- Feb 12, 2007
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After reading about the unseemly ethical violations with which Charles Rangel is charged, I've identified something which I call Rangel's Law:
"A circular causal relationship exists between the complexity of tax codes and regulations and the level of government corruption."
If ever there was a morality play to support Tax Simplification with no loopholes, write-off, special deals for anyone, Rangel is the character who would personify both Greed and Gluttony.
The most pungent allegations concern the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York and suggest that he used his Chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee to lure corporate donations in return for the expectation or hope of favorable tax treatment. The vanity project in Mr. Rangel's Harlem district was akin to a Presidential library to "preserve the work of my public life," as he put it in a 2004 letter, and it used several taxpayer earmarks as seed money, including a $1.9 million appropriation in 2007.
Mr. Rangel and his Congressional staff began fund raising in 2005 from corporate and private foundations including Verizon, the Ford Foundation, New York Life, AIG and former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg's Starr Foundation. Team Rangel solicited contributions on his Congressional letterhead and "on official House time, and with the use of official House resources," according to the ethics committee's "statement of alleged violation."
In December 2006, for instance, Mr. Rangel met with Eugene Isenberg, CEO of the oil company Nabors Industries, who ultimately pledged $500,000 that was matched by Nabors. Throughout 2007, the duo met again to discuss "the issue of retroactivity of tax provisions related to inverted companies," along with Kenneth Kies, a Washington tax lawyer and lobbyist who was the former chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation. At the same time, adds the ethics report, "Nabors Industries lobbied members of the House of Representatives on tax issues, including retroactivity of corporate inversion tax treatment."
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Throughout this period, Ways and Means dealt with other issues of some interest to Mr. Rangel's donor base, such as charitable rollover provisions and telecommunications tax issues. The ethics committee has testimony putting Mr. Rangel on record importuning these donator-interests to give to the Rangel Center amid these debates.
The Rangel Dispensation - WSJ.com
"A circular causal relationship exists between the complexity of tax codes and regulations and the level of government corruption."
If ever there was a morality play to support Tax Simplification with no loopholes, write-off, special deals for anyone, Rangel is the character who would personify both Greed and Gluttony.
The most pungent allegations concern the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York and suggest that he used his Chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee to lure corporate donations in return for the expectation or hope of favorable tax treatment. The vanity project in Mr. Rangel's Harlem district was akin to a Presidential library to "preserve the work of my public life," as he put it in a 2004 letter, and it used several taxpayer earmarks as seed money, including a $1.9 million appropriation in 2007.
Mr. Rangel and his Congressional staff began fund raising in 2005 from corporate and private foundations including Verizon, the Ford Foundation, New York Life, AIG and former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg's Starr Foundation. Team Rangel solicited contributions on his Congressional letterhead and "on official House time, and with the use of official House resources," according to the ethics committee's "statement of alleged violation."
In December 2006, for instance, Mr. Rangel met with Eugene Isenberg, CEO of the oil company Nabors Industries, who ultimately pledged $500,000 that was matched by Nabors. Throughout 2007, the duo met again to discuss "the issue of retroactivity of tax provisions related to inverted companies," along with Kenneth Kies, a Washington tax lawyer and lobbyist who was the former chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation. At the same time, adds the ethics report, "Nabors Industries lobbied members of the House of Representatives on tax issues, including retroactivity of corporate inversion tax treatment."
More
Throughout this period, Ways and Means dealt with other issues of some interest to Mr. Rangel's donor base, such as charitable rollover provisions and telecommunications tax issues. The ethics committee has testimony putting Mr. Rangel on record importuning these donator-interests to give to the Rangel Center amid these debates.
The Rangel Dispensation - WSJ.com
