In a move that his supporters are calling his boldest to date, President George W. Bush today advocated a merger between the United States of America and the Halliburton Co., one of the world's largest oil-producing concerns.
Under the proposed agreement, the United States would become a subsidiary of Halliburton, with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney both having seats on the new entity's board of directors.
The legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government are expected to be spun off, sold or shut down. Sources close to Halliburton say those government branches aren't seen as a "good fit" with the newly-created United States of Halliburton, whose core business will be oil drilling and exploration.
Across the country, Bush's supporters gave him high marks for proposing the U.S.-Halliburton merger as a way of easing the nation's energy problems. "This move is a home run," says Chet T. Gunderson, an oil-industry lobbyist. "It'll be nice to start drilling for oil everywhere without having to worry about a lot of governmental 'niceties.'"
Bush-whose new title will be chairman and CEO of the United States of Halliburton-was not specific about what areas of the 50 states would now be open for oil exploration, but did indicate that most of them were included in the lyrics of the song "America the Beautiful."
"That's kind of our wish list," Bush told reporters.
The U.S.-Halliburton pact is believed to be the first-ever merger between a major corporation and a sovereign nation. In 1995, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin came close to signing an agreement merging Russia with the Anheuser-Busch Cos., but passed out before the arrangement could be finalized.
