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After Donald Trump extended his offer to President Obama that he would donate $5 million to charity if the President releases his college records and passport application, Stephen Colbert responded in kind, and also extended his offer to teabag the Donald for charity.

It appears it's not only Pat Buchanan and the right-wing noise machine over at Fox who are delusional enough to pretend that if we just asked the rich more nicely, they might volunteer to pay higher taxes.

It was nice to see another one of these Republican Reps treated the way they deserve to be at their town hall meetings by their actual constituents, who are rightfully upset with the class warfare they're waging on the poor and middle class, instead of loads of screaming "tea partiers" being bused in by the Koch brothers and their rich buddies.

From Think Progress -- GOP Rep. Hultgren Draws Laughs At Town Hall With Plan To Beg, Not Require, Rich To Pay More Taxes:

Earlier this week, Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) held a town hall in Sandwich, Illinois, where constituents angrily denounced his right-wing policies. During one particularly amusing moment, Hultgren tried to defend his stand against raising taxes on the wealthy, drawing a round of laughs from the audience.

“I’m not out there trying to coddle anybody,” he defensively claimed. He then went on to explain that, instead of raising taxes on the wealthy, Congress could adopt a bill that would allow the rich to make voluntary donations to the Treasury and have them count as charitable contributions:

HULTGREN: I’m not out there trying to coddle anybody. In fact, I support a bill that allows the super rich if they want to give more money to the federal government it could be a charitable contribution.

(audience laughs)

HULTGREN: I think that makes sense! Use it as a charitable contribution.

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Leave it to Greta Van Susteren to give Sean a little air time to pimp his new book coming out and his charity which is under fire from CREW and VoteVets. For more on that go back and read my post from Ed Schultz's show where he talked to Melanie Sloan and Jon Soltz talking about their FTC complaint against Hannity and his charity.

Greta asks Hannity about where the proceeds from his new book are going to go and here's his answer.

Hannity: All the net proceeds, I do have some expenses, I had to hire a researcher and I had to hire an editor, but short of that after, every penny I would make is going to go to my charity, Freedom Alliance.

Van Susteren: And, that is?

Hannity: This is a charity that has been set up for the children, especially of recent military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and we have about $15 million in the fund that's waiting for those young kids when they become of age so they can go to college.

Here's the problem with Hannity's argument.

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Ed Schultz talks to CREW's Melanie Sloan and VoteVets.org's Jon Soltz about the latest bit of trouble for Sean Hannity and his "Freedom Concerts". As we already noted Hannity was accused by blogger Debbie Schlussel of "using more money from his Freedom Concerts to fly around on private jets and expensive SUV's than he gives to the children of wounded and deceased soldiers". Now CREW and VoteVets have gotten in the act as well.

CREW, VoteVets File IRS, FTC Complaints Against Sean Hannity Charity Freedom Concerts:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleges that Hannity's Freedom Concerts has "engaged in deceptive and illegal marketing practices by suggesting that all concert ticket sale revenue goes directly to scholarships for children of killed and wounded service members." Read on...

As AnnetteK at Daily KOS noted, Mother Jones has more on this as well -- Sean Hannity's Charity Under Fire:

The concerts, which are presented by the Fox News star and feature entertainers such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, purportedly donate their entire proceeds to Freedom Alliance, a non-profit led by Lt. Col. Oliver North. In turn, Freedom Alliance says it directs all of this money to a scholarship program for veterans' kids. "Every penny, 100 percent of the donations are applied to the Freedom Alliance scholarship fund," Hannity has claimed. North has made similar statements, remarking, "There's no overhead. There's no expenses taken out. Every penny that's donated or that's raised through things like the Freedom Concerts goes to the scholarship fund." (A giant "Thank you! Sean Hannity" currently appears on Freedom Alliance's homepage.)

CREW's complaint, lodged with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleges that Hannity and Freedom Concerts have been dishonest in suggesting that the entirety of the revenues from ticket sales goes straight to a scholarship fund. Freedom Alliance does not actually manage the concerts, Crew discovered via a Freedom of Information request and promotional materials. Instead, they're organized by a middleman—a promotional company called Premiere Marketing. The firm is headed by Duane Ward, who is also the president of Premiere Motivational Speakers Bureau, which represents both Hannity and North and has a "long history in conservative activism." Ward previously worked for Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and ran North's legal defense fund following the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s. Premiere in turn donates an "unknown portion of the concert proceeds to the Freedom Alliance," alleges CREW. "We have no idea how much money it actually is," CREW executive director Melanie Sloan told reporters on Monday. But CREW argues that Hannity and Freedom Alliance's claims that the revenues go directly to scholarships amounts to "illegal and deceptive marketing practices." Read on...