Higher education officials listened with alarm last October as Rep. Tom Reed of New York described how the government could use the “big pot of money” that are university endowments to lower tuition costs at their schools and at poorer colleges.

The argument, which included a hungry itemization of the income of Harvard, Yale and Texas University, was particularly concerning coming from a Republican. The image of Republicans, along with Democrats, licking their chops to redistribute wealth, charities are deeply worried.