Bush and Cheney: Scam of the Earth!

Based on the copy of the couple's 2005 tax return released Friday by the White House and filler information in the New York Times of today's date, the President and Laura Bush reported an adjusted gross income of $735,180 for last year and paid federal income taxes of $187,768. This is slightly less than they paid in taxes in 2004 and still much, much less than the 33% rate under present tax law for person's in their income bracket. The tax return listed as income the president's salary of about $400,000 and proceeds from investment trusts that hold the couple's assets. They paid $207,307 in taxes in 2004 on income of $784,219. Most of their income derives from interests in oil companies and related relatives' consulting firms. What a scam. . .

Their 2005 return was made public along with that of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, who reported that their taxes were $529,636. The Cheneys' adjusted gross income was $8.82 million, but most of it was not taxable (?): $6.87 million was proceeds from stock options(note that these 'proceeds' were from undisclosed amount of stock options, not including probable deferred options of much greater amount, and reflect assets in the tens and tens and more tens of millions plus in Haliburton stock!) that the couple had set aside for charity and that were distributed last year, plus charitable contributions that came from royalties on books written by Mrs. Cheney. This rate of taxation was less than 10% of their gross income (their actual worth probably in the hundred million range plus), making their rate of taxation below that of the average person of poverty in the U. S. As a result, the Cheneys' taxable income was $1.96 million. In a statement, the White House said that over the course of the year, the couple paid $2.5 million in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments, in part to deal with the exercise of the stock options. Given that their 2005 taxes are a little over half a million dollars, they are due a refund of about $1.9 million, the statement said. Unbelievable!

The White House emphasized that the Cheneys had received no personal financial benefit from the charitable donations (?). "The transactions were tax-neutral to the Cheneys," it said, adding that the large tax refund would return them "to a neutral position of no personal financial benefit or financial detriment resulting" from the gifts. The White House said the stock options had been granted to the Cheneys by the Halliburton Company (we wouldn't have guessed), Mr. Cheney's former employer, and from the couple's work on the boards of other companies. It is clear that the Vice President's inside nod for Haliburton on the no bid Iraqi contracts and the subsequent documented ripoff of the taxpayers has paid off quite handsomely. What a scam. . .

Meanwhile the public suffers the indignity of the death of their children and the squandering of their treasury for the Bush-Cheney greedy war for oil. For this alone, they should be tarred and feathered and run out of Washington, D. C. on a rail!


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