Will Rangel ever step down?
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 10/16/2009 7:00:00 AM
The House Ethics Committee is continuing its 16-month investigation into House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-New York), who is accused of failing to disclose more than $600,000 in previously unreported assets, and tens of thousands of dollars in unreported income. He also failed to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income on his villa in the Dominican Republic. Those are just a few of the 14 allegations of tax or ethics violations by Rangel the committee is looking into.
All but two Democrats in the House (Gene Taylor and Travis Childers, both of Mississippi) recently voted against a resolution that called for Rangel to step down from his position on the Ways and Means Committee. The unsuccessful resolution was brought by House Republican Conference Secretary and former judge John Carter (R-Texas), who sees Rangel getting special treatment.
"This is something that speaks very badly to the average American who has to follow the tax rules," says Carter. "If [that citizen] doesn't follow the tax rules, he gets serious punishments and he possibly could go to jail if he does something really bad and fraudulent.
"And yet he sees this guy [Rangel] gets to put his stuff in a committee of the House, where it could end up being deadlocked forever and never really answer to the issues," the congressman continues. "And all I said was until it's resolved -- and it needs to be resolved -- he needs to step down from that committee."
When an MSNBC reporter recently asked Rangel about the ethics probe, he shooed the reporter away with a roll of papers and told her that she was being "rude." (See related video)
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