The Wrangling Over Charlie Rangel’s Ethics Continues
Read more articles on Finance and Politics and Law and Legal Issues.September 12, 2009
Posted by neillevine
September 12, 2009
Posted by neillevine
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The voters in certain of our great states, to wit, Alaska and Louisiana, have separately seen the amazing and very surprising yet true phenomenon of two individual and long serving elected officials, Senator Ted Stevens of the aforementioned state of Alaska and Representative William Jefferson in Louisiana, be indicted through the criminal justice system and then convicted by juries of their peers for crimes amounting to bald faced and brazen corruption and, then, only after all their dirty laundry had been aired before the public were they voted out of office by successful political challengers promising to offer a more pleasant alternative to outright corruption.
In New York, it appears there is a similar phenomenon underway in the person of Good Time Chairman Charlie Rangel, who has already conceded ten thousand dollars in tax errors and the amassing of four rent controlled and politically prized apartments into one grand primary residence while, at the same time, acquiring a fancy home for what legal documents purported was his main place of domicile. By recently amending his public disclosure filings, Charlie Rangel has also conceded further reporting errors amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported income, on which he may also owe large amounts in taxes, leading the Chairman of the powerful tax writing House Ways and Means Committee to go through a longer public examination and potentially more thorough legal cleansing similar to those faced by the aforementioned Ted Stevens and William Jefferson.
Of course, all this raises intriguing political questions about taxes, ethics, the electoral process and so many other things going on in Washington these days. For example, why has it taken so long to discover so many and such big errors made by Chairman Rangel? Why hasn’t he been audited previously. Why is bringing this long and frustrating investigation to a proper conclusion taking so long? Why isn’t there a faster and more effective means of bringing political scalawags to justice up and running.
Certainly, Mr. Rangel is certainly entitled to his day in court. However, the charges of failing to correctly report income and business transactions are serious and disturbing. He has the task of writing American tax laws that he is being accused of grossly violating. Leading to the conclusion he is doing a poor job in his leadership role. If he is incapable of reporting his income correctly, how can he be trusted to deal with laws requiring other poor, suffering tax payers to do what the mightly Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee himself cannot do.
All of this, raises further serious questions about lax enforcement of settled law. Is Charles Rangel getting special treatment. Certainly, the lack of protest over his amassing a rent controlled McMansion raises issues as to why anyone should be vilified for owning a magnificent home which no known law prohibits while certain powerful politicians can skirt laws designed to help poor people acquire a decent living space in a gross and flagrant manner.
Furthermore, there is the issue that Charles Rangel is obviously rich and no one cares. Why aren’t the legion of left wing activists interested in such matters looking to make him poor like everyone else?
Additionally, the spectre of Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been raised in this case unlike the others. Whereas Ted Stevens was a Republican Senator way off in Alaska and William Jefferson a Democrat in Louisiana, Charlie Rangel is in charge of decisions having great importance on a national level specifically referring to the taxes everyone else pays. As such, he plays an important role in federal economic policy and the government’s handling of many issues related to jobs and business. My experience is that evidence could show he seriously violated tax law, leading to a subsequent trial, while at the same time he continues to hold his Congressional seat and accumulated seniority and, therefore, remains as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and goes on making tax policy.
Such are the political values of our time and obvious weaknesses in financial reporting requirements, enforcement and related ethics laws.
Considering the problems I face with political powers that be and politics in general, I think these are very important issues for voters to consider going forward and especially when voting is considered. Specifically, How is this Change Anybody Can Believe In????
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