Freedom Line Blog

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Democrat Congressman Charlie Rangel, in conjunction with Senator Max Baucus (D – Montana) has introduced a bill targeting tax evasion by Americans, of all things.  And even more ironically, Rangel’s bill targets offshore tax evasion.

This is the same Charlie Rangel who shamelessly failed to report up to $780,000 of his own overseas income, and is currently attempting to dodge a thorough investigation into the matter.  Under his legislation, overseas bank customers would suffer a punitive 30% tax on income from domestic assets unless their banks agreed to disclose the identities of American customers and report their annual balances and account activities.  Proponents claim that it would raise some $8.5 billion more for spendthrifts like Rangel and his Congressional cohorts to waste away.

Here’s an alternative:  why not simply itemize the outstanding tax liabilities of Charlie Rangel, Tim Geithner and the rest of Congress and the Obama Administration?  Perhaps that would make $8.5 billion seem like peanuts by comparison.

The House of Representatives protected one of its own today by voting only to refer Rep. Charles Rangel to the House Ethics Committee; he will remain the Chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel, as the NY Times has revealed, has taken many liberties in his position of power.  The Times discovered that Rangel has four rent-controlled apartments, and actually uses one as his campaign office, likely in violation of House rules.  In addition, Rangel recently revealed that he failed to disclose assets from his swanky beach home in the Dominican Republic, leading to over $10,000 in back taxes.

Being an elected official has been prosperous for the New York Congressman, as Rangel lists his net worth in the millions.  Apparently there are perks to writing the nation’s tax laws, and subsequently failing to follow them.  His published ethical improprieties are just the tip of the iceberg, which is why newspapers across the country are calling for Rangel to step down. See here and here.

Today, Representative John Carter from Texas introduced a resolution that would have referred Rangel’s case to the House Ethics Committee and stripped Rangel of his Chairmanship.  The vote failed 153-246, with six Republicans voting with Rangel (King (NY), Rohrabacher (CA), Paul (TX), Murphy (PA), Jones (NC) and Young (AK).

So, as of today the New York Times and the Washington Post are investigating Rangel but Congress is not.  It looks like it will take an indictment or two to get things rolling in America’s most expensive sausage factory.

HT: Andy Roth