Ain't Politics Quaint?

Via-Jer

Washington politics has become so corrupt and unresponsive to the American people it is almost impossible to keep track of all the shenanigans and ineptness.

So much has been going on that it is near impossible to keep track of all the regular old corruption that is always present in our political system, but sometimes is just unconscionable. One such case is that of Charlie Rangel.


Representative Charlie Rangel (D) New York is the powerful chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the folks in charge of the tax code. Earlier this year while I awaited the Congressional ethics committee report on Charlie which Nancy Pelosi said would be out in January (still waiting) I wrote some posts on the amazing Mr Rangel, here , here and here
Please do read them as they lay out all of Charlie's little deals in some detail. But to summarize here is a list of some of Charlie's misdeeds.

* Occupying multiple rent controlled apartments in New York and using one as an office in violation of city codes. Or as the New York Post explained:

Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.

Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.

The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.

Actually it is much deeper and more unethical than that but you get the idea.

* Charlie also owns a luxury "bungalow" in the Dominican Republic and did not report income on it in Federal filings, (he didn't pay taxes) but it wasn't his fault you know.

* Charlie owned a house in DC and claimed a Homestead Exemption on it, as I wrote:

You see our powerful Congressman with the villa in Paradise and the luxury apartment in New York,also owned a home in Washington DC. A house in Washington which he claimed Homestead exemption. Now, as a homeowner I know that you only get one of those and it has to be on your primary residence. Well was this home in DC Charlie's primary residence? Must have been, he claimed it was for the exemption, but what about those luxury apartments up there in New York, I thought they had to be your primary residence to get that rent deal? Exactly.

* Charlie also used his position to strong arm some very powerful business interest to donate money to a City College of New York school of public service to be named in his honor. Then remarkably changed his vote on a key piece of legislation that helped that same business interest. OOPS. Or as CBS explained

The company, Nabors Industries, was one of four corporations based in the United States that were widely criticized in 2002 and 2003 for opening offices in the Caribbean to reduce their federal tax payments. Mr. Rangel was among dozens of representatives from both parties who bitterly opposed those offshore moves and, in 2004, pushed unsuccessfully for legislation to make the companies pay more tax.

But in 2007, when the United States Senate tried to crack down on the companies, Mr. Rangel, who had recently been sworn in as House Ways and Means chairman, fought to protect them. The tax shelter for the four companies was preserved, saving Nabors an estimated tens of millions of dollars annually and depriving the federal treasury of $1.1 billion in revenues over a decade, according to a Congressional analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

* Charlie also steered campaign funds to his son, abused congressional parking privileges and a host of other small violations.

Now here we are with no ethics committee report on Charlie, years after some of this has come to light and we learn there is more.

"love that ring"
TAX CHIEF CHARLIE A TAX 'CHEAT,' TOO

Not only has Charlie now found something like $750,000 he had failed to report on his Congressional financial disclosure forms, he is a chronic dead beat on paying property taxes on two vacant lots that he owns that he failed to disclose he owned:

He currently owes $159.39 in unpaid property taxes for the second and third quarters of this year, according to the clerk's office.

Rangel's second-quarter taxes were due May 1 and his third-quarter taxes were due at the beginning of this month.

Skating on property taxes is nothing new for Rangel.

A review of property records for the borough of Glassboro revealed at least six tax liens levied against Rangel's property during the past 16 years.

Just last year, two separate liens were levied against both properties owned by Rangel.

The June 5, 2008, liens totaled $339.64.

On Dec. 6, 2001, a tax lien was filed against the property for $125.57 in unpaid taxes.

Rangel's earliest tax lapse, according to the records still on file, was June 24, 1993, when a tax lien was filed against him for failure to pay $57.53 in property taxes.

In each case, Rangel eventually paid the lien and interest to prevent foreclosure on the properties

So why is Charlie Rangel not only still in congress and not been censored by the ethics committee? Why has he not been removed from one of the most powerful positions in the House? Why hasn't the national press hounded him and his protector Pelosi mercilessly even though both the New York Times and Post have called for his resignation? Why indeed.

The reason is simple Nancy Pelosi needs Charlie Rangel to pass her and Obama's agenda through his powerful committee. Nothing will insure compliance of the powerful chairman to your wants more than the threat of removal hanging over your head.

Make no mistake Charlie Rangel is only there because the Democratic leadership needs him there, just like they needed Henry Waxman in his new assignment and drove Dingel out to get him there.

Ain't politics quaint?
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