Senator Charles Grassley’s attack on civil society is sickening. Conservatives should be skeptical of government power, and instead prefer to use voluntary associations whenever possible. Instead, Senator Grassley somehow believes that people pooling their resources to help their preferred charities is at the government’s expense.

This comment is tricky to write because of Grassley’s bizarre and Orwellian rhetoric — when he talks about money that is in the hands of voluntary associations, but he wishes were taxed, he complains that it is at the “taxpayer’s expense.” Of course, what he means is that if the government taxed these charitable institutions, the government would have more tax revenue.

If there’s a good part of the Republicans failing to win the 2010 Senate, it was that it kept Grassley from having more power than he does already.