Somebody said to me yesterday as I floated above Michigan: "What's all this stuff about
private armies and
Amway and
Michigan soldiers dying in Iraq? You're supposed to be FUNNY!"
After giving myself a funny look for talking to myself, I had to confess that I was (as usual) dead-on right. People don't want a bunch of depressing crap about what a sleazeball Dick Devos and is and how creepy his family and the people they give piles and piles of money to are. They want pictures! Funny pictures!! And lots of them!!!
A search on "Dick Devos is Rich" leaves little doubt that Google still has no love the Disembodied Head. It also finds that Diamond Dick is the richest man to run for governor in state history. This little lady notes that Dick Devos has bucked tradition and refused to disclose his tax returns. Memo to Michigan from the gold-plated desk of Dick Devos: You don't care how much I pay or don't pay in taxes, you care only about your own taxes. If for some reason you do care, my finances are "an issue we will address openly and directly at the appropriate time". Which is not now. So bugger off!
Still, voters are a curious lot (at least as compared to say ... reporters) and many still want to know "Well how much money does Dick Devos have?". The Granholm campaign tried to make this an issue (story) saying "DeVos' arrogant refusal to open his tax return to public inspection, the way Gov. Granholm and every other recent candidate has done, makes it clear that he is hiding something." The campaign responded that the allegation was "ludicrous", which was apparently code for "nothing to hide ... except Alterra".
During the final debate, the Tricky Dick was accused of setting up a Bermuda tax haven to hide profits from Amway's overseas operations. Sadly, the crack delegation of journalists dispatched to investigate the claims vanished in the Bermuda Triangle.
So how much money does Dick Devos have? The answer is: Dick Devos sure as hell isn't going to tell you.
(If you know how much money I have, please post it below!)
Bonus Fact of the Day & Special Prize!
Feel free to steal this for your web page - Dickie Rich feels free to steal from all Americans!
DeVos supports a campaign, secretly funded with $490 million since 1998 by the 18 wealthiest families in the country, to repeal the estate tax. This campaign misleadingly claims that the estate tax affects ordinary working families, small business owners and family farmers. The truth is that only one quarter of 1% of all estates (billionaires like DeVos) will owe any estate taxes this year. Giving a massive handout to the wealthiest families would gut $1 trillion from the federal treasury in 10 years and cause severe financial shortfalls in education, health care and disaster-preparedness, and add to the ballooning budget deficit.
Spending Millions to Save Billions: The Campaign of the Super Wealthy to Kill the
Estate Tax, Public Citizen Congress Watch, April 2006
CleanUpWashington.org