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Driving Taxpayers to Drink Cheap Rum

The following are first three paragraphs of a story by Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten that appeared in the August 2 Los Angeles Times. While the connection between sailing and rum is somewhat tenuous, we thought the story was so outrageous, but so typical, that we couldn‘t resist.

"Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

"With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to provide billions of tax dollars and tax breaks to an unlikely beneficiary — the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum.

"Under the agreement, Diageo in London will receive tax credits and other benefits worth $2.7 billion over 30 years, including a $165 million cost of building a state-of-the-art distillery on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, a U.S territory." So ends the Times excerpt.

Once a pirate, always a pirate. More than 300 years after he plundered the Caribbean, Captain Henry Morgan is back to his looting ways, this time here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. Of course, he couldn’t be doing it without the full support of our representatives – Democratic, Republican and Independent – in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Government
©2009 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

A couple of interesting facts:

  • Diageo is the largest distilled spirits maker in the world.
  • The $2.7 billion that Diageo will receive in benefits can also be expressed as $2,700 million.
  • The agreement will result in the creation of 40 to 70 jobs in St. Croix — but will also result in the loss of up to 300 jobs in Puerto Rico.
  • According to the article, the deal has attracted “little opposition in Congress or elsewhere,” except for a few representatives of Puerto Rican interests.
  • Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — which means he oversees tax policy and therefore has the “highest perch in the House” — cited his long time support of the rum tax, and refuses to intervene in the massive giveaway.
  • Also in the September 2 L.A. Times, there was an article reporting that the same Charles Rangel failed to report $600,000 in income, is delinquent on taxes on two parcels in New Jersey, failed to report the sale of a $1.3 million brownstone, and is illegally occupying four rent-controlled units in New York City. He’d previously admitted to have no paid taxes on $75,000 worth of income on a condo in the Dominican Republic.
  • If you’re a taxpayer, you shouldn’t be sailing and drinking rum — especially Captain Morgan rum — at the same time. But given the way the government pisses away taxpayer resources, we’d sort of understand if you did.

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Beachcombers at Muir Beach found some substantial flotsam recently. “It certainly created quite a discussion point for all the beachgoers over the hot Marin weekend,” said Craig Allender.
Normally, conditions are pretty tranquil in Papeete’s harbor, shown here, and in the nearby anchorage off Marina Taina.