Action Demanded on Rangel/Geithner Tax Violations

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- While Democrats continue their plan for a federal takeover of the nation's healthcare industry, new revelations show they are incapable of effectively managing even their own members in the U.S. House of Representatives.

House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (TX-31) and other GOP Members on Tuesday night demanded that the House take ethics action against the obvious double-standard IRS treatment of House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Carter was joined on the House floor tonight by fellow U.S. Representatives Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Lynn Westmoreland, M.D. (R-GA), and Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and Michael Burgess, M.D.(R-TX) in calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to take action to enforce House rules and the law.

New reports in August revealed Rangel's previous tax evasion problems now under investigation by the Ethics Committee are just the tip of long-standing failures to report income to the IRS or under House disclosure rules, prompting calls for his resignation.

"The rule of law does and should prevail in this nation," Carter said. "It’s the glue that holds this society together. And when we see people causing the glue to weaken, I think it’s our responsibility to step up and say, ‘This has to stop.’ We as a Congress should hold each other to those rules."

Rangel recently reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed assets, including a checking account worth up to half-a-million dollars, stock in PepsiCo and mutual fund investments. Carter is calling for the Ethics Committee to step up and take action.

"We need to get behind the business of policing up this House," he said. "The Ethics Committee should not be deadlocked along political lines but should resolve this issue. The American people are more and more distrusting of this Congress for reasons like this."

Geithner testified in January that he failed to pay nearly $50,000 in taxes he blamed on a Turbo Tax glitch. Rangel and Geithner’s failure to pay taxes and a lack of penalty is an example of American citizens using their power to side step the law.

"People in power are getting special treatment over ordinary folks," Carter said. "Ordinary people and people who have positions of influence should pay similar penalties. There should be no exceptions for the prince nor for the pauper."