What's on Dick Cheney's tax return?
Well, for one thing, Cheney and his wife donated a pile of money to charities:
$2.7 million to the Cardiothoracic Institute of George Washington University Medical Center (where Cheney has been treated for heart problems)
$1.3 million to Capital Partners for Education (a Georgetown-based scholarship fund that helps finance education at private schools for area teenagers)
$2.7 million to the University of Wyoming (where Cheney graduated in 1965 and his wife taught English)
That all adds up to $6.7 million in charitable donations. In one year. Which begs two rhetorical questions:
1. Where did Cheney get all that money?
2. Where did Cheney get all that guilt?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/17/AR2006041701351.html
posted by Editor at Large at 8:42 AM
2 Comments:
It's Halliburton stock option money. He promised a while back that he'd donate any proceeds from his Halliburton options to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, and just got around to doing it this year. Which I guess answers both of your questions.
Even if you're doing it to appear less crooked, it's still pretty impressive anytime someone gives away 80% of their income.
There is (of course) a scandal here, but it's not about Cheney-- it's about Congress passing a special tax cut, ostensibly to allow the super-wealthy to write off more contributions to Katrina relief, which ended up not having any Katrina-related requirements. Hence Cheney's huge deduction for giving money to the U of Wyoming.
Matt G,
That's very interesting. Thanks for the backfill. We visited your Web site (http://www.ctj.org/blog/) and found it quite informative on a number of tax-related issues--including your piece about the Oregon tax situation. Even though we like the occasional pleasant surprise of a "kicker" check in the mailbox, we agree that it contributes to Oregon's fiscal instability and would rather see it go toward something we all need, like education.
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