CELEBRITIES AND CELEBRITIES GET AWAY WITH MURDER."
"TO DIE FOR" Columbia Pictures
“Laws and ethics are for the little people. NOT US.”
Posted on 09/01/2009 4:44:11 AM PDT by Libloather
The clock is ticking on tax cheat Charlie Rangel
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
September 1, 2009
It hasn't gotten much attention amid news of Ted Kennedy, Obamacare and the worsening outlook in Afghanistan, but an extraordinary situation is developing in the House of Representatives. With each passing day, it's becoming more clear that the powerful committee chairman in charge of writing America's tax laws is a financial wheeler-dealer, a serial asset-hider, and a tax offender.
Rep. Charles Rangel has been in the House since 1971. He's as old bull as you get in the Democratic hierarchy, and he waited through 12 long years of Republican rule to take over as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in 2007. Along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democratic power brokers Henry Waxman and Barney Frank, Rangel is playing a key role in the effort to push the president's health care, environmental, and financial initiatives through the House.
Last week, we learned that Rangel filed a grossly misleading financial disclosure report for 2007 -- failing to report at least half a million dollars in assets.
It turns out Rangel had a credit union account worth at least $250,000 and maybe as much as $500,000 -- and didn't report it. He had investment accounts worth about the same, which he also didn't report. Ditto for three pieces of property in New Jersey.
Beyond that, we've learned that Rangel has failed to report assets totaling more than $1 million on legally required financial disclosure forms going back to at least 2001.
The news comes on top of revelations last year that Rangel didn't report -- and didn't pay taxes on -- income from a villa in the Caribbean. In that matter, the Internal Revenue Service gave him sweetheart treatment; Rangel paid about $10,000 in back taxes but was not required to pay any penalty or interest.
Rangel's doings are under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which so far hasn't taken any action. Democrats are standing behind their chairman, and minority Republicans can't do anything about it.
But they're still trying. In February, the GOP introduced a resolution calling for Rangel to be removed as chairman. It failed, 242 to 157.
The Republican leadership also wrote a letter to Pelosi urging that Rangel "step down from his Ways and Means chairmanship pending an investigation of his ethical lapses." That went nowhere, too.
And then there is H.R. 735, also known as the "Rangel Rule Act of 2009."
The brainchild of Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican who spent two decades as a judge before coming to the House in 2002, H.R. 735 would require the IRS to give everyone the same kid-glove treatment it gave Rangel.
The bill's title is modeled on something known in Texas as the "Hobby Rule." In the 1970s, Bill Hobby, then the state lieutenant governor, was pulled over for drunken driving. Hobby was taken to the police station, but when his attorney showed up in the wee hours of the morning, authorities simply let Hobby go -- no bond, no nothing. That special treatment became a precedent for future drunken-driving cases, as lawyers cited the "Hobby Rule" to demand their clients be freed with no questions asked, just like Bill Hobby.
Thus the "Rangel Rule." Under H.R. 735, if you're caught cheating on your taxes, you would pay what you owe, then write "Rangel Rule" at the top of your return, and you wouldn't be charged any penalty or interest. That way, Carter said when he introduced the bill, ordinary taxpayers would be "treated with the same courtesy that, it seems, the IRS is treating the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee."
Of course Carter's bill doesn't have a chance. Democrats undoubtedly see it as a joke. But the Rangel case is very, very serious.
If you don't think so, just look at this, from the front page of the Oct. 28, 2008 Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, one of Congress's most powerful Republicans, was convicted yesterday of lying on financial disclosure forms to conceal his receipt of about $250,000 in gifts and expensive renovations to his house. ..."
Stevens' conviction was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct, but the message was clear: This is the kind of thing you can go to jail for.
Rangel appears to have hidden greater sums of money than Stevens allegedly did. Democratic leaders don't want to face it now, but it's just a matter of time before they're forced to admit they have a serious Rangel problem.
WASHINGTON -- Even as he fends off accusations about his own failure to pay taxes and fully disclose his financial dealings, Rep. Charles Rangel had quietly slipped into the health-care bill broad new provisions cracking down on taxpayers in proceedings with the IRS, The Post has learned.
The changes approved by the House Ways and Means Committee that Rangel chairs would strip away legal defenses and pile higher penalties on corporate and individual taxpayers facing IRS proceedings for what they claim are unintentional mistakes, experts said.
Rangel's bill would:
* Punish those who fail to alert the IRS to potentially questionable tax exemptions.
* Bar the IRS from waiving penalties against taxpayers who clearly erred in good faith.
* Double fines in certain circumstances.
"The bill raises penalties and eliminates many of the reasonable defenses that taxpayers have always been able to use when honest mistakes are uncovered," one lawyer told The Post.
In fact, the bill increases fines "in some cases even for honest mistakes," the expert added.
Republicans yesterday ripped Rangel's attempt to go after taxpayers, given his own failure to pay taxes on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic and his extensive reporting problems with his financial-disclosure statements to Congress.
"It is highly ironic that Chairman Rangel continues to work to crack down on American taxpayers who make honest mistakes on their tax forms when he himself has failed to pay his own staggering tax bills," said Michael Steel, spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
This is an excerpt.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09012009/news/nationalnews/hypocrite_charlie__punish_tax_slip_ups_187541.htm
Ironic? I think not.
Democrats are corrupt in advance with premeditation.
They KNOW that they are protected by the Attorney General
and can ignore taxes, and can assault voters with
IMPUNITY.
I have a dollar that says the ‘Rangel Rule’ act will never see the light of day. i have another dollar that says Rangel will never face charges, or get booted out of the senate.
The most corrupt member of the U.S. Senate, Chris Dodd, was given a pass, Rangel will be given one too.
House.
Just proves...what’s good for the goose ain’t always good for the gander.
Charley is next in line for justice by this administration - right after Bill Richardson and the Black Panthers caught intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place.
“Laws and ethics are for the little people. NOT US.”
“or get booted out of the senate.”
You win that one hands down since Rangel is in the house.
All it would take for this to be frontpage news and top of the hour talk show fodder would be a Sarah Palin comment on her Facebook page. But there are more important issues for her to weigh in on currently.
Where is the DOJ?
He needs to be imprisoned because his constituents will never vote him out. Those harlem residents applaud him for stickin it to da man.
I have posted this so many times it isn't funny. WHY (rhetorical question) hasn't any of the multiple media heads asked Madam Speaker about this and her team members like John 'Haditha' Murtha and 'Who me, pay taxes?' Charlie Rangel? Please tell me again about the crusading media, the unbiased media - the 'follow the story no matter what' puppy-dog 'astroturf' media!
Does ANYBODY REMEMBER the media BLITZ in 2005-06 about an overspending Congress, Earmarks, Corruption and sex scandals? Sheesh, how do any of these semi-literate Journalism School Graduates look in the mirror? Of course, given that they live and breath in a liberal ocean I guess I can answer my own question!
On October 10, 1973, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President.
A lot of people thought he got of easy. Me included
But so far rangle has had no charges getting off even easier.
Yea the culture of corruption.
The twist with Ted Stevens of Alaska gives her a perfect segway.
Old Charlie R. is the right color and a Dem. So chances are he’ll skate on all charges here?????
Barney Frank "stickin' it to the man"?
Gee, thanks for planting that image..."
Rangel’s Law: I’ll tax thee but never me.
please boot that corrupt piece of garbage aka Rangel.
No wonder 57% of Americans say we should throw them all out and start over.
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.