Professor Elam

Friday July 23, 2010

Charlie Rangel is or was head of the Tax Writing Ways and Means Committee. In September the House Ethics committee will investigate whether he has broken rules.  Speaker Pelosi promised the most ethical House ever, we shall see. It seems agreed that anyone else would be a paying a hefty fine, see article for details. Once again we seem to have one set of rules for the rule makers and one set of the rest of us Remember Geithner's failure to pay employment taxes he knew were due?  Check this out.

Allegations include Mr. Rangel's failure to report assets and income totaling at least a half-million dollars that, when he "amended" his reporting last year, doubled his net worth; his use of four rent-stabilized apartments in New York's tony Lenox Terrace complex, including one that he used as a campaign office; concealing taxable rental income from his Dominican Republic beachfront villa at the Punta Cana Yacht Club; and using his official Congressional letterhead to solicit donations for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.