Progressives and Charity (part 2)

I'll start with this video from Good morning America this morning:




I don't want to harp on the connection between paying taxes and patriotism, as many other commentators have. What I'm curious about is when Joe decided it was time to step up. Is it only when the Democrats get elected and pass new taxes? I am not aware of anything prohibiting him from voluntarily stepping up to "help get America out of a rut". Yet here, courtesy of Byron York is his AGI and charitable giving for the last 5 years:

Year AGI Giving

        AGI            Charity            
2003    $231,375       $260
2004    $234,271       $380
2005    $321,379       $380
2006    $248,459       $380
2007    $319,853       $995

According to Byron York's story, David Wade, an official spokesman for Biden claims, among other things, that as Biden is one of the lowest paid Senators he just doesn't have piles of money to give away. How is it that he then thinks a bunch of Americans with similar income have piles of money to seize in taxes?

I can't imagine a better example of the difference between conservatives and progressives except maybe Biden's statement that Sarah Palin may be raising a child with Down Syndrome (when 80-90% of them are aborted) but her opposition to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research shows she doesn't really care about them. There are tens of millions of people in this country who make a third what he does, give away more in a month than he gives away in a year, and still don't think Washington has any business taking more of their (or Biden's) paycheck. To many others, though, they are stingy, money-grubbing conservatives who just want to hold onto their money and don't care about the poor.