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OT: Kirsch: Cheney Tax Return Shows Katrina Tax Benefits for Non-Katrina Charitable Contributions

Question:

A Notre Dame professor has analyzed Dick Cheney’s 2005 tax return and concluded that our fair Vice President exploited a new tax law instituted post-Katrina to save himself several million dollars. It turns out that Smirky Dick used a loophole intended to encourage charitable donations for Katrina relief to write off charitable contribution which went to non-Katrina causes. That alone might not be enough to get irked about, except that it looks like the exploitation of the loophole was deliberate to minimize his overall liability, and he used Halliburton money to do it. Cheney exercised some of his Halliburton options in late 2005, during which time that company’s profits were soaring in part because of fat no-bid reconstruction contracts granted to its subsidiary KBR in the wake of Katrina. Cheney used those proceeds — $6.8 million — to donate to charities per his 2001 agreement to use his options only for charity. Says the prof: "While there’s nothing inappropriate about that from a legal perspective, it does demonstrate how the legislation, which was sold to the public as providing relief to Katrina victims, provided significant tax benefits to the VP (and potentially other wealthy individuals) in situations that have nothing to do with Hurricane Katrina." Not illegal but definitely soulless, cynical, opportunist, and greedty. So, no big surprise. http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/04/kirsch_cheney_t.html

Response:

> Not illegal but definitely soulless, cynical, opportunist, and greedty. > So, no big surprise. > http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/04/kirsch_cheney_t.html

The man donates over SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS to charity and he is called greedy and soulless!

Response:

Go ahead and keep hating Cheney and "the rich". It won’t improve your life. Cheney gave more to charity than Gore did his entire life, and I’m talking %, NOT total.

Response:

> Go ahead and keep hating Cheney and "the rich". It won’t improve your > life. Cheney gave more to charity than Gore did his entire life, and > I’m talking %, NOT total.

Gore never shot any of his hunting buddies. (The charities are much more concerned with the total.)   –E

Response:

Gore never shot any of his hunting buddies.? That’s cause he’s a bad shot.  ;-) And of course Dick is WAY ahead on the total, by a factor of at least 1,000. Cheers E, Mick (having more fun than a conservative should be allowed to have)

Response:

> Gore never shot any of his hunting buddies.? > That’s cause he’s a bad shot.  ;-)

However you want to rationalize it!  ;) > And of course Dick is WAY ahead on the total, by a factor of at least > 1,000.

I think it’s fair to say that Cheney never gave away a dime that didn’t benefit him personally in some way. > Cheers E, > Mick (having more fun than a conservative should be allowed to have)

I thought conservatives had fun by fucking up the world beyond repair.   –E

Response:

> I think it’s fair to say that Cheney never gave away a dime that didn’t > benefit him personally in some way.

Please do explain how giving over SEVEN MILLION Dollars to charity in 2005 benefited Dick Cheney.

Response:

> Please do explain how giving over SEVEN MILLION Dollars to charity in 2005 > benefited Dick Cheney.

It benefitted him to the tune of a nearly $2,000,000 refund… "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." – Huffington Post, 5/3/06 And: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/18/115445/192

Response:

>> Please do explain how giving over SEVEN MILLION Dollars to charity in > 2005 > benefited Dick Cheney. > It benefitted him to the tune of a nearly $2,000,000 refund…

So giving away 7 Million to get 2 Million is a benefit?

Response:

> >> Please do explain how giving over SEVEN MILLION Dollars to charity in >> 2005 >> benefited Dick Cheney. > It benefitted him to the tune of a nearly $2,000,000 refund… > So giving away 7 Million to get 2 Million is a benefit?

He’d already promised, as a part of his "separation" from Halliburton, to give away the $7 million. By using the Katrina scam he got a refund of almost $2 millon. He’s scum.

Response:

>> So giving away 7 Million to get 2 Million is a benefit? > He’d already promised, as a part of his "separation" from Halliburton, > to give away the $7 million.

So that anyone that claimed that be was benefitting from Halliburton would NOT be telling the truth. He could have kept that money and he didn’t, he chose to give it to charity so fools like you would have no validity when you did your Halliburton?Cheney rants. By using the Katrina scam he got a refund > of almost $2 millon. He’s scum.

So taking a tax deduction is scummy? Were you so scummy as to take a tax deduction?

Response:

> >> So giving away 7 Million to get 2 Million is a benefit? > He’d already promised, as a part of his "separation" from Halliburton, > to give away the $7 million. > So that anyone that claimed that be was benefitting from Halliburton would > NOT be telling the truth.

You’re an idiot. He had to give away the $7 million in any case but he used the "Katrina" rules to get a $2 million refund that he wouldn’t normally get. This wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that the money he gave away didn’t go to any Katrina charities….

Response:

>> >> So giving away 7 Million to get 2 Million is a benefit? > > He’d already promised, as a part of his "separation" from Halliburton, > > to give away the $7 million. > So that anyone that claimed that be was benefitting from Halliburton > would > NOT be telling the truth. > You’re an idiot. > He had to give away the $7 million in any case

Oh please do tell how he "had" to give away 7 Million, and include links with your clips!

Response:

> > He had to give away the $7 million in any case > Oh please do tell how he "had" to give away 7 Million

It was a part of the separation agreement when he left Halliburton that when he eventually exercised certain of his stock options he’d give the money to charity.

Response:

About two years ago, Dick Cheney told a national television audience, "[S]ince I left Halliburton to become George Bush’s vice president, I’ve severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests," Cheney said. "I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven’t had now for over three years." Even at the time, the claim wasn’t true. A non-partisan congressional report requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) office showed that Cheney still has substantial financial interests in Halliburton, including lucrative deferred compensation and more than 433,000 stock options. But instead of acknowledging the ties divesting himself from his former company, Cheney denied everything. Lautenberg, to his enormous credit, has stuck with this story, and issued a report today explaining that the value of Cheney’s Halliburton stock options rose in value 3281% in one year. An analysis released today by the Office of Senator Frank R. Lautenberg reveals that Vice President Cheney’s Halliburton stock options have increased in value 3,281 percent in one year. The stock options, which were worth $241,498 one year ago are now valued at $8,165,489.07. In light of the surging value of Vice President Cheney’s holdings, Senator Lautenberg reiterated his call for the Vice President to forfeit his continuing financial interest in the Halliburton Co (HAL). Vice President Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options and receives almost $200,000 a year in deferred salary from Halliburton. "As Halliburton’s fortunes rise, so do the Vice President’s, and that is wrong," said Senator Lautenberg. "Halliburton has already raked in more than $10 billion from the Bush-Cheney Administration for work in Iraq, and they were awarded some of the first Katrina contracts. It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it. The Vice President should sever his financial ties to Halliburton once and for all." Given the circumstances, that seems like a reasonable suggestion. According to the Vice President’s Federal Financial Disclosure forms, he holds the following Halliburton stock options: * 100,000 shares at $54.5000 (vested), expire 12-03-07 * 33,333 shares at $28.1250 (vested), expire 12-02-08 * 300,000 shares at $39.5000 (vested), expire 12-02-09 This continues to be a political problem for Cheney that can be easily resolved. Cheney could simply do what he claims to have already done: sever his ties and remove his financial interests from the company. Considering Halliburton’s lucrative government contracts, and the dubious conditions surrounding the deals, this should be a no-brainer for the White House. The longer they wait, the more Lautenberg is going to make Cheney look bad. Cheney is a lieing bastard!!! Besides getting rid of his Halliburton stock he should be punished for lieing and feeding Halliburton contracts. To me, the ridiculous 3281% increase is almost secondary to the deceit. This is a three part scandal 1) Halliburton keeps getting no-bid contracts 2) Cheney’s portfolio keeps getting bigger 3) Cheney lies about it. He’ll keep lying until he feels enough pressure to divest. I can pony up a WH response: 1. "Financial interest" has a specific definition under executive branch ethics rules and either (a) does not include stock options; (b) includes stock options but precludes their exercise while in office; or (c) includes option but only if they are exercisable within X years of your government employment. 2. Cheney has pledged not to exercise any of these options while he is vice president. 3. What are you gonna do about it? Just shillin’ for the man. This profitable arrangement was found hiding in plain sight last week by investigator Maggie Burns of the Progressive Populist. While the media mandarins were gulping soap, Burns committed the increasingly rare act of journalism by checking out Cheney’s financial disclosure forms. These show that Cheney has a minimum of $18 million invested in The Vanguard Group, a leading mutual fund. (Given the deliberately vague, vast ranges of the "disclosure" forms, this nest-egg could be as high as $87 million. We mere mortals are not meant to know). Vanguard, as it happens, is the 10th-largest shareholder in — oh, you guessed already! — Halliburton. The fund owns 7.6 million shares in the firm, worth about $176 million. Thus any government contract that swells Halliburton’s bottom line does indeed pour war profits straight into Cheney’s bulging bank accounts. No amount of soap can wash away that fact. Meanwhile, five of the other top 10 shareholders in Halliburton have big bucks parked with our old friends The Carlyle Group, where George Bush Sr. hangs out his shingle as a pricey corporate shill (and former bin Laden business partner). So Bush family coffers are definitely not forgotten when Halliburton goes to war. http://www.populist.com/03.19.burns.html

Response:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/18/115445/192 So, to bring this all back and to summarize, we have this: By exploiting a law that was meant for people to donate to Katrina relief, Cheney was able to net a $2,000,000 tax refund. At least half, if not more if this refund was solely due to their exploiting of this law. In order to do this, they had to write a personal check for over $2,000,000 at the end of 2005. None of the donations were to any Katrina relief organizations. The donations were from income related to Halliburton, which Cheney supposedly had no financial ties to. In any other year, they still would have received a few hundred thousand in tax refunds from this "non-financial tie" to Halliburton, if they donated the proceeds to charity. In each of the prior three years, their donations were never more than 4%-5% of their 2005 totals, the only year that this law applies to. Once again, they flat out lie in their press release by obscuring the million or so that they personally benefited from this transaction. The timing, while not illegal, is extremely self serving and shady, especially in light of the fact that they should not be benefiting financially from any ties to Halliburton. shows that they made a $2.7 million donation to the Cardiothoracic Institute of George Washington University Medical Center, where the vice president has been treated for heart ailments. They also gave $1.3 million to Capital Partners for Education, a Georgetown-based scholarship fund that helps finance education at private schools for area teenagers. It was the largest single contribution in the charity’s history. Together with a $2.7 million to the University of Wyoming, where the vice president graduated in 1965 and his wife taught English, the couple made about $6.8 million in charitable donations last year. Washinton Post Payoffs to his doctors, private schools and his alma mater.  Whatta guy.  The first two things I am referring to (1+ / 0-) Recommended by:clammyc #1)  Cheney worked for Halliburton and said he had no financial ties to it.  Yet he still gets income tax deductions when the stock options are exercised and given to charities.  That number ballooned due to Katrina legislation. #2)  See #1 and add: Of all the money given to charity last year, $0.00 went to Katrina charities.  He got more deductibles because the vague wording of the Katrina legislation allowed any money to any charity to go above the 50% of income threshold. Therefore, he gave money to (0 Katrina-related) charities in excess of the 50% threshold due to Katrina legislation.  That money was then returned to him as an income tax deduction. .

Response:

Spurred on by clammyc’s diary about Cheney’s charitable contributions. I started wondering why Cheney would give so much money ($1.3 million) to Capital Partners for Education, a Georgetown-based scholarship fund that helps finance education at private and parochial schools for area teenagers. (http://www.cpfe.org/) It was not only the largest single contribution in the charity’s history, but also represents twice their annual budget revenue for this fiscal year. (hat-tips to AMcG826 and mspicata; and I see that HeyThereItsEric has also done some digging). Here’s the rub – this organization seems (at least on the surface – and that’s as far as I’ve gone) to be an admirable one for inner-city DC youth. And that’s the BIG RED FLAG for me. Why would Dick Cheney do that? Much more below the flip dannyinla’s diary :: :: Why be suspicious – well, that’s how this administration has conditioned us. Since everything they do is under a cloud of secrecy, it’s Pavlovian for me. If Cheney does it, it must be wrong. So, I poke my nose around a little further and the mystery gets even deeper. A solid majority of these companies represented by the Board of Directors have connections to Iraqi and/or rebuilding and reconstruction. It spreads out like a web and touches everything from Halliburton to President Hamid Karzai’s security. And why? This is a group that seems to be benevolent in its support of inner city youth. But I’ve learned that in the Bush-Cheney world, benevolence can’t just be benevolence. It’s like when Barbara Bush donated money to the Katrina fund… and then we learn it was earmarked for Ignite!, an educational system for Houston schools. Heck, how can that be bad? But then we find out that Ignite was started by her son, Neal Bush… and that it received financial support from a vast array of foreign concerns, not the least of which was Boris Berezovsky, the Godfather of the Kremlin… and pal of Neal Bush’s. See… when these evil bastards give money for good causes… it seems like there’s always an undercurrent that they are trying to cover. Let’s take a look at the Board for Capital Partners for Education. I want to preface this by saying that many of these people seem okay. Many donate to Republicans; many donate to Democrats. As individuals, there aren’t that many black marks here. But it’s the companies that they work for that raise eyebrows. Why does CPE have two members of The Carlyle Group on their board? That’s the first thing that jumps out. Praveen Jeyarajah Managing Director, The Caryle Group Charles Rossotti Senior Advisor, The Caryle Group Carlyle specializes in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer & Industrial, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology & Business Services, Telecommunication & Media, and Transportation. The Group’s aerospace and defense investments have been a source of criticism because of the Group’s alleged connections to the Middle East. The Carlyle Group’s investments are focused on East Asia, Europe and North America. Defense investments represent about 1% of the group’s current portfolio — though this translates, for example, into a 33.8% ownership of QinetiQ, the UK’s recently privatized defense company — but this is the area for which Carlyle Group is best known. Then there’s the Hudson Institute, whose trustees and fellows include Richard Perle, Conrad Black and Scooter Libby. They operate various programs (listed below), including one run by Meyrav Wurmser, wife of David Wurmser, the former Middle East advisor to Dick Cheney, and one of the authors of the neocon strategy paper titled "Clean Break." Carol Adelman, PhD Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute The Hudson Institute is a non-profit think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. While describing itself as "non-partisan" and preferring to portray itself as independently "contrarian" rather than as a conservative think tank, the Hudson Institute gains financial support from many of the foundations and corporations that have bankrolled the conservative movement. [snip]… [I]n the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks it has substantially boosted its focus on international issues such as the Middle East, Latin America and Islam. The Institute now operates a number of programs – each of which are dubbed as a "center" or "project" – including: *    Center for Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World – Hillel Fradkin Director *    Islam and Democracy Project – Husain Haqqani Co-Chair; *    Project on Campaign and Election Laws – Amy Kaufman; *    Center for Middle East Policy – Meyrav Wurmser Director; Then there’s Computer Sciences Corporation: Caralyn Brace Partner, Computer Sciences Corporation In March 2003, Computer Sciences Corporation., one of the country’s leading IT consulting firms with revenue of more than $11 billion in 2002, acquired DynCorp for $950 million. Computer Sciences Corporation had more than 1,000 contracts with the U.S. government from 1990 through 2002, worth $15.8 billion. Iraq contracts On April 18, 2003, Computer Sciences Corporation’s DynCorp International won a contract from the U.S. Department of State to provide up to 1,000 civilian advisers to help organize civilian law enforcement, judicial and correctional agencies. Afghanistan contracts In November 2002, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Services took over responsibility for President Hamid Karzai’s security from the U.S. military. Part of the work was then contracted out to DynCorp, which also assisted in the protection of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Haitian president, in the early 1990s. http://www.publicintegrity.org/… On to Hogan and Hartson LLP J. Warren Gorrell, Jr. Chairman, Hogan & Hartson, LLP Rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq Pursuing Opportunities & Managing Risk Iraq Legal Issues Mr. Robert Kyle, Partner, Hogan & Hartson LLP – Planning for Operations in Iraq http://www.yuricareport.com/… How about Arlington Capital Partners? And how about the company they transformed into? QinetiQ. Sound familiar? Scroll back up to the Carlyle Group, which owns 1/3 of QinetiQ. John A. Bates Principal, Arlington Capital Partners Among the private equities that have focused their efforts on the emerging homeland security contracting, trying to replicate Carlyle’s success with defense contracting, are Paladin Capital Partners, Arlington Capital Partners, and Behrman Capital. Arlington Capital Partners, a $450 million private equity, acquired two top federal contractors, ITS Services in April 2003 and Science & Engineering Associates Inc. in January 2004. The firm combined the two, and named the new company Apogen Technologies, which provides "technology solutions" to the departments of Defense and the Homeland Security, as well as other branches of the government. Apogen ranks among the top 10 Department of Homeland Security contractors. http://www.publicintegrity.org/… In early August 2005 QinetiQ announced that it would acquire Apogen Technologies, Inc., pending regulatory approval. The QinetiQ website lists this merger as costing $288.0m (

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