Don't limit the charitable tax deduction

When the debate was still going on about which deficit reduction deal we should pass in place of the fiscal cliff, one of the common ideas was capping tax deductions, where tax deductions across the board are blocked at a certain dollar amount. This was something that had support of both some Republicans and some Democrats.

The fiscal cliff deal we ended up getting did something like that - it reinstated "PEP and Pease" on high income earners. And for the next deficit deal around the coming sequestration and debt ceiling fiasco, a hard cap on deductions is likely to come up again as an option.

But supporting this, when charitable deductions are not excluded, seems like a blatant example of what I talked about in my post on "the biggest flaw in the Democratic party". Democrats are concerned about poverty and inequality, and want the government to help with it. But the worst cases of poverty, by far, are in third world countries, not America. That is what many charities are addressing. And limiting the tax deduction for charitable giving reduces charitable giving, both by reducing incentives and by leaving those who give with less to give.

I understand raising taxes on the wealthy so we don't have to cut programs for the poor as much. But taxing charitable donations seems like a really self-defeating means towards that end.