TANCREDO VS. THE ECONOMY:

Reuteman: Tancredo's name mud with execs at First Data (Rob Rueteman, June 5, 2004, Rocky Mountain News)

Tom Tancredo has made a powerful new enemy.

First Data - Colorado's second-largest corporation in terms of revenue and market cap - is hopping mad over the Littleton Republican's proposal to slap a 5 percent tax on money transfers to people in other countries.

And, as late as Friday afternoon, they were no less upset that the controversial congressman has quietly dropped the idea.

"It appears to me he's trying to get over a big 'oops,' " said Fred Niehaus, senior vice president for public affairs with First Data. "That doesn't cut it. This guy is off in left field, and we're tired of his antics, tired of his games."

First Data is the parent company of Western Union, which handles such money transfers worldwide. Fees from the transactions made up about $3 billion of First Data's $8 billion in revenue last year. And First Data, with 29,000 employees worldwide, is headquartered smack dab in the middle in Tancredo's congressional district - a fact he apparently was unaware of when he floated the remittance tax idea last month.

"We weren't aware," said Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa on Friday afternoon. "But that wouldn't have changed his mind."

The remittance tax proposal "is all but erased," Espinosa said. "It's moot at this point. We were shooting it out as an idea, to see how many people were behind it. We've evolved into something else."

He's kind of the GOP's Jim McDermott.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 15, 2004 7:09 AM