Charlie Rangel recently cost the American taxpayer $3 million in earmarks for his Monument to Me, a series of proposals to fund programs at CCNY that use his name as titles. Rangel may cost American taxpayers billions with his latest tax schemes, one of which benefits those nearest and dearest to his campaign coffers — including a donor already undergoing an IRS audit:
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has proposed legislation that would effectively halt some current tax audits of people who get a tax break for living and operating a business in the United States Virgin Islands.
Many beneficiaries of the tax break are campaign contributors to the lawmaker, Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, according to data collected by CQ MoneyLine, which tracks political contributions.
At least one of them, Richard G. Vento, is currently under audit, according to court filings. Mr. Vento gave $4,400 last year to the Baucus-Rangel Leadership Fund, which supports Mr. Rangel and Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who heads the Senate Finance Committee.
Beneficiaries of the tax break including Michael W. Masters and Richard H. Driehaus, money managers, accounted for more than half the $51,900 that individuals in the Virgin Islands gave last year to Rangel for Congress, the chairman’s campaign organization. Mr. Rangel raised almost three times as much from such donors last year as in any other year in the MoneyLine database.
Mr. Rangel says his measure is simply an effort to address a discrepancy between the Internal Revenue Service’s treatment of Americans living in the Virgin Islands and its treatment of their mainland counterparts. Except in cases of fraud, the agency has three years to cite errors in a mainland resident’s tax payments. But since 2006, under I.R.S. rulings stemming from the agency’s efforts to crack down on abuse of the tax break, it has faced no such time limit in auditing Virgin Islands residents.
I seem to recall a presidential election not too long ago when people like Vento came under specific fire for their off-shore activities. Democrats talked about hiking taxes and eliminating shelters for investors in the same class as Masters and Dreihaus, who put their cash out of the reach of the IRS. John Kerry campaigned on the notion that closing loopholes that drove investors to the Virgin Islands would recoup enough cash to fund some of the social projects that he proposed to start as President.
My, how times have changed! Now having donors from Virgin Island investors has become the fashion — as has treating them with deference and expanded tax shelters. Rangel wants to protect his donors by essentially interfering with IRS audits already in progress, while at the same time sticking Americans with new taxes that will hammer their own investment opportunities.
Rangel’s manipulation of laws for the benefit of his donors should gain the widest possible exposure. Will Democrats who demagogued on the offshore-investor issue sit quietly while rangel runs interference for the same class of presumed villains with the IRS? Or will they put an end to the obvious payoff that Rangel attempted to deliver for their financial support?
Ah, former Farrakhan catamite Charles Rangel.
Poster dinosaur for the abject failure of the civil rights movement to produce any politician of worth.
Corrupt, incompetent criminal, doling out government cheese to his buds.
“Will Democrats who demagogued on the offshore-investor issue sit quietly while rangel runs interference for the same class of presumed villains with the IRS?”
Quiet as little the mice-brained jackasses they are.
Who is going to call them on it? The media? Guffaw.
The Republicans? They react to Rangel’s race card like vampires to crucifixes.
NoDonkey,
Charles Rangel is the expected product of Affirmative Action (TM). He could have been a drug lord, but the opportunities opened by set-asides enabled him to rise far above his level of incompetence.
Ed,
You should have being as eloquent during the republican tenure of congress. Ideology, ideology, ideology, the reason I decided to leave the Republican party and become an Independent.
unclesmrgol,
“He could have been a drug lord”
Instead, he settled for being a Democrat Congressman.
What a shame.
Although Rangel would have had to take a pay cut as a career drug lord, the payoff would have been far more honorable, intelligent and upstanding peerage, when compared to Democrat Congressmen.
The Dems backed off real fast from their plan to put the tax bite on all those evil hedge fund managers when they realized over 80% of them are Dems.
Oops. Never mind.
Congress cant worry about Charlie, they are getting ready to open hearings on those evil TV evangelists.
Cap’n Ed where do you come up with some of these fever rants?
Will Democrats who demagogued on the offshore-investor issue sit quietly while rangel runs interference for the same class of presumed villains with the IRS?
This bill requires U.S. companies that defer income through controlled foreign corporations to also defer the deductions that are associated with this income. This is to make sure companies don’t use offshore accounts to avoid taxes.
Funny how you fail to mention that the bill would reduce the top corporate marginal tax rate from 35 percent to 30.5 percent.
Or that it calls for a repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Or that an estimated 57% of tax filers (86 million households) would get a tax cut under Rangel’s bill in 2008.
while at the same time sticking Americans with new taxes that will hammer their own investment opportunities
Where did you pull this one out of? Are you referring to the proposal to make Hedge Fund managers pay taxes on their income at the same rate that every other working person in the US pays? If so do you plan on enlightening us as to why these people should pay a lower tax rate than any other person in sales that earns a commission?
Going after Rangel for the Virgin Islands provision is fine, but to toss in erroneous accusations about what the tax proposal actually says is pure hackery. But maybe that’s all you can come up with to oppose a tax bill that is a huge relief to the working middle class. Unless of course you’re one of the 2.4 percent of filers who would pay slightly higher taxes.
Yeah, Cap’n: let this be a lesson to you! You can only criticize democrats if you devote AT LEAST as much time to criticizing Republicans!
/sarcasm
Think of it as a Fairness Doctrine for blogs…
When the story is about Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff or other republicans this is a crime. When the story is about Charlie Rangel it’s business as usual…
docjim505 – apparently hooked on phonics hasn’t been working too well for you. Nothing was said about going after Republicans, and the only thing said about going after a Democrat was that it was fine. It seems you might be somewhat challenged on that tricky comprehension thing, sorry I…didn’t…talk…real…slow…for…you…
The bill Rangel is proposing lowers taxes for the majority of America. And it repeals the AMT. Only 2.4% of taxpayers will see any increase.
I want to hear why this bill is bad. But instead of any facts or logic all I see is the Captain disingenuously tossing in misleading one liners.
Dwight
You are touting as fact stuff about a bill that has not even been full printed on paper yet.
Portions of it have already been backed off from especially the hedge fund manager section when they realized they would be stealing from Dems by an 80% margin and some of their best fundraisers.
The bill has slim chance for passage to begin with and what it will look like after the buzz saws hit makes commentary on what it stands like now make as much sense as trying to climb a flashlight beam.
So it’s ok to make baseless accusations like “sticking Americans with new taxes that will hammer their own investment opportunities” – but not ok to use the statistics provided by The Tax Policy Center? The point is the Captain already provided commentary on it, yet it was deceitful at best. It’d be nice to hear someone, anyone provide a reason why the bill should not pass. Well at least reason that has a semblance of substance to back it up, not the off-base generalities that seem to be so popular around here.
Dwight Cheroot said
“So it’s ok to make baseless accusations like “sticking Americans with new taxes that will hammer their own investment opportunities” – but not ok to use the statistics provided by The Tax Policy Center?”
The Tax Policy Center’s major donors include the American Bar Association and the Rockefellers and the MacArthur Foundation, one of PBS’s major funders as well. It’s a think tank, in other words. That’s not exactly the same thing as being a taxpayer advocacy group.
In addition, the TPC is also part of the Brookings Institution, which leftists like yourself widely derided after two of its members,
Brookings Institution analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack, said the surge in Iraq was working. I guess that when they support your position they’re legitimate, but when they support your opponents they’re bad?
Rangel’s bill is a tax “reform” fiasco and will never be accepted by the the Republicans in Congress and President. If it does, somehow, pass both the House and the Senate (which I highly doubt) it will be vetoed, and rightly so.
Rangel know his bill is doomed, he’s just trying to produce window dressing for the Democrats. It isn’t going to work though as I’m sure the Vast Right Wing Radio Conspiracy, also known as the American people, will pull another “Shamnesty” type of public campaign on this bill and it will die short but painful death long before the Democrat candidates can run a “Bush and the Republicans Hate the American People and Refuses to Give You a Well Deserved Tax Cut” campaign strategy.
I agree, Captain, that we should not permit the sort of Rangel corruption, as you stated. However, you should not refer to a Territory of the United States as an “offshore” operation. That is absurd! There have always been subsidies to U.S. Territories, but to suggest that a U.S. Territory is not part of our country is ridiculous! There, of course, could be even more volumes written about the ghastly corruption associated with Hawaii and the “big five” families. Probably the greatest scandal in the history of our country! However, a U.S. Territory is still the United States. And I never forget that my home State was a Territory until 1912, not that long ago!
More statues to destroy and more buildings to burn when the people figure out what a criminal Chuckie is.
I’m 66 years old and can’t remember one tax cut the working people got from a democrat president or congress. As a fact the only actual tax cut I’ve had in almost 50 years in the work force was from the Bush tax cuts. Those who think a democrat controlled congress will cut taxes for the average American are smoking some wicked sh**, or have already burned their brain out.
Captain,
There has been a changing of the guard. The Demos now control both houses of Congress. Programs that fund pet projects are only pork when you are the party out of control.
The pundering of the public treasury under the current Congress is a Demo’s dream. They can plunder yet lay the blame at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Speaker P and the left coast gang are rolling in contributions, spending, and making trips around the world at taxpayer expense.
Rangle is a member of the hand out crowd.
dwightkschrute,
Good try at highjacking the issue.
The issue is dhimmies covering for their friends and protecting them from the IRS.
So if they promise to through in some bones to reform, does that make it all better?