Is it really charity when the government gives your money to aid the needy? A recent example is the $350 million President Bush has promised for Tusami relief. Walter E. Williams examines this question in his column.

Tennessee Rep. Col. Davy Crockett, in speech before the House of Representatives, said, in protest against a $10,000 appropriation for a widow of a distinguished naval officer, “We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity, but as members of Congress, we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.”

I have been thinking along these same lines myself. I feel compasion for the victims of this huge natural disaster, but I feel no pressing need to donate money when the government has already done so on my behalf and without asking.