|
Dick Cheney on Corporations
Vice President of the United States under George W. Bush
|
FactCheck: Yes, Cheney has received $2M from Halliburton
KERRY-EDWARDS CLAIM:“ As vice president, Dick Cheney received $2 million from Halliburton.”CNN FACT CHECK:The vice president received about $2 million in various benefits resulting from his former position as CEO of Halliburton Co.,
but he received the bulk of the compensation before he became vice president. Of the $2 million, $1.6 million came in January 200, after Cheney was elected but before he was sworn into office. The rest comes from a multiyear deferred salary package.
Source: CNN FactCheck on 2004 statements by Bush and Kerry
, Oct 29, 2004
FactCheck: Yes, Halliburton got $7B in no-bid Iraq contracts
KERRY-EDWARDS CLAIM: “Halliburton got billions in no bid contracts in Iraq.”CNN FACT CHECK:The Pentagon did award a no-bid, or sole-source, contract to a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown &Root in March 2003. However, a Congressional report
aid the contract was “properly” awarded and that KBR was the “only contractor that was determined to be in a position to provide the services within the required time frame.” The Kerry campaign estimates that the KBR oil reconstruction contract was worth
proximately $7 billion, and the Defense Department estimates $8.2 billion. KBR also provides various logistical support in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries under a competitively awarded contract granted in late 2001. In September 2004, the Pentagon
announced it was considering breaking up part of the KBR logistical contract and accepting new bids in an effort to save money. Halliburton would be allowed to re-bid on the contract, but a company official said that it might not do so.
Source: CNN FactCheck on 2004 statements by Bush and Kerry
, Oct 29, 2004
FactCheck: Cheney profited from Halliburton’s past actions
CHENEY: Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they’re trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false. They know that if you go, for example, to FactCheck.com (sic), an independent Web site sponsored by the
University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.FACT CHECK: Cheney got the FactCheck.org domain name wrong-calling us “FactCheck.com”-and wrongly implied that we had rebutted allegations Edwards was making
about what Cheney had done as chief executive officer of Halliburton. In fact, we did post an article pointing out that Cheney hasn’t profited personally while in office from Halliburton’s Iraq contracts, as falsely implied by a Kerry TV ad.
But Edwards was talking about Cheney’s responsibility for earlier Halliburton troubles. And in fact, Edwards was mostly right.
Source: Edwards-Cheney debate analysis by FactCheck 2004
, Oct 6, 2004
FactCheck: Kerry plan affects 471,000 companies, not 900,000
CHENEY: A great many of our small businesses pay taxes under the personal income taxes rather than the corporate rate. And about 900,000 small businesses will be hit if you do what they want to do with the top bracket. That’s not smart because seven out
of 10 new jobs in America are created by small businesses.FACT CHECK: Cheney made a puffed-up claim that “900,000 small businesses will be hit” should Kerry and Edwards raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 a year, as they promise to do
900,000 is an inflated figure that results from counting every high-income individual who reports even $1 of business income as a “small business owner.” Even Cheney and his wife Lynne would qualify as a “small business owner” under that definition
because Mrs. Cheney reports income as a consultant. A better figure comes from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which recently calculated that the Kerry tax increase would hit roughly 471,000 small employers. That’s barely half the figure Cheney used.
Source: Edwards-Cheney debate analysis by FactCheck 2004
, Oct 6, 2004
Donates $100,000s from Halliburton, so not compensation
When Cheney said in September 2003 that he had no interest in Halliburton, Senator Tom Daschle asserted Cheney needed to reconcile his statement with the fact that he continued to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred compensation from his
former employer. In response, Cheney’s office said the vice president had taken out a $15,000 insurance policy that would guarantee the deferred payments even if Halliburton went under. Cheney was donating the deferred compensation, after taxes, to
charity. Cheney also legally deferred his Halliburton stock options to a charity. Thus, he had no financial interest in Halliburton’s fortunes.The news was that Cheney had taken out the insurance policy. Instead, nourishing the conspiracy theories
about Cheney and Halliburton fostered by the Democrats, newspapers said Cheney “defended” his assertion that he had no financial ties to Halliburton “even though he still receives deferred compensation from the Houston-based energy conglomerate.”
Source: A Matter of Character, by Ronald Kessler, p.230
, Aug 5, 2004
Halliburton accused of fraud because of Cheney association?
In February 2004 we learned that Halliburton had consistently overbilled the Pentagon for meals at a US military base in Kuwait. According to auditors, the Pentagon paid the company $16 million for nearly four million meals that were never served.
This came right after the gasoline overcharging scandal, which came right after the Kuwait kick-back debacle. Shouldn’t there be three strikes and you’re out? When caught with its hand in the taxpayer-funded cookie jar, Halliburton merely apologizes,
pays back the money its pilfered, and goes on to win another hefty cost-plus contract.Cheney stubbornly insists on defending his erstwhile company. “They get unfairly maligned,” he said in the midst of these damning relevations, “simply because of
their past association with me.” No, they get maligned because they can’t seem to keep themselves from gouging American taxpayers. It makes one wonder what the company would have to do for Cheney to feel criticism of Halliburton was justified.
Source: Fanatics and Fools, by Arianna Huffington, p.119-120
, Apr 14, 2004
Cheney claims no influence on Halliburton contracts
Halliburton Co., the energy services giant once led by Dick Cheney, has called on its employees to write letters to newspapers and lawmakers in defense of the company’s image. Democrats have criticized the government for giving Halliburton contracts in
Iraq without a competitive bidding process. So far under the contract, Halliburton has been paid about $1.4 billion of a possible $7 billion total. Cheney and Halliburton have denied that the company enjoyed any favoritism in winning the government job.
Cheney still receives about $150,000 a year in deferred payments, and he also holds more than 433,000 stock options, all above Halliburton’s most recently traded price. Cheney insists that the deferred compensation was set up two years before
he became a vice presidential candidate and that he assigned all his stock options to a charitable trust just before being sworn in. “I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven’t had, now, for over three years,” he said.
Source: CNN.com
, Oct 25, 2003
Halliburton receives $7B in no-bid contracts in Iraq
Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the US Army Corps of
Engineers. The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than was previously disclosed. Services performed by Halliburton include building and managing military bases
and logistical support. Halliburton has emerged as the biggest single government contractor in Iraq. Interest in Halliburton was ignited by a routine Corps of Engineers announcement in March reporting that the company had been awarded a no-bid contract,
with a $7 billion limit, for putting out fires at Iraqi oil wells. Corps spokesmen justified the lack of competition on the grounds that the operation was part of a classified war plan and the Army did not have time to secure competitive bids.
Source: Washington Post
, Aug 27, 2003
Defends Halliburton’s success and retirement package
Dick Cheney defended his work in the oil services business. “We went from being a second-tier, second-rank energy services company to being the biggest in the world. By any measure you want to use, Halliburton has been a great success story over the last
few years.” And he said that he would find a way to handle his retirement package. “There is no conflict until I’m sworn in, and by the time I’m sworn in I’ll have done whatever’s necessary to make sure there isn’t.”
Source: Michael Cooper, NY Times
, Aug 25, 2000
Page last updated: Apr 25, 2013