Questions about Cheney...

It struck me this morning that I had some very serious questions about the Vice-President's tenure. I am worried that there is another point of view about all this and look for answers but have been pretty unsuccessful at getting answers I could follow logically. So I thought that I would throw these questions out there for discussion, hoping that the faithful out there can help me solve this.

As I understand the situation, Cheney was the Chairman of the Board (or some such) at Haliburton. He resigned that post so that he could serve as Vice-President under GWB. So far the facts are pretty much there.

Now what can we assume about his retirement/resignation package? Is a share or two of the company adequate for someone of that position? A percentage or two? Lifetime salary? I guess the question I have is this, Is his retirement based on a percentage of company growth? These are questions we have often poised, and we get in response: "oh, his shares are in a 'blind trust', he has no way of knowing."

Okay, but what happens with after he leaves office? How do those shares play a part in his ultimate retirement package?

Now with his retirement based on the profitability of Haliburton, he becomes the leading proponent of attacking Iraq, those creating a need for the types of services his company provides.

Am I missing something here? How has this been spun away from "ethics"? Do the "ethics" even matter at this point? And what does this ultimately do to "representative government"?

Now, there are a great deal of questions there and I would be happy if we could provide a forum here to discuss them. Keep the faith.

Cheney

Submitted by NUK_1 on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 11:29am.

In a blind trust, the executor could sell every share of Haliburton or anything else, every asset in the trust, etc. and Cheney wouldn't know it. That's the theory/principle of a blind trust. Now, are there cases where the executor is not a totally disinterested third party in relation to the person whose assets are being managed? Sure. Investment income of any kind from any of the assets are also included as being part of the trust and not available to anyone but the executor.

In Cheney's situation, he purchased an insurance contract that works like an annuity that calls for receiving his deferred annual compensation in fixed annual payments from Haliburton that go directly to the trust attorney. The trust attorney then donates all of these proceeds to charity(a couple of Cheney's alma maters). The payments have nothing to do with Haliburton's past/present/future profitability.

Cheney was a big proponent of invading Iraq simply because he became a born-again neocon, not so he could make some money, at least in my opinion. If he wanted the cash, he could have stayed with Haliburton and made a whole lot more than taking a 20mil or so deferred comp package and becoming VP. Haliburton's most profitable segment of its business is the energy sector, not what the govt is doling out to them in Iraqi contracts.

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