Pence distorts reality

Pence distorts reality on Clinton Foundation’s spending

By Josh Gerstein

“Less than ten cents on the dollar in the Clinton Foundation has gone to charitable organizations.” — Mike Pence

Pence’s statement is deeply misleading and arguably inaccurate because the Clinton Foundation is itself a charity — and thus, doesn’t need to give its own donations to other charitable organizations. The foundation runs its own programs around the world, including on issues such as economic development climate change, health, education, advancement of women and girls. It also operates the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

About 80 percent of the Clinton Foundation’s annual budget is spent on those global programs. Republican critics tend to focus on the fact that the foundation spends only about 6 percent of its budget on donations to other charities. However, those transfers are not the purpose of the Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton Foundation has been trying to build an endowment in recent years, in part to prepare for the possibility that Hillary Clinton might become president and the organization’s fundraising might be dramatically limited. In 2014, the foundation spent only about half of the contributions taken in during that year’s fundraising drive.