McCaskill Ethical Problems?
The Senate Ethics Committee is certainly acting like there's a problem. Based on
this Kansas City Star article, I'd say there's reason for investigating further. Here's the reason for the extensive investigation:
The other thing that might stink about this is where Ms. McCaskill stands on estate tax reform. If she's against a major overhaul of estate taxation, then it's obvious that she isn't willing to play by the same rules as most Americans have to abide by since a bunch of her husband's money is in Bermuda, where it isn't subject to the tax laws that she'd be voting on. That might be legal but it's hardly acceptable to most people.
Telling people what the estate taxation laws are is one thing. Telling people what the estate taxation laws are while you're evading them is utter hypocrisy. Hypocrites of that magnitude should be made to pay for that.
Of course, Democrats are crying foul:
Posted Monday, July 10, 2006 1:15 PM
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The Rural Housing Re-Insurance Co. of America Ltd., based in Hamilton, Bermuda. McCaskill reported the company has a value of between $250,001 and $500,000, but produces less than $201 in income. "That doesn't pass the smell test," scoffed Smith. "You can't have an investment of that magnitude without getting more than a couple of hundred bucks from it. That doesn't ring true with most voters."If I owned an income property worth between one-fourth and one-half a million dollars and only made $200 annually, I'd dump the investment like it was a scalding-hot potato.
Such companies are a way to cut expenses because you're essentially insuring your own holdings, said Mark Geoghegan, editor of Reinsurance magazine. They also are a popular investment vehicle because tax-free profits that would go to an insurance company go to you, and because you can generate tax-free investment income using the firm's reserves.
The other thing that might stink about this is where Ms. McCaskill stands on estate tax reform. If she's against a major overhaul of estate taxation, then it's obvious that she isn't willing to play by the same rules as most Americans have to abide by since a bunch of her husband's money is in Bermuda, where it isn't subject to the tax laws that she'd be voting on. That might be legal but it's hardly acceptable to most people.
Telling people what the estate taxation laws are is one thing. Telling people what the estate taxation laws are while you're evading them is utter hypocrisy. Hypocrites of that magnitude should be made to pay for that.
Of course, Democrats are crying foul:
What Smith called a character question McCaskill aide Adrianne Marsh called "character assassination" of "a good woman from a rural area who stands for things Missouri families care about. They're grasping at straws here," Marsh said. McCaskill filed a report with the Senate in January that listed a net worth of at least $13 million and possibly more than $30 million, most stemming from Shepard's extensive real estate interests.Ms. McCaskill, if you told the Committee "an incredible amount of detail", perhaps it's the details that they find suspect. I know that I'd find the income figures less than credible.
"We've told everything we have to tell, an incredible amount of detail," McCaskill said in a radio interview last month. But McCaskill's campaign conceded Friday they have not yet been given the all-clear by the Ethics Committee.
Posted Monday, July 10, 2006 1:15 PM
June 2006 Posts
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