Saturday, February 3, 2007

Cheney Profits from Misery

Thanks to my friend Jim over at DeRosa World, we have this little ditty to check out.

Cheney Tax Return Shows Katrina Tax Benefits for Non-Katrina Charitable Contributions

It appears that the VP is a major beneficiary of the Hurricane Katrina tax relief act. In particular, he claimed $6.8 million of charitable deductions, which is 77% of his AGI -- well in excess of the 50% limitation that would have applied absent the Katrina legislation. The press release indicates that the charitable contribution reflects the amount of net proceeds from an independent administrator's exercise of the VP's Halliburton options -- apparently, the VP had agreed back in 2001 that he would donate the net proceeds from the options to charities once they were exercised.
(snip)
Despite the importance of the Katrina legislation to his tax return, it looks like none of the charitable contributions actually went to Katrina-related charities (the press release lists the 3 charitable recipients, all of which were designated in the original 2001 gift agreement).

Why didn't this make front page news? What makes him think that it's okay for everyone else to "support" the troops, but not him?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cheating on your taxes? It was enough to bring Al Capone down, but we're dealing with a hell of a lot bigger criminal than that now.

Bush will just sign a signing statement exempting another one of his criminal buddies.

They executive privelege, you know?

Ziem said...

I love the way they commit crimes, then pass laws making their crimes legal.
Hell Stram, Saddam was hung for less. Doesn't it just make you want to smack some truth into the neocons?

Anonymous said...

What strikes me "funny" with these Alpha dogs is the fact that their greed knows no bounds. With the ticker like Big Dick's, one would assume that getting more dough would shift down in the priority list.