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Congressionally censured tax cheat tells Romney ‘Americans pay their taxes, unlike you.’
Hotair ^ | 09/20/2012 | MARY KATHARINE HAM

Posted on 09/20/2012 10:09:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Chutzpah, thy name is Charlie Rangel:

"Nothing can be further from the truth than Gov. Romney's ridiculous remarks that nearly half of American people do not pay federal income taxes, they pay other federal and state taxes. The 47 percent figure cited by the Republican presidential candidate covers only the federal income tax and ignores the fact that people may pay a higher percentage of their income on a wide variety of taxes.

Everyone pays taxes. Lower income persons pay state and local, property, excise and sales taxes. In fact, when all federal, state, and local taxes are taken into account, the bottom fifth of households pays about 16 percent of their incomes in taxes, on average. The second-poorest fifth pays about 21 percent. This is higher than what the Governor has paid in income taxes. He has absolutely no moral authority to accuse nearly half of the American people of being irresponsible and freeloaders."

Speaking of "absolutely no moral authority," let’s go over Rangel’s record, who was censured by the House of Representatives for a multitude of tax and ethics violations made while he was in charge of writing the nation’s tax policy as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. Charlie Rangel amended his financial disclosure forms under pressure in 2009 to show “that he had omitted an array of assets, business transactions and sources of income. They include a Merrill Lynch Global account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds; and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building he owned on West 132nd Street.” That wasn’t all. “The latest filings come on top of an amendment to Mr. Rangel’s 2007 disclosure form reported this week showing that he had failed to list at least $500,000 in assets.” The new disclosures doubled Rangel’s net worth.

Rep. Charlie Rangel rented several apartments in Harlem at suspiciously below-market rates from a big campaign donor, combining several to create his home while using one of them as a campaign office. That was a violation of rent-control laws, which require rent-controlled apartments to be used as residences.

Rep. Charlie Rangel parked his Mercedes for free in a Congressional parking space for about five years, never declaring the approximate $300 monthly fee on his taxes, as IRS rules require. Luckily, the House Ethics committee determined that he didn’t violate any rules because they only apply rules about parking to staff, not members.

Rep. Charlie Rangel used Congressional letterhead to solicit donations for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York from companies that might have significant interests in the policy making of his committee, a move ethicists said “crossed the line.” He’d already funneled federal earmarks for the center.

Later, one of the big donors to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service benefitted richly when Rangel changed his position on closing a tax loophole.

Rep. Charlie Rangel failed to report $75,000 in rental income or pay taxes on a Dominican villa he owned, causing the New York Times to call for him to step down from his Ways and Means Chairmanship.

In 2008, Rep. Charlie Rangel was forced to pay back taxes on rental income on his villa in the Dominican Republic— a property he was advised to buy by one of his donors and for which he later received preferential treatment when the interest rate on his mortgage was waived.

Rep. Charlie Rangel took the “Property Homestead Deduction Act” tax break on his Washington, D.C. residence for five years, despite the fact that he maintained his primary residence in New York for electoral reasons. Lawmakers who maintain a residence in D.C. but must also maintain a primary residence in their districts are not eligible for the homestead break, tax lawyers told the NY Post.

Rangel is one of the most demonstrably corrupt manipulators of the tax code in Washington, and his longtime position as the guy who wrote tax code for the rest of us makes the corruption all the more despicable.

The headline on his press release should have been, "Americans pay their fair share in taxes, unlike me."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: charlesrangel; romney; taxes
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CHARLES RANGEL IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

1 posted on 09/20/2012 10:09:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
The powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman, a Democrat, owns "casita" No. 412 on the Caribbean Sea at the Punta Cana Hotel, on the lush eastern tip of the country, where he is affectionately known as "el senador."


He rents the place out when he's not there but does not pay taxes for the rental income.
2 posted on 09/20/2012 10:11:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: SeekAndFind

thug slob


3 posted on 09/20/2012 10:11:23 AM PDT by dalebert
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To: SeekAndFind
For 20 years, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel has owned a beachfront villa in a sun-drenched Dominican Republic resort, yet has only sporadically declared income on the property in federal filings."

In 20 years of filings, Rangel has never disclosed owning or acquiring any shares or interest in the company, Grupo Punta Cana. The company also owns and operates an international airport, three luxury housing developments, a shopping village, golf courses, a spa, seven restaurants and a marina.

What does he get for it? A censure....

Hey, can I get censured too in lieu of of the IRS coming after me?
4 posted on 09/20/2012 10:13:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: dalebert
Rangel came under fire in July when he acknowledged holding leases on four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, where he has lived since the early 1970s. Adding his $169,300 congressional salary and other earnings reported in ranges in the disclosure forms, his 2006 income totaled between $172,802 to $185,200. His 2007 income totaled $175,811 to $187,200. And that does not include Punta Cana rental income"


5 posted on 09/20/2012 10:15:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: SeekAndFind

Pot...kettle...black...


6 posted on 09/20/2012 10:15:15 AM PDT by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: SeekAndFind
What next? Lectures on marital fidelity from the “Father of the Year”?
7 posted on 09/20/2012 10:16:54 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (If Obama's Reelected Imagine The Mess He'll Inherit!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Essentially, Romney pays his taxes and Charlie Rangel does not.


8 posted on 09/20/2012 10:26:46 AM PDT by marron
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To: SeekAndFind

I cannot post to this as that would be deemed RACIST!


9 posted on 09/20/2012 10:32:56 AM PDT by rhubarbk
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To: SeekAndFind

Everytime, the tax and spend rats like Reid, PelosiGalore, and Rangel try to condemn Romney, they just reinforce us, the 53%!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2933886/posts

Romney Locks Up 53% of the Vote (We are the 53%)
Pajamas Media ^ | 09/20/2012

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 8:42:59 AM by SeekAndFind

Mitt Romney recently said that 47% of the population pay no taxes while still receiving government benefits. This likely alienated the 47%, who Romney rightly noted are mostly voting for Obama. But it thrilled the 53% who do pay taxes. Because that 53% are sick and tired of moochers calling the shots.


10 posted on 09/20/2012 10:35:49 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (We are the 53%, who pay taxes and keep this country going inspite of the 47% rat moochers!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Photobucket It seems that old Charlie is ALSO exempt from the REST of the rules he and his cronies have imposed on us.

11 posted on 09/20/2012 10:36:19 AM PDT by Dick Bachert (Obama for president -- of KENYA!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Chuckles knows that Romney can’t respond cuz dat would be rasist!


12 posted on 09/20/2012 10:43:11 AM PDT by crosshairs (America: Once the land of the free. Still the home of the brave.)
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To: SeekAndFind

He should be conducting his interviews behind bars.


13 posted on 09/20/2012 10:43:40 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: SeekAndFind
What did Charlie do about THIS?

Illegals received $4 billion in tax credits from IRS last year [SOURCE: AmericanThinker article by Rick Moran, 09/03/11]

14 posted on 09/20/2012 10:44:50 AM PDT by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
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To: SeekAndFind

hmm...can’t even use the “pot/kettle” analogy here, can I?


15 posted on 09/20/2012 10:47:39 AM PDT by G Larry (Progressives are Regressive because their objectives devolve to the lowest common denominator.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This guy is so brain dead he contradicts himself in one sentence:”... Romney’s ridiculous remarks that nearly half of American people do not pay federal income taxes, they pay other federal and state taxes..” Romney wasn’t talking about other taxes, he was talking about income taxes and this idiots attempt to say he was wrong doesn’t even make sense. Typical liberal.


16 posted on 09/20/2012 10:50:48 AM PDT by falcon99
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To: SeekAndFind

Obamaland.


17 posted on 09/20/2012 11:32:19 AM PDT by Tzimisce (THIS SUCKS)
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To: falcon99
Not only that, but then Rangel goes on to compare the total tax payments of low-income people with Romney's federal income tax payments only. That is obviously NOT a valid comparison. You have to compare total tax payments for low-income people and Romney, including state income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes. Being a resident of MA, I'm sure Mitt Romney pays a whole lot of state income taxes (probably at least 9%), and I'm sure he pays a lot of property taxes on the home he owns, plus sales taxes. So when you do a valid comparison, Romney very likely pays a higher percentage in total tax payments than people in the lower 40% of the income distribution. And of course because his income is so much higher than the lower-income people, Romney's total tax payments measured in dollars are massively higher (easily 1000X higher) than the average low income person. It's not the high income people who build businesses and pay all the taxes they legally owe that hurt the middle class. The people who hurt the middle class are all the criminals in prison (including many illegal immigrants) who cost the taxpayers $45,000 per year to house and guard, and all the people on food stamps, housing subsidies, and medicaid because they never made the effort to educate and train themselves to do good-paying jobs. Those are the people who drain tax money out of the middle class year after year, and those are the people I'm tired of supporting with my own hard work every year.

People like the Romney family who build businesses, build strong families, and always stay out of trouble with the police are the backbone of the American economy. The people who hurt our economy and our society are mainly the inner-city slobs and illegal immigrants soaking up government benefits while getting involved in all kinds of destructive criminal activity. I'd like to hear Rangel, just once, talk to a group of high school drop-outs in his district and tell the truth to them and say..."you guys are a bunch of screw-offs who have very poor mental work habits...you don't read well, you don't work at all in school, you haven't learned anything much in school, and you're on a path to go nowhere in your lives unless you change direction and start working and start educating and training yourselves." I challenge Charlie Rangel to say that just once on television...to actually tell the truth to kids in his district. I betcha he can't do it.

18 posted on 09/20/2012 2:25:53 PM PDT by socialism_stinX (...and communism stinks even worse!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m sure Soledad O’Brien will be talking about this first thing tomorrow morning. /s


19 posted on 09/20/2012 8:31:07 PM PDT by WWABD (Hey Barry....Get the Hell off my lawn.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The issue is Federal taxes from which 1/2 of America is exempt!


20 posted on 09/20/2012 9:18:42 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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