Man Who Writes Tax Code “Forgot” Half of his Assets in Disclosure Statements
Democrat Charlie Rangel who chairs committee that writes tax code, "forgot" half of his assest in his official financial disclosure forms.
Democrat Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee which writes the US federal tax code, released an amended financial disclosure for 2007. The amended disclosure included over $500,000 worth of assets in his net worth that he claims to have “forgot” in filing the original version. Richard Rubin and Alex Knott reported on the assets that slipped Rangel’s mind in an article for Congressional Quarterly. According to Rubin and Knott, Rangel couldn’t remember that he had a checking account at the Congressional Federal Credit Union worth at least $250,000, an investment account holding at least $250,000, land in southern New Jersey and stock in PepsiCo and fast-food chain owner Yum! Brands. (Honestly, who could keep up with minute details such as these. Who among us has never forgot about that little bit of land we own in southern New Jersey?) All of these assets were omitted from the original net worth statement Rangel filled out by hand and submitted in May of 2008.
The original report showed Rangel’s net worth was in the range of $516,015 to $1,316,000. The amended report moved his net worth to at least $1,028,024 to as much as $2,495,000. Once again, who hasn’t “forgotten” about half of their assets at one time or another?
Rangel also amended his statement of investment income for 2007. His original statement, once again filled out by hand, said the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman received between $6,511 and $17,900. The amended statement reports investment income in the range of $45,423 to $134,700. Once again, Rangel’s original report accounted for less than half of his real assets and that’s considering income remained in the very lowest amount of the range provided.
We have been waiting for quite awhile to see Rangel’s restated disclosures. The House is supposed to be investigating him for earlier revelations that he did not report on his taxes $75,000 in income from a rental property he owns in Central America and inconsistencies regarding his rent-controlled apartments in New York. Something tells me that we shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for Pelosi to order the investigation, much less waiting for him to receive any punishment.
It is outrageous that Rangel remains in his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee whose primary responsibility is writing the nation’s tax code. Rangel has already been caught cheating on his taxes and now he’s been caught red-handed hiding half of his assets on his financial disclosure statements. (Gee, more problems of transparency in the “Age of Obama” coming out of Nancy Pelosi’s Congress which she promised would be the “most ethical in history” to end the “culture of corruption under the Republicans.) How much would anyone like to bet that the restated assets also weren’t fully disclosed on his tax forms either?
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who is now in charge of the IRS was the first in a long line of tax cheats nominated by Obama.
So currently, we have Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, a chronic tax cheat, in charge of the IRS. Now, it’s further confirmed that the man who oversees writing of the nation’s tax code also cheated on his taxes while lying to the American public. Yet, it seems that the top Democrats are completely copasetic with everything. Not only do Democrats condone cheating on taxes, they tax evaders to positions controlling the enforcement and creation of the tax code. Our vice president insisted that paying higher taxes is “patriotic” and B. Hussein Obama explained that everyone is going to have to “have some skin in the game” to turn the economy around. Perhaps if Democrats started paying their taxes, others wouldn’t have to kick in so much more of their own skin into the Democrats’ game. This is the “change we can believe in?”