VERMONT: THE NEW BERMUDA

TNR ^ | 12.12.03 | by Josh Benson

[.cnI redruM]

Candidate: Howard Dean

Category: Intellectual Honesty

Grade: F

Deanophiles love to spin their candidate's weaknesses into strengths--arrogance is a sign of conviction, tactlessness is straight-talk, and so forth. So I'm curious to see how they'll spin the latest Dean misstep: hypocrisy.

Turns out that while old Howard has been bashing the coziness of the Bush administration with corporate America, Vermont has quietly become the leading state for a dubious tax-break scheme known as "captive insurance"--under Dean's direction.

As reported in today's Boston Globe, captive insurance is essentially a way to shield corporate profits from state taxes. It starts when a parent company uses one of its own subsidiaries for insurance. The parent company makes premium payments to the subsidiary for the insurance policy, and Vermont takes a piece of those premiums in taxes. So far, so good. But under the Vermont law that Dean pushed, the subsidiary can then reinvest those premiums and keep the resulting profits tax-free. The captive insurance operation may even allow non-Vermont companies to dodge their home states' tax bills.

As a University of Connecticut law school professor told the Globe, "Dean apparently has no problems with tax havens as long as they are in the state of Vermont." And what an operation he's built: by introducing tax breaks and successfully scuttling a proposed Clinton-era regulation designed to stymie the scheme, Dean ensured Vermont is home to more captive insurers than the rest of the country combined. In 2001, he boasted that he wanted Vermont to "overtake Bermuda" as the number one destination for such operations.

Did we mention Enron opened an office in Montpelier to take advantage of the deal?

Asked about captive insurers, the Dean campaign retreated into precisely the hyper-cautious language it ridicules in others: "This is a legitimate industry, perfectly legal," a Dean spokesman said. No word yet on whether there's a "controlling legal authority" to sort through all this.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>>>>Did we mention Enron opened an office in Montpelier to take advantage of the deal?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[blackdog]

Do I smell a sudden hankerin for Iced tea induced breaks at the Dean cassa?

[JeanLM]

Captive Insurance is not a tax avoidance scheme. It is a way for businesses to pool their resources to get insurance at low rates. They form a company to provide insurance coverage, and most importantly, buy reinsurance at low rates. The profit earned on funds held by the captive can be shielded from income tax off shore, or in Vermont, but when they are taken as a dividend, the tax has to be paid.

The IRS watches this very carefully. The only people who lose out on this rapidly growing option are the commercial insurers and their brokers.

I don't like Dean at all but he's not indulging in hypocrisy. What he says is true.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Howie

Your comments really crack me up,
I’d have to say you’re funny.
As funny as a hemorrhoid,
Or as a nose that’s runny.
Saddam’s capture no big deal,
Your stance is still the same.
You’re really sucking big on this,
I’d say your brain is lame.
But tell me Howie I must know,
These speeches just who writes them?
Katie Couric comes to mind,
Or Michael Moore, is it him?
Well Doctor Dean you make me sick,
Malpractice, I will sue you.
Please get a clue, I’ll sell you one,
John Kerry needs a few too.

Conspiracy Guy 12/16/03

[.cnI redruM]

Your a poet
Don't you know it
And your feet show it
they're Longfellows.

[q_an_a]

i had an opportunity to deal with one of those "insurance" companies, it makes enron look like a normal operation with a single office in vermont, of a major insurance carrier, who then has offices in other states, but processes work via their computer link to vermont.

a talk with the state insurance office revealed even more about the normal but underhanded method of shielding a lot of information from regulators. too bad this data on dean is coming out before he is nominated.

[.cnI redruM]

It sounds like Dean wanted the benefits of capitalism without having to admit to any of his 'high-minded' liberal friends he was a capitalist.

[Conspiracy Guy]

,.cnI redruM sknahT

I am a poemist. Poemist study the Science of Poemetrics. I don't put the letters after my name because it looks uppity.

Conspiracy Guy, DOPE (Doctor Of Poemetric Engineering)

See what I mean?

[.cnI redruM]

Call yourself Dr. Dope, and you'll be meeting the ladies. They'll give you a little something, something. If you can prescribe them a little something, something.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Chicks dig Dr's. I wear a white jacket and stethoscope to the beach.

[.cnI redruM]

No wonder I don't get the ladies. You've sucked them all in. You got skillz, Man. Mad Skillz.

[JesseHousman]

I'd like to give the world a hug
And tell it jokes and stuff
Then pull its pants down to its shoes
And chase it through the rough
I'd tie it up with bonds and straps
And check its purse for change
Then leave it out at the corner bar
With our cousin who's deranged

[Conspiracy Guy]

Get a sign that says Breast and Pelvic Exams Free. Sit in a beach chair with the jacket and stethoscope on and watch em line up.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Good one. Did you know that Amazing Grace and the old Coke Jingle are the same song. Sing each song to yourself to the rhythm of the other song.

Coincidence?