GOP Presidential Candidate’s Life Insurance Scheme Provides Fodder for Opponents

Will this story “have legs”, as they say? The media-anointed GOP frontrunner of the moment has a brewing scandal on his hands — one that involves dealmaking, wagering, and the creation of tax shelters for the purpose of profiting from life insurance premiums. Although the scheme was essentially thwarted, Team Perry (the Texas governor and associated conspirators, at the time, in 2003) decided that betting on the length of life insurance policies on Texas teacher retirees for the purposes generating profits for a Swiss bank was not as risky (and stupid) as it sure as heck sounds today.

All they had to do was convince retirees to let UBS buy life insurance policies on them. When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing. The meeting notes offer the most direct evidence that the Perry administration was not only intimately involved with the insurance scheme, but a leading driver of the plan.

Investors, of course, would have not been taxed for those profits. The state’s retired teachers fortunately said no, effectively ending the deal. On its surface, corporate tax shelters are a rather common affair instituted by corporate entities — so this essentially falls in line pleasing speculation among investors in the marketplace. Tea Partiers will probably look the other way on this one, but the president has another salvo at his disposal if he decides to take it to the next level. Anyone care to speculate on the cost of healthcare delivery on the taxpayers’ dime once reform kicks in? | LINK