Cheney's $2m tax refund got me thinking about our contributions to society

[bigtree]

From the outside it looks like what Dick did is get enough royalties from all of the businesses he has relationships with and rolled the bulk of that money into 'charities' of his choosing. Essentially, the money he 'contributed' is not going to become part of the system that supports most of the necessary functions of government. That must be the same for the wealthiest 1%-2% of Americans who hold the majority of our country's dollars, who got 70%-80% of the tax refunds throughout the Bush terms.

That would seem to leave the support of our nation's essential services, including defense, in the hands of the vast majority of Americans who have been documented as carrying the bulk of the tax burden.

Bottom line? If you're wealthy, you will not be required to make any contributions to the functioning of our government and the essential services and obligations that most Americans rely on to survive and prosper. You can pick and choose whatever segment, entity, business, etc., that benefits you or your benafactors, and our government will consider your obligation to our country paid in full.

Which of Dick's 'contributions' actually helped our country? I'd be interested in doing that analysis. It might bring some perspective to those of us who struggle with our own tax burdens.

[JDPriestly]

1. Another interesting thing about Cheney's gifts

How was the value of Cheney's gifts determined? The gifts were of stock, I believe, probably in Halliburton for the most part. Was the stock valued at its market value on the date he donated it? What would be the value of that stock if the recipients dumped it on the market for cash on the day they received it? How does that work? Is there some gimmick here to allow Cheney to get maximum value out of that stock in terms of his tax refund at a time when he could not have taken the profit for himself and before the stock loses some of the value it has gained because of Cheney's role in the government and his influence on the awarding of contracts to Halliburton? I'm wondering about all this. Any tax experts wish to comment?

[Yupster]

6. He didn't donate stock

He exercised stock options and donated the profits in cash.

[bigtree]

16. this is interesting, nonetheless.

I wonder what the state of holding was for those stocks; how he was taxed on the sale; how he manipulated the sale to avoid being taxed at a higher rate? That would interest me since he lowered the amount he owed because of the contributions.

[Yupster]

17. He exercised stock options

It's a pretty straight forward process. I do it for a living.

[bigtree]

18. I need SOMEthing to rip him on this

:evilfrown:

*wait for it. it'll come.*

[bigtree]

2. what about it?

[bigtree]

3. why did THIS get ignored?

:shrug:

[mtnsnake]

4. If only our politicians running for office explained it as well as you do,

the sheeple would finally catch on.

[Ksec]

5. thats supply side economics the repukes love so much

I guess most of his money comes from stocks in Halliburton. Whodathunkit? War profiteer .

I imagine his donations to charity are mostly write offs.

I cant see him doing anything for anyone, other than himself. He just strikes me that way.

And the Middle class does carry the load for this country. It sucks , but the repukes work for the rich while Dems focus on the poor. The Middle get fked.

[Yupster]

7. "I imagine his donations to charity are mostly write-offs..."

What the heck does that even mean?

[bigtree]

10. It means that they set the bar for such 'donations' higher than most can

afford.

He has enough money to completely evade contributing to the functioning of our government.

[Yupster]

13. Sorry but

you've completely lost me.

I don't know how a person could be accused of "completely evading contributing to the functioning of the government," when he paid $ 500,000 in income taxes.

If you don't think that's enough then fine, but I just don't get how you can say he doesn't contribute anything when obviously he contributed $ 500,000 which is probably more than 2,000 average families pay put together.

I'm just not following your argument at all.

[bigtree]

15. crap. I got caught up

bad argument. thanks.

[Yupster]

8. Didn't he pay about half a million in income taxes?

That's a whole lot more than I paid. Why would that half million not become "part of the system that supports most of the necessary functions of government." ? I guess you lost me.

[bigtree]

9. how do you 'pay' a million if you get $2m back

[Yupster]

11. You mean the arithmetic of it?

I guess it would be if you withhold three million but you only owed one million, then you would get two million back.

Doesn't that make sense?

[GraysonDave]

12. They overpaid

They paid $2.46 million, but only owed $529k after their contributions. Thus, they got a $1.93 million refund.

[bigtree]

14. there it is. I got caught up.

left without my main talking point . . . I would then turn to the question of how a sitting vice-president 'earns' $12m in office?

His Halliburton stock alone went from $10 a share to $80 a share.