Be afraid.
Be
V E R Y
A F R A I D!!!!!!
END THE INCOME TAX MADNESS BY SUPPORTING THE
FAIR TAX!!!
Posted on 09/15/2008 9:54:40 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (CBS) - A new set of potential problems in Rep. Charles Rangel's financial papers has prompted the tax-writing lawmaker to decide to hire a forensic accounting expert to try to unravel the mess.
Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is already the subject of ethics committee investigations on several fronts, including unreported income and unpaid taxes on his beach house in the Dominican Republic.
Despite Republican calls for Rangel to be stripped of his Ways and Means Committee chairmanship, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CBS 2 HD it is not going to happen.
Those issues and others have led the New York Democrat to choose to hire an expert to pore over Rangel's finances over the past 20 years, and issue a report to the House ethics committee. The congressman has not yet enlisted someone for the task.
Rangel's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said the move shows Rangel "has nothing to hide and does not believe he has done anything intentionally wrong."
The accountant's report will not be reviewed by Rangel or his advisers before it is given to the committee "as quickly as possible," Davis said.
The lawmaker also promised that once the report is complete, he will publicly release his tax returns for the past 20 years.
The tax issue is particularly embarrassing for a lawmaker whose job is to guide new tax law. Rangel is resisting calls from Republicans that he should lose his committee post, among the most coveted on Capitol Hill.
As more questions have been raised about Rangel's records, his lawyers and accountants have uncovered new discrepancies in the personal financial disclosure documents that he files every year to Congress.
Every lawmaker is required to file such paperwork disclosing major assets.
Rangel said in a statement he became aware of the issues over the weekend while working with his attorneys and staff. "While over the years I delegated to my staff the completion of my annual House financial disclosure statements, I had the ultimate responsibility. I owed my colleagues and the public adherence to a higher standard of care not only as a member of Congress but even more as the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee," he said.
Among the new discrepancies:
--Rangel's papers over the past 10 years show no reference to the sale of a home he once owned on Colorado Avenue in Washington.
--The details of a property bought in Sunny Isles, Fla., are bewildering at best. The stated value changes significantly from year to year, and even page to page, from $50,000 to $100,000 all the way up to $500,000.
--Some of the entries for investment funds fluctuate strangely, suggesting that the person either didn't have accurate information or didn't fill out the paperwork correctly.
Rangel spent the past week trying to answer questions about his ethics and his finances.
He acknowledged that he owes the Internal Revenue Service about $5,000 in back taxes for unreported income from the rental of his vacation villa, and probably a smaller amount to state and city tax collectors.
The congressman acknowledged he made mistakes but said they were errors of omission and should not lead to the loss of his high position in Congress.
The home in the Dominican Republic has proven a major embarrassment to the 78-year-old Rangel, who conceded he never reported the rental income over a 20-year period, received a no-interest mortgage on the place for more than half that time and claims to have no idea what it is worth today.
The ethics committee is also investigating Rangel's rental of three rent-stabilized apartments in his home district of Harlem, as well as his use of official congressional stationery to try to find private donors for a college center named after the lawmaker.
Yes, and I am sure that Conyers and Waxman are all over this.S/off
Keep it up, Pelosi! This is exactly what is going to help to defeat your party in Congress on Nov. 4!
Let Sarah attack.
THis is exactly the type of croneyism that she fought in Alaska for the people of Alaska. People are sick of this stuff ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE.
It’s a perfect issue for her to stump.
He may skate....but I think IRS is going to levy a fairly substantial fine...that will shock even Rangel...then he’ll pay it. If I were IRS...I’d go for the absolute max and let him off the jail time. By the time he pays the tax, the interest, and the fees involved, with the fine....he will have lost more than he ever made off the property.
Yup. That’s a lot of stuff for a 30 second ad tho , there’s 60 seconds worth, at least.
Now is no time for the GoP to chintz out when they actually have a chance to swing a mean bat this November.. ;-)
Too bad this article doesn’t mention that Rangel withdrew his petition for divorce the other day from his wife of 42 years. Interesting, since he’d been putting the blame on her for the tax snafu on his Dominican villa. Mark Levin suggests he withdrew the petition because a wife can’t be forced to testify against her husband.
If your representative and/or senators are Republican, take a minute to forward this CBS article to them and tell them how outraged you are at politics as usual in Washington D.C. and would like them to make a campaign issue of it. A barrage of emails about this might make them understand how many of their constituents are fed up with the Democrats.
Yup! No need to run against Obama and Biden, The Plagiarizer will self-destruct anyway. The campaign should be against Obama, Reid, and Pelosi.
Thx for that tidbit. hmmm.
Be afraid.
Be
V E R Y
A F R A I D!!!!!!
END THE INCOME TAX MADNESS BY SUPPORTING THE
FAIR TAX!!!
wife can’t be forced to testify against her husband.]
I believe, this isn’t entirely true IF the issue involved is in furtherance of a crime.
Mark Foley. Denny Hastert. Madam Botox acquired the Speaker position because Hastert wouldn’t ditch Foley, and whether or not Foley had done anything illegal, was debatable.
Now, it is time to send Madam Botox packing. Culture of Corruption. The ethics of Madam Botox’s 2 years of Speakership has be an abomination...
LOL. I had to read that part of the article twice to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. These D.C. lawyers keep coming back from the dead!
bttt
I hope he stays. He’s a one man political ad for the Republicans this fall.
Al Capone went to jail for this kind of thing.
My post from yesterday:”“He failed to report about $75,000 in rental income over two decades”
BULLSH!T! That place rents for $1,100 a night from December 15th thru April 15th, and the condo manager says it’s always booked solid! There is NO WAY that $75,000 is all he made in two decades. The 75 Gs are just the tip of the iceberg! Keep digging!”
They should be calling for Pelosi’s resignation!
Yeah, which ones? The one's he's filed or the raft of 1040X's that's coming? Either way, we should see it all.
Run an ad with Nancy spewing about how ethical she's going to make it and then show each RAT with "still serving" "still chairman" ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.