Arianna Spouts

Arianna's latest column rips apart the recent tax cuts. Snippet:

"How about the unprecedented aircraft-leasing deal currently being put together by the Pentagon and Boeing -- a plan that uses the same kind of accounting sleight-of-hand popularized by the gang at Enron. Here's how it works: instead of the Pentagon buying the 100 new jets it wants to use as aerial refueling tankers directly from Boeing, at an upfront cost of $138 million per plane, a special-purpose entity created on Wall Street will purchase the planes and lease them to the Air Force. That way the Pentagon gets to acquire the planes without having to dip into the Air Force's limited procurement budget, and Boeing gets to reap billions in new military contracts without having to show the debt associated with the shady deal on its balance sheet. It's an off-the-books win-win deal for them both -- but a losing proposition for taxpayers, who'll end up forking over an additional $8 billion to cover the interest payments on the leases. The sleazy new deal is being put together by the good bankers at Citigroup -- the same outfit that helped Enron defraud shareholders out of, what do you know, also $8 billion. Who says irony is dead?"