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ECONOMICS -
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Tax cuts aid senators

Posted in the database on Friday, June 17th, 2005 @ 03:31:54 MST (2319 views)
by Geoff Earle and Lauren Mercer    The Hill  

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Several senators — millionaires, many of them — have reported earning substantial dividend income in 2004, benefiting greatly from President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, according to financial disclosure reports made available yesterday.

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) reported earning $1 million to $5 million in income from the W.H. Frist 2000 Qualified Blind Trust, which has a capital value of between $5 million and $25 million. Another of Frist’s trusts, the William H. Frist GST Exempt 2000 Qualified Blind Trust, was valued between $1 million to $5 million.

Frist, well-known as a former heart-transplant surgeon, reported holdings of less than $15,000 in Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. and Triad Hospitals Inc. The majority leader also reported buying less than $15,000 of stock in Krispy Kreme, the Southern doughnut chain. The stock yielded a small amount of dividend income. The figures were obtained from disclosure reports put up on the website of PoliticalMoneyLine.

Some opponents of Bush’s tax cuts also fared well. Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), one of the wealthiest senators, listed holdings in Goldman Sachs, his former investment-banking firm, at a value of between $25 million and $50 million, with dividend income of $100,000-$1 million.

The dividend-tax cut was a centerpiece of the 2003 tax-cut law.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) reported earning almost $2.4 million in book royalties from Simon & Schuster for her autobiography, Living History. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, continued to make a lucrative living off speaking engagements, despite undergoing heart surgery. He earned $875,000 from speeches, including $250,000 for a single speech in Paris sponsored by Citigroup. Sen. Clinton valued the joint Senate Blind Trust established with her husband as being worth $6 million-$25 million.

Clinton’s book royalties are something of which newly elected Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) can only dream. Coburn reported continued sales on his 2003 book, Breach of Trust, How Washington Resists Reform and Makes Outsiders Insiders, but he put them at a mere $2,871. The freshman senator also sold about 16,000 copies of the book before his election, according to his spokesman, John Hart.

Six senators filed for filing extensions, which means that their financial holdings and worth remain undocumented as yet. Among them was Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), one of the chamber’s wealthier members. Also seeking extensions were Sens. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appears to be unconcerned about whether the real-estate market is experiencing a bubble. Most of Reid’s properties are in his home state of Nevada and its surrounding areas, and include a parcel of land he bought in January 2004 for between $1 million and $5 million. Another is the Crown King Mine in Searchlight, Nev. Reid’s father used to work the mines in Reid’s hometown.

Reid also invested heavily in school and municipal bonds in 2004, with 13 school-district bonds totaling between $15,000 and $100,000 each. His other investments are largely in mainstream, publicly traded companies in the financial and technology sectors. He has holdings of between $15,000 and 50,000 in Harley-Davidson.

Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), a leader on high-tech issues in the Senate, reported holdings in a number of technology firms — less than $15,000 in Motorola, Oracle and the computer company Gateway.

Allen appears to have taken a pass on historically low interest rates. His mortgage on rental property in Virginia with Wachovia bank has a rate of about 8.4 percent, well above current market rates.

Newly elected Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who gave up his lobbying practice during his campaign, reported earnings from the Thune Group of $231,222.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) reported that his Senate credit-union account was worth between $250,000 and $500,000. He valued the Ted Stevens Blind Trust at $1 million-$5 million and listed an oil interest in Oklahoma City at between $50,000 and $100,000.

The Commerce Committee chairman also listed several gifts from foreign leaders that he then gave to the secretary of the Senate. The president of Azerbaijan gave Stevens a handmade rug valued at $800 and a tea set valued at $150. King Abdullah of Jordan gave him a grape serving set worth $150. President Jacques Chirac of France gave Stevens a watch valued at $328.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who sold $10 million in RealNetworks stock options to fund her primary campaign before joining the Senate in 2000, has seen her fortune plummet. She reported $15,000-$50,000 in her RealNetworks 401(k) and RealNetworks stock valued between $1 million and $5 million.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) sold shares in Esperion Therapeutics and Cubist Pharmaceuticals for more than $1 million in 2004. His wife, Susan, formerly worked as a director for both companies.

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) earned $20,500 as a law professor at Widener University in Pennsylvania on top of his government salary. He also lent his voice to commentary on a presentation of the 1989 movie “Dead Poets Society.” Turner Classic Movies made a $1,000 charitable donation in return for his work.



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