As Red State‘s Bonchie wrote last night, 2020 presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke released some of his tax returns yesterday. To put mildly, they were nothing to write home about:

Yes, you read that right. Beto gave only about 0.3% of his almost 400k income to charity in 2017. There are people making $35,000 a year that routinely give more than $1,166 to charity, whether it’s their church, outreach ministries, or larger relief organizations, among many other options.

You’d think a guy who’s had everything handed to him on a silver platter and who married the daughter of a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars might have the itch to pay it forward a bit.

Now, let’s state for the record that there are lots of different types of charitable contributions to society many people make that involve time more so than money. Volunteering at soup kitchens or senior centers, mentoring children, picking up trash around the neighborhood, and many other things.

For Democrats, however, they have two standard measuring sticks for determining whether or not you’re a giving person. The first one is how much you voluntarily take out of your pocket and donate to charities. The second is how much you’re willing to allow the government to forcibly take from you for them to decide what to do with it.

Beto clearly is failing on the former standard. As Bonchie said, for a man of Beto’s wealth and privilege, his money contributions don’t match his lofty rhetoric on the issue of helping others (probably because like most Democrats he’s more of a fan of the latter standard).

But when asked about it during a town hall at the University of Virginia yesterday, O’Rourke gave an answer that quite possibly eclipsed anything Barack Obama ever humbly bragged asserted about himself (bolded emphasis added):

“I’ve served in public office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to the success of my community, of my state, and now, of my country. There are ways that I do this that are measurable and there are ways that I do this that are immeasurable. There are charities that we donate to that we’ve recorded and itemized, others that we have donated to that we have not.”

He went on to suggest that his attendance at that town hall, being away from his family, was itself a charitable act.

“I’m doing everything that I can right now, spending this time with you — not with our kiddos, not back home in El Paso — because I want to sacrifice everything to make sure that we meet this moment of truth with everything that we’ve got,” O’Rourke told the student.

Who thinks the time candidates spend running for office should be considered a charitable donation to society? Beto, that’s who!

Read the question and his full answer below:

Beto O'Rourke, tonight, when asked by a student why her sister donates more to charity than him ($1,166 in 2017) despite earning substantially less than his family: pic.twitter.com/nD2a0YxETE

— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) April 17, 2019

Watch and listen to the full question and his answer:

Red State‘s Sarah Rumpf quipped:

lol someone tell him that jamming with Willie Nelson and skateboarding and having Facebook live chats don’t actually count as community service https://t.co/WEdYGlKGUt

— Sarah Rumpf (@rumpfshaker) April 17, 2019

Right?

On one hand, I would like to thank Beto for the unintended comic relief he continues to provide while on the campaign trail. On the other hand, we’ve got at least several more months of his insufferable nature to go, y’all.

Time to stock up on the Tylenol.

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—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–