McCain’s Tax Returns and Charity

By Ken Silverstein

From the New York Times:

Over the past two years, Senator and Mrs. McCain donated about $340,320 from their community assets to charity, the campaign said. Most of Senator McCain’s contributions were made to the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation. It contributes to a number of groups including Operation Smile, an organization that provide reconstructive facial surgery to poor children and others, and The Halo Trust, an organization involved in mine-clearing.

That’s true, but as I reported here in February, between 2001 and 2006, the John and Cindy McCain Family foundation “made contributions of roughly $1.6 million. More than $500,000 went to his kids’ private schools, most of which was donated when his children were attending those institutions. So McCain apparently received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by his children.”

The McCain foundation’s contributions to Operation Smile and Halo Trust were nice, but very small next to the donations to his kids’ private schools. The description from the Times makes McCain look far more charitable-minded than the records suggest.