election whose cost might surpass $1 billion.

In May, for example, a month after Romney began raising money with the Republican Party, he raised $76.8 million – more than Obama and Democrats by about $16 million. During that month, only one in six donors accounted for $64.8 million – or 84 percent – of that cash.

The importance of high-dollar donors underscores the more than 100 fundraising events Romney has held since earlier this spring, in tony locales like Park City, Utah; Aspen, Colo.; and the Hamptons. Just this weekend, an evening dinner at the ocean-front Hamptons estate of billionaire industrialist David Koch cost $50,000 per person or $75,000 per couple.

Obama’s campaign hosts glitzy campaign events of its own, more recently at actor George Clooney’s mansion in California. But Romney’s fundraising surge underscores how wealthy donors are creating a financial challenge for Obama – who once assailed the influence of corporate money and super PACs.

Republican-aligned super PACs, including Restore Our Future and American Crossroads, plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this election to defeat Obama. While Obama has super PACs working in his favor, they haven’t harnessed the large sums of money that the pro-Romney groups have been able to do so far.

As a result, Obama’s campaign has said repeatedly and publicly that the president could be the first incumbent to be out-raised by his challenger. That message has come lately in the form of online fundraising pleas, asking supporters for small donations – usually $3 – to help push back against Romney.

“We exceeded expectations – more than 706,000 people like you stepped up and pitched in for a grand total of $71 million raised for this campaign and the Democratic Party,” said Ann Marie Habershaw, the Obama campaign’s chief operating officer.

“Bad news? We still got beat,” she said. “Handily.”

___

Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Southampton, N.Y., contributed reporting.

Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jackgillum


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11 Jul 2012

Report: Boomers face mental health care crisis

(AP) WASHINGTON – Getting older does not just mean a risk for physical ailments like heart disease and creaky knees: A new report finds as many as 1 in 5 American seniors has a mental health or substance abuse problem.

And as the population rapidly ages over the next two decades, millions of baby boomers may have a hard time finding care and services for mental health problems such as depression – because the nation is woefully lacking in doctors, nurses and other health workers trained for their special needs, the Institute of Medicine said Tuesday.

Instead, the country is focused mostly on preparing for the physical health needs of what has been called the silver tsunami.

“The burden of mental illness and substance abuse disorders in older adults in the United States borders on a crisis,” wrote Dr. Dan Blazer of Duke University, who chaired the Institute of Medicine panel that investigated the issue. “Yet this crisis is largely hidden from the public and many of those who develop policy and programs to care for older people.”

Already, at least 5.6 million to 8 million Americans age 65 and older have a mental health condition or substance abuse disorder, the report found – calling that a conservative estimate that does not include a number of disorders. Depressive disorders and psychiatric symptoms related to dementia are the most common.

Baby boomers becoming more obese, could result in high Medicare costs

While the panel could not make precise projections, those numbers are sure to grow as the number of seniors nearly doubles by 2030, said report co-author Dr. Peter Rabins, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University. How much substance abuse treatment for seniors will be needed is a particular question, as rates of illegal drug use are higher in people currently in their 50s than in previous generations.

Mental health experts welcomed the report.

“This is a wake-up call for many reasons,” said Dr. Ken Duckworth of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The coming need for geriatric mental health care “is quite profound for us as a nation, and something we need to attend to urgently,” he said.

Merely getting older does not make mental health problems more likely to occur, Rabins said, noting that middle age is the most common time for onset of depression.

But when they do occur in older adults, the report found that they are too often overlooked and tend to be more complex. Among the reasons:

-People over 65 almost always have physical health problems at the same time that can mask or distract from the mental health needs. The physical illnesses, and medications used for them, also can complicate treatment. For example, up to a third of people who require long-term steroid treatment develop mood problems that may require someone knowledgeable about both the medical and mental health issues to determine whether it is best to cut back the steroids or add an antidepressant, Rabins said.

On the other side, older adults with untreated depression are less likely to have their diabetes, high blood pressure and other physical conditions under control – and consequently wind up costing a lot more to treat.

-Age alters how people’s bodies metabolize alcohol and drugs, including prescription drugs. That can increase the risk of dangerous overdoses, and worsen or even trigger substance abuse problems.

-Grief is common in old age as spouses, other relatives and friends die. It may be difficult to distinguish between grief and major depression.

That also means a loss of the support systems that earlier in life could have helped people better recover from a mental health problem, said Dr. Paul D.S. Kirwin, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Adding stress may be loss of a professional identity with retirement, and the role reversal that happens when children start taking care of older parents.

“There’ll never be enough geriatric psychiatrists or geriatric medicine specialists to take care of this huge wave of people that are aging,” Kirwin said.

The Institute of Medicine report recognizes that. It says all health workers who see older patients – including primary care physicians, nurses, physicians’ assistants and social workers – need some training to recognize the signs of geriatric mental health problems and provide at least basic care. To get there, it called for changes in how Medicare and Medicaid pay for mental health services, stricter licensing requirements for health workers, and for the government to fund appropriate training programs.


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11 Jul 2012

Report: Too little mental health care for boomers

WASHINGTON – Getting older doesn’t just mean a risk for physical ailments like heart disease and bum knees: A new report finds as many as 1 in 5 seniors has a mental health or substance abuse problem.

And as the population rapidly ages over the next two decades, millions of baby boomers may have a hard time finding care and services for mental health problems such as depression , because the nation is woefully lacking in doctors, nurses and other health workers trained for their special needs, the Institute of Medicine said Tuesday.

Instead, the country is focused mostly on preparing for the physical health needs of what’s been called the silver tsunami.

“The burden of mental illness and substance abuse disorders in older adults in the United States borders on a crisis,” wrote Dr. Dan Blazer of Duke University, who chaired the Institute of Medicine panel that investigated the issue. “Yet this crisis is largely hidden from the public and many of those who develop policy and programs to care for older people.”

Already, at least 5.6 million to 8 million Americans age 65 and older have a mental health condition or substance abuse disorder, the report found , calling that a conservative estimate that doesn’t include a number of disorders. Depressive disorders and psychiatric symptoms related to dementia are the most common.

While the panel couldn’t make precise projections, those numbers are sure to grow as the number of seniors nearly doubles by 2030, said report co-author Dr. Peter Rabins, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University. How much substance abuse treatment for seniors will be needed is a particular question, as rates of illegal drug use are higher in boomers currently in their 50s than in previous generations.

Mental health experts welcomed the report.

“This is a wake-up call for many reasons,” said Dr. Ken Duckworth of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The coming need for geriatric mental health care “is quite profound for us as a nation, and something we need to attend to urgently,” he said.

Merely getting older doesn’t make mental health problems more likely to occur, Rabins said, noting that middle age is the most common time for onset of depression.

But when they do occur in older adults, the report found that they’re too often overlooked and tend to be more complex. Among the reasons:

People over 65 almost always have physical health problems at the same time that can mask or distract from the mental health needs. The physical illnesses, and medications used for them, also can complicate treatment. For example, up to a third of people who require long-term steroid treatment develop mood problems that may require someone knowledgeable about both the medical and mental health issues to determine whether it’s best to cut back the steroids or add an antidepressant, Rabins said.

On the other side, older adults with untreated depression are less likely to have their diabetes, high blood pressure and other physical conditions under control , and consequently wind up costing a lot more to treat.

Age alters how people’s bodies metabolize alcohol and drugs, including prescription drugs. That can increase the risk of dangerous overdoses, and worsen or even trigger substance abuse problems.

Grief is common in old age as spouses, other relatives and friends die. It may be difficult to distinguish between grief and major depression.

That also means a loss of the support systems that earlier in life could have helped people better recover from a mental health problem, said Dr. Paul D.S. Kirwin, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Adding stress may be loss of a professional identity with retirement, and the role reversal that happens when children start taking care of older parents.

“There’ll never be enough geriatric psychiatrists or geriatric medicine specialists to take care of this huge wave of people that are aging,” Kirwin said.

The Institute of Medicine report recognizes that. It says all health workers who see older patients , including primary care physicians, nurses, physicians’ assistants and social workers , need some training to recognize the signs of geriatric mental health problems and provide at least basic care. To get there, it called for changes in how Medicare and Medicaid pay for mental health services, stricter licensing requirements for health workers, and for the government to fund appropriate training programs.


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11 Jul 2012

Penn St.: Donations 2nd highest in school history

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State received more than $208 million in donations for the fiscal year that just ended, the second-highest total in university history despite the upheaval after the arrest of Jerry Sandusky on child sex abuse charges.

The school said Monday there was a slight uptick in the number of alumni who donated money or gifts in the fiscal year that ended June 30 to more than 75,500, reversing two years of slight declines.

“We’re very grateful — humbled really — to have this kind of response from Penn Staters, who I think have rallied to the cause … by the side of the institution through a very difficult time,” Rod Kirsch, senior vice president for development and alumni relations, said Monday in an interview.

The number of donors overall — which would include corporations and non-alumni — also rose slightly to more than 191,000. Donations included gifts for scholarships; as well as increases in giving to the football booster club and the annual student-organized dance marathon to raise money for pediatric cancer patients and research.

Only the 2010 fiscal year was more prolific for Penn State, when the school raised more than $274 million. What Kirsch described as a “bonanza year” for fundraising was due in large part to an $88 million gift by Terry Pegula, and founder and former president of an energy company involved in Pennsylvania’s burgeoning natural gas industry. Pegula earmarked the gift, which is the largest private donation in Penn State history, to upgrade the school’s club hockey team to Division I and build an arena.

Pegula has since increased his commitment to $102 million. He said at a groundbreaking ceremony in April that he didn’t waver even after the turmoil that embroiled the campus after retired defensive coordinator Sandusky was arrested in November. It led to the ouster of head coach Joe Paterno, a move criticized by some alumni and former players.

Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts last month.

The findings from the school’s internal investigation, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, are also expected to be released soon. Those conclusions could weigh heavily on whether the university can settle any civil lawsuits out of court.

The school has said that private donations, tuition dollars or state appropriations will not be used to pay for legal fees, consultants or any other costs associated with the Sandusky scandal, which has, through the end of April, totaled $11.9 million.

The school isn’t deviating from its overall goal of raising $2 billion in the current, seven-year fundraising campaign that began in 2007, Kirsch said. Including the most recent $208 million figure, about $1.6 billion has been raised for that campaign.

“Keep in mind we are not only dealing with the crisis we’re still going through, but we’re dealing with a tough economic environment still,” Kirsch said. “In that context, I’m not real surprised, but I’m very grateful for” the donations.

Separately, Penn State reported $223 million in new donation commitments, down 37 percent from the previous year. Kirsch said that was expected given the size of Pegula’s gift, and a big fundraising push by the school related to that donation.

The latest fundraising figures were released against the backdrop of a decline in recent years in state funding, which is used to help offset tuition for in-state residents. Penn State trustees are expected to vote on a potential tuition increase at their next meeting Friday in Scranton.

Kirsch said raising money for undergraduate scholarships remained a top priority to keep Penn State affordable. Last year, in-state freshmen and sophomores paid more than $15,000 a year in tuition to attend the main campus in State College, while out-of-state residents paid $27,000.

The school is seeking to raise more money to support faculty. Penn State said it has also raised more than $46 million from current or former faculty and staff, or $3 million more than its initial goal.

That total would include donations made by the Paterno family, such as the annual $100,000 gift in December, a month after Paterno was fired, for the library and an undergraduate fellow program that bears the family name. Paterno died in January of lung cancer at age 85.


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11 Jul 2012

Charity bingo games must have slot machines to stay competitive and help …

A while ago, Ohio’s racetrack owners argued that they deserved a fair chance to compete — not against casinos but against tracks in other states. They said that Ohioans were taking their money to states where tracks had slot machines or video lottery terminals (VLTs). As a result, they successfully lobbied to be allowed to have VLTs.

Now Ohio’s charitable bingo games are making the same argument. Two years ago, there were more than 2,000 bingo games in Ohio; today, there are just over 1,300. Bingo games, and the charities that they support, are suffering since the opening of sweepstakes cafes, casinos and racinos, and it will only get worse as more casinos and racinos open. These charities have to cut back on services that they offer to veterans, senior citizens, people with various illnesses, the disabled, the poor and many others in need. Many have closed and ended the services that thousands of people relied on.

All we are asking for is a chance to fairly compete, just like the racetrack owners have. Allow charitable bingo games to operate up to 100 VLTs, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. We are not asking for a huge change to Ohio’s laws. All that is needed is a slight alteration to existing laws that will allow bingo games to apply for a VLT license.

Furthermore, we are not asking for an increase in the amount of gambling in Ohio. We are seeking to save games that have been operating for decades, and that have been doing a lot of good for the people of their communities.

To truly understand the number of people and charities that this will hurt, please go to: Facebook.com/OhioBingos.

Rev. Joseph J. Mauriello, Columbus

Mauriello is a minister in The Guiding Light Spiritualist Church.


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11 Jul 2012

Report: Boomers lack mental health care

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WASHINGTON — Getting older doesn’t just mean a risk for physical ailments like heart disease and bum knees: A new report finds as many as 1 in 5 seniors has a mental health or substance abuse problem.

And as the population rapidly ages over the next two decades, millions of baby boomers may have a hard time finding care and services for mental health problems such as depression — because the nation is woefully lacking in doctors, nurses and other health workers trained for their special needs, the Institute of Medicine said Tuesday.

Instead, the country is focused mostly on preparing for the physical health needs of what’s been called the silver tsunami.

“The burden of mental illness and substance abuse disorders in older adults in the United States borders on a crisis,” wrote Dr. Dan Blazer of Duke University, who chaired the Institute of Medicine panel that investigated the issue.

Already, at least 5.6 million to 8 million Americans age 65 and older have a mental health condition or substance abuse disorder, the report found — calling that a conservative estimate that doesn’t include a number of disorders. Depressive disorders and psychiatric symptoms related to dementia are the most common.

While the panel couldn’t make precise projections, those numbers are sure to grow as the number of seniors nearly doubles by 2030, said report co-author Dr. Peter Rabins, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University.

How much substance abuse treatment for seniors will be needed is a particular question, as rates of illegal drug use are higher in boomers currently in their 50s than in previous generations.

Mental health experts welcomed the report.

“This is a wake-up call for many reasons,” said Dr. Ken Duckworth of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The coming need for geriatric mental health care “is quite profound for us as a nation, and something we need to attend to urgently,” he said.

Merely getting older doesn’t make mental health problems more likely to occur, Rabins said, noting that middle age is the most common time for onset of depression.


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11 Jul 2012

Grant for mental health safety net

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that local mental health advocates and professionals can work closely with retired Supreme Court Judge John Warner and secure more than a half-million dollars to shore up and expand the array of services available locally to help people with mental illnesses and their families.

Warner is in charge of the Montana Mental Health Settlement, the state’s $9.5 million settlement from a lawsuit with Eli Lilly and Co. over the pharmaceutical giant’s sale of an antipsychotic drug. The settlement comes with strings attached, as the money is to be used for a handful of specific needs, including crisis intervention services; training for law enforcement and health care officials; funding to help patients transition to independent living; children’s mental health programs; and peer-to-peer services.

The need for a number of those services exists in our area, and we applaud local mental health advocates for putting together a proposal. Lewis and Clark County has made a grant request in three areas: around $200,000 to support Crisis Response Team for two years; $300,000 to build a special house for those suffering a mental health crisis; and $60,000 for the “Our Place” drop-in center. The county will pony up $50,000 of its own to further aid the CRT program.

Our community certainly has its strengths when it comes to supporting people with mental health concerns, but what’s needed is what’s long been described as a continuum of care — services and support for people at every rung on the ladder between being completely healthy and being held captive by a mental illness. Without that continuum, someone whose condition improves (or deteriorates) could go from a situation in which they’re getting all the help they need to one in which our community’s safety net has a vital hole. All of these services are important.

The county has until Aug. 15 to get its application formalized, and according to last week’s IR, Warner has indicated a willingness to work with advocates as they fine-tune their request. We’re hopeful the needs can be amply demonstrated and the efficiency of the local proposal proved to the point that a grant is seen as worthy and necessary.

As Montanans, it’s important to us that the entire $9.5 million trust be spent wisely and responsibly. As Helenans, it’s important to us that the array and quality of services available for people with mental illness in our community are improved. We’re hopeful that those two needs intersect in this case, and our local mental health community gets the funding it desperately needs.


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11 Jul 2012

Obama’s campaign donation wounds may be self inflicted

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As if they haven’t made their financial panic clear enough, another e-mail of donation distress – shared by Bloomberg — was issued Tuesday by President Barack Obama himself.

“We’re getting out-raised — a first for a sitting president, if this continues. Not just by the super- PACs and outside groups that are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into misleading ads, but by our opponent and the Republican Party, which just out-raised us for the second month in a row.”

With 172 campaign events under his belt as of Monday – including numerous glitzy Hollywood fundraisers — Obama has attended more campaign events than any incumbent president in United States history.

They’ve raffled off chances to have “Dinner with Barack” — and a legion of revolving guest stars — for as little as $3. They’ve hawked Obama 2012 car magnets for $10 donations, sold “I Meow for Michelle” cat collars for $12 and Obama grill spatulas for $40.

The only things missing are a tin cup, a street corner and a cardboard sign reading: “Will do anything for a campaign donation.”

So, why isn’t it working? Despite Obama’s break-neck effort to scrape up campaign donations, why are people voluntarily sending more money to Mitt Romney?

Obamacare could be factor. Americans never wanted it. Soon after the Supreme Court announced its decision to uphold the law, Mitt Romney vowed to repeal it.

Rasmussen’s July 9 survey — which showed 53 percent still want the law repealed and 80 percent believe that Romney will do it if he’s elected president – may explain why 43,000 Americans shoved $4.3 million into Romney’s campaign within hours of making that promise.

“Obamacare is many things,” Democratic strategist Pat Caddell wrote for Breitbart on Tuesday, “but the biggest single thing is the thing that they said it wasn’t–the ObamaTax.”

“The American people have shown that they can tolerate incompetent policy. But what they will not tolerate is being lied to.”

But there is also Obama’s war against the evil rich.

On Monday, Obama announced that he believes “it’s time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans” to expire.

“Many members of the other party believe that prosperity comes from the top down,” Obama said Monday, “so that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth.”

“I disagree,” he added. “I think they’re wrong.”

Then, like singing a lullaby to those who simply want to remain sleeping, the president spoke of “we” and the capacity to “spend trillions more on tax cuts” with such tenderness that one could almost forget that “we” is “him” and that that the “trillions more” he wants to take – and “spend” — were legitimately earned by — and lawfully belong to — someone else.

As reported Tuesday by The New York Times, several top Obama donors have said privately that the president’s attacks on Romney’s private equity career — combined with his criticisms of tax rates for the wealthy — have made it difficult to raise money on his behalf.

“He will not have the same level of support from the business community as last time — either in endorsements, money or support,” said one Obama backer who wished to remain anonymous because of his relationship with the campaign. “That’s clear.”

Even R. Donahue Peebles, a New York businessman who raised more than $100,000 for Obama’s reelection campaign, believes Obama’s attacks on the wealthy are unreasonable.

“I just got back from Rhode Island on my boat,” Peebles said, referring to the criticisms levied against Romney for daring to take his family on a boating vacation on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee. “I can hold 12 people on my boat. I don’t feel that I’m out of touch with Americans or that I am a bad person. I find it offensive, and I’m a supporter.”

As for Obama’s tedious demands that the rich need to “pay their fair share,” The Washington Times reported Tuesday that the rich already pay “an outsized share of taxes.”

According to latest analysis by the Congressional Budget Office — while the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total federal tax burden — the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent of taxes.

In the meantime, while the president continues to lick his donation wounds, someone should tell him a little campaign secret. When you are so desperate for money that you start taking cheap shots at America’s most successful citizens, you will ultimately wind up shooting yourself in the foot.


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11 Jul 2012

Economics Journal: Why Charity Is Different in India

By Rupa Subramanya


Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images
Could it even be possible that Indians are more generous but less “charitable” than their Western counterparts? Shown, a check for charity in Bangkok.

Aamir Khan’s Sunday talk show has made a big splash by presenting pressing social issues to the Indian public, but it’s apparently failed to ignite much in the way of private charitable giving, which was one of its aims.

According to an article on Moneylife, a personal finance website, Satyamev Jayate reaches 400 million viewers but so far has raised less than $305,000 for its recommended charities, half of which is in the form of a matching grant from the Reliance Foundation. That amounts to a tiny fraction of one cent per viewer. In fact, it’s about 2 paise per viewer.

Does this suggest that Indians aren’t charitable? This certainly matches last year’s widely quoted finding from consultancy Bain Co.,  which calculated that private charitable giving in India amounted to just 0.3-0.4% of gross domestic product. In the U.S., the figure was 2.2% in 2009, while in the U.K. in 2010 it was 1.3%, according to Bain.

Part of this difference can surely be explained by the fact that the U.S. and the U.K. are far richer countries than India. One can hardly fault Indians living below the poverty line for not engaging in charitable giving. Basic economics suggests that giving to charity should be a “normal” good, which means that spending on it increases as someone’s income rises. But this alone doesn’t really explain such a difference in magnitude. India, after all, has many high net-worth individuals who surely could give more to charity.

The Bain report suggests reasons why Indians might be reluctant to give to charity, including a perceived lack of transparency and accountability among charities, tax laws that aren’t favorable to charitable giving, and a lack of information about charities to match the giving priorities of potential donors.

I conjecture that people might also be reluctant to give because a fairly large percentage of donated money winds up covering overhead expenditure or fundraising, rather than going directly into the charity’s programmatic activities. In its latest annual report, Oxfam India said  about 8% of its total expenditure is devoted to fundraising alone. Not referring to Oxfam India specifically, it’s been argued that such data might understate the true level of expenditure on fundraising and overhead expenditure. For example , if a charity devoted to protecting the environment takes out television advertisements and distributes flyers pointing out the problems caused by climate change, should this be counted as educational (programmatic) or as fundraising?

Another factor could be that more ethnically diverse societies commit less to charity. A U.S. study based on Canadian data  found that diversity has a negative impact on charitable giving. In particular, the researchers found that a 10 percentage point increase in ethnic diversity caused charitable donations to fall by 14%. Likewise, a 10 percentage point increase in religious diversity caused charitable giving to fall by 10%. One reason suggested is that people tend to prefer giving to their own. As societies become more diverse, money given to a large charity tends to spill over into other ethnic or religious groups, and people might therefore be less willing to give. While we don’t have a comparable study for India, you can see how this would surely apply to a country as diverse as this.

Such explanations only scratch the surface. A deeper explanation may lie in cultural differences between India and Western countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. Take the obvious fact that many religiously inclined Indians prefer to give to religious institutions to which they are often very specifically tied, such as a temple housing something that is considered to be the family divinity. For many Gujaratis and Marwadis, for example, the shrine to Shrinathji in Rajasthan, a representation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, is “their” shrine and they give to it generously. Likewise, devotees of gurus and godmen, such as the late Sathya Sai Baba or the original Sai Baba in Shirdi Maharashtra, make donations to those causes.

Yet others, wary of giving through institutions, will engage in private charitable donations that don’t show up in any official statistic. An obvious example would be giving to a homeless person or panhandler. But such private giving may also be in kind such as clothes, food and medicines. Many people I know have come to the aid of the families of their domestic help, going so far as to pay for the education or medical expenses of their children or other relatives. Again, this sort of charitable giving doesn’t show up in official statistics, thereby understating the true level of giving in India.

It shouldn’t be surprising then, that even the hugely popular Mr. Khan with his widely-watched television program hasn’t been able to generate much in the way of charitable giving. But this too might understate the true impact. It is entirely conceivable that someone watching a particular episode is animated by the particular social cause it espouses but decides to help out in some way other than giving to the charity that the program recommends at the end of every episode.

For some Indians at least, giving the old fashioned way seems to make most sense. They see someone in need and they reach out with a helping hand, in an act of giving that goes unrecorded.

Could it even be possible that Indians are more generous but less “charitable” than their Western counterparts?

Rupa Subramanya writes Economics Journal for India Real Time. You can follow her on Twitter @RupaSubramanya. 

Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.


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