Aides Back Cheney on Lack of Halliburton Ties

[kskiska]

By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank

Aides to Vice President Cheney yesterday defended his assertion this weekend that he has no financial ties to the Halliburton Co., even though he still receives deferred compensation from the Texas-based energy conglomerate.

Cheney was chairman and chief executive of Halliburton until he joined George W. Bush's ticket. The firm has won Iraqi reconstruction contracts worth more than $1.7 billion and stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars more under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

(snip)

Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said Cheney "needs to explain how he reconciles the claim that he has 'no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind' with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred salary payments he receives from Halliburton."

Cheney's communications director, Catherine Martin, said the payments are "not a tie" to Halliburton. She said Cheney took out a $15,000 insurance policy so that he would receive the deferred payments over five years regardless of whether Halliburton remains in business." It's money he already earned," she said. "It's not dependent on what happens to Halliburton."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21820-2003Sep16.html

[rooboy]

1. And where will Cheney be going...

when he's no longer VP? Halliburton?

[lebkuchen]

11. Cheney personifies the swinging door

According to The New York Times awhile back, the fat 10-year Army contract won by Halliburton to provide worldwide support for military operations “has no lid on costs, the only logistical arrangement by the Army without an estimated cost” and is “shrouded in secrecy.”

Hardly a coincidence that Halliburton was awarded the job to study and implement privatization of routine Army support functions under then-Secretary of Defense Cheney. When he left the Pentagon to become CEO of Halliburton, he brought with him bountiful federal contracts.

Then he “retired” from Halliburton, with a reported $34 million bonus for his five years of service, in addition to his $1.3 million annual salary and millions in stock options — not bad for a guy with five military deferments (four student, one paternity).

[pmbryant]

2. Such an impartial source

Can anybody defend him who is not in his employ?

:eyes:

--Peter

[soupkitchen]

3. Well if his aids said it, it must be true

So let's all drop the subject.

[FrankBooth]

12. Drop the Subject Dick

That is his only excuse these days. It won't be long until he is frying in his own hubris.

[thebigidea]

4. pay no attention to the pile of oily rags behind the curtain!

[Beetwasher]

5. Bwahahahahahahah! This is PRICELESS!!!

When it rains it pours!

(In your best ba ba booey voice) "Uhh, yeah, mah bosth haths no cuhrent conecshun whatsoevah wid Hallibuhrtin."

[mbperrin]

6. It IS priceless!!!

Say, wonder if I can get ME one of them "no-connection" million dollar a year payments??

[bagnana]

7. how is his deferred compensation calculated??

I want to know! I want to know whether the compensation is in any way dependent upon corporate performance. And what about those stock options! Obviously the value of the tax break he gets will depend upon the amount he gives to charity.

[Beetwasher]

8. The compensation is probably fixed

Though who really knows what it might be cover for. However, the stock options that he supposedly donated to charity (233,000 options I believe), well, that is worth looking into. I'd like to know what charity, who's on the board etc...Let's open those books FATMAN! If you got nothing to hide, you got nothing to be afraid of!

[Mel]

9. Check this out from

Senator Lautenberg
http://lautenberg.senate.gov/~lautenberg/press/2003/01/2003916801.html

<snip>
GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK TO VIEW VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY'S 2001 AND 2002 FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORMS: http://www.lautenberg.senate.gov/disclosure.html

DEFERRED SALARY

ß Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2001: $205,298 ß Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2002: $162,392

Halliburton paid "deferred salary" to Vice President Cheney in his first two years in office and is apparently scheduled to make similar payments to him in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Deferred salary is not a retirement benefit or a payment from a third party escrow account, but rather an ongoing corporate obligation paid from company funds. If a company were to go under, the beneficiary could lose the deferred salary. The Vice President's disclosure forms also describe the deferred salary payments as "elective" without defining this term.

In an attempt to mitigate the Vice President's continuing financial interest in Halliburton with respect to the payment of this deferred compensation, the Vice President's financial disclosure form states that that the Vice President "acquired" an insurance policy "to ensure that he will receive the equivalents of his remaining deferred compensation account with Halliburton." The terms of this insurance policy, its cost, and who paid for it are unclear.</snip>


Cheney's aides are damn liars just like him!

Cheney and Crew are 'International Gangsters' stealing OUR money!

[goforit]

10. Isn't it amazing the resemblence between Saddam and Cheney???

They both have their sidekicks covering their asses.

[Festivito]

13. How about keeping Halliburton falling like a house of cards.

I'd bet Halliburton overstated profits like many other companies, paid Cheney high, and now that the economy is down and the overstatement bill is due Cheney is able to keep Halliburton awash in enough money to hide to prior overstatements and he gets to keep his prestige - not to mention the money in the form of an insurance policy, er, ah, deferred payment.

If the Democrats had not taken the Senate when Jeffords switched, Enron could have continued billing California for its overstatements and Enron might have avoided collapse.

[JM]

14. Two reasons for deferred payments

1) Obviously to keep him connected to the company

2) As I recall from Finance 101, cash in hand is better than cash over time due to uncertainty in interest rates, tax rates, etc. This assumes of course you don't have your hand directly involved in lowering the tax rates like Cheney does. The only reason he would take the cash over time (assuming he had the option between over time and immediate payout) would be because he knew they were going to be pushing hard on the tax cut.

Later,
JM

[Democat]

15. He still owns millions in stock options!

These Bush people are liars, they can't stop lying even when they're caught!