Rangel the tax cheat

Charlie Rangel, that guy in charge of writing tax laws in the House, has been busted owing the American people thousands of dollars in back taxes according to Byron York at the Washington Examiner;

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.

In response to the sweet deal Rangel was given to eradicate his tax cheating, Republicans are hitting back;

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.

Yeah, fat chance that will pass – it took over two hundred years to subject members of Congress to their own legislation (thank you, Newt Gingrinch), it’ll take longer than that to get the real sovereigns of this country the royal treatment Congress reserves for itself.

And it’ll take even longer to get Charles Rangel, the serial tax cheat,to own up to his malfeasance and pay us what he owes us.

Category: Liberals suck, Usual Suspects