Obama & Kerry deal Halliburton major blow; Prez OKs closing KBR tax loophole

[Ian David]

by: beachmom
Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 11:57:55 AM EDT

(Good thing the no-bid Iraq oil contracts I just wrote about got through: fighting Bush administration corruption is like whack-a-mole. - promoted by Bob)

Crossposted on DailyKos

Ah, yes, Dick's buddies have suffered a setback. Now they will no longer be able to create shell companies on the Cayman Islands in order to avoid paying taxes. Not only that, the closing of this loophole means more money for our vets. A big kudos to John Kerry and Barack Obama in the Senate for writing this bill, and making sure that private contractors are not screwing over we the taxpayers by both reaping a profit from the government while also avoiding paying taxes. Yes, not even George W. Bush was going to fight this one, it was so unconscionable. I have been writing about this since the story broke in this diary when Kerry and Obama called for an investigation and an end to this practice and this diary about the bill passing Congress. More details about the bill at the flip.

First, a recap of how this all went down. It started with this story in the Boston Globe:

Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore

Shell companies in Cayman Islands allow KBR to avoid Medicare, Social Security deductions

March 6, 2008

CAYMAN ISLANDS - Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.

More:
http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11961

[bluerum]

1. Bet they are gonna be hoppin mad now. Expect them to bankroll all kinds of

dirty campaign tricks.

[proud patriot]

2. excellent

[blm]

3. beachmom writes great diaries.

.

[MissWaverly]

4. Off shore tax shelters cost US 100 billion dollars a year

that's a lot of middle class tax headaches to make up for Corporate CEOs ride for free.

[politicasista]

5. K&R

:kick:

[DCKit]

6. I was under the impression that the vote was veto-proof.

Am I wrong?