Tuesday, 24 March 2009

1; Dodd's Wife Was Former Director of AIG-Controlled Company
 
    Other Democrats in Trouble
 
2. Other Democrat politicians are so quick to raise taxes—they aren’t paying them anyway.

Dodd's Wife Was Former Director of AIG-Controlled Company

Politics | Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 10:13:59 am PDT

We don’t expect honesty or integrity from our politicians in the United States any more, but it’s a bit shocking how corrupt the system really is—as the AIG scandal continues turning over rocks: Dodd’s Wife a Former Director of Bermuda-Based IPC Holdings, an AIG Controlled Company.

No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG. Dodd has been one of the company’s favorite recipients of campaign contributions. But it turns out that Senator Dodd’s wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well.

From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an “outside” director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG. IPC, which provides property casualty catastrophe insurance coverage, was formed in 1993 and currently has a market cap of $1.4 billion and trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IPCR. In 2001, in addition to a public offering of 15 million shares of stock that raised $380 million, IPC raised more than $109 million through a simultaneous private placement sale of 5.6 million shares of stock to AIG - giving AIG a 20% stake in IPC. (AIG sold its 13.397 million shares in IPC in August, 2006.)

 
 
 

Another Democrat in Trouble

US News | Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 9:14:47 am PDT

No wonder Democrat politicians are so quick to raise taxes—they aren’t paying them anyway.

California’s Rep. Pete Stark, a senior House Democrat who helps write the nation’s tax laws, has been claiming a $1.7 million Maryland home as his principal residence in recent years, although he represents the Golden State’s 13th District on the east side of San Francisco Bay.

The 77-year-old Stark has saved himself nearly $3,900 in state and county taxes by claiming the six-acre waterfront estate as his principal residence, according to an investigation by Bloomberg News.

Maryland law allows the tax break only to those residences used “for the legal purposes of voting, obtaining a driver’s license, and filing income tax returns.”

Notified of the discovery, a state official said an investigation would be launched.

UPDATE at 3/23/09 9:34:36 am:

Here’s Pete Stark in 2007, saying that President Bush is amused by children’s heads being blown off:

UPDATE at 3/23/09 9:49:55 am:

Stark isn’t the only Democrat to use Maryland for this purpose: Soccer Dad: Maryland - the sanctuary state.

 
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Maryland - the sanctuary state

Maryland's becoming a sanctuary state. I'm not talking about for undocumented immigrants, but for congressman who want tax breaks.

Last year we learned that Rep. Robert Wexler was more a Marylander than a Floridian.

Wexler pays taxes on the home he owns in Montgomery County, Maryland. His most recent tax bill there includes a $948 state property tax and a $7,747 county property tax. Wexler doesn't pay any state income taxes. There's no Florida income tax, and members of Congress are exempt from paying taxes on their residences in the Washington, D.C. area.

Now we learn that Rep. Pete "Fortney" Stark takes advantage of his Maryland residence too.

Representative Pete Stark, the second-ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means panel, in 2007 and 2008 saved a total of $3,853 in state and Anne Arundel County taxes on a Maryland waterfront home that he claims as his primary residence, according to Maryland tax disclosures.

Maryland officials, contacted by a Bloomberg reporter about the tax break Stark received, said they plan to look into his eligibility for it.

The Wall Street Journal writes:

Oh my. If New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank are going to try to make public the names of bonus recipients to help mobs demonstrate in front of individuals' homes, perhaps Maryland's tax authorities could do the same for out-of-state politicians who've turned the state into their personal Liechtenstein. No doubt millions of average Joes living in such tax hells as New York and California would love to work on the taxpayers' dime in Washington and live in a low-tax jurisdiction nearby.

Maryland is not a "low-tax" jurisdiction - though it may be lower tax than New York or California. However these legislators are taking advantage of loopholes that ordinary citizen can't exploit.

It gives the appearance, as Instapundit puts it:

And regardless, this certainly explains, once again, why these guys are so comfortable with high taxes -- they don't pay 'em anyway. A government of the tax cheats, for the tax cheats and, especially, by the tax cheats.

We were supposed to be governed by citizen legislators. But the legislative class has seen to it that they get to be more equal than others. They demand that we live by laws that they pass and claim exemption for, because they're too important to be limited by such trivialities.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 12:28