Americans for Limited Government Calls on Pelosi and Hoyer to Remove Rangel as Committee Chair, Launches RangelOutNow.org
September 16th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called upon the duo to remove Congressman Charlie Rangel as the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
“Madame Speaker and Leader Hoyer, the time has come for you to remove Charles Rangel from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Any further delay will make you little more than willing accomplices to his malfeasance,”
Wilson wrote in his letter, explaining,
“Mr. Rangel’s nefarious financial wheeling and dealing has brought disgrace upon himself, his office, our nation, and your House. Time and again, he has been caught red handed violating tax laws and House rules, only to plead a degree of unmitigated ignorance absolutely intolerable for a man in his position.”
The letter cites several transgressions:
1) failure to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House,
2) failure to disclose at least $650,000 in assets he had previously failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms,
3) failure to disclose to the IRS or on his financial disclosure forms $75,000 in rental income for a beach villa in the Dominican Republic,
4) violation of state laws by claiming three primary residences and broke municipal laws by maintaining four rent-controlled apartments,
5) violation of House rules by using congressional letterhead to solicit donations for an education center bearing his name at City College of New York, and
6) delinquency in paying his property taxes on two New Jersey parcels and failure to report the sale of a $1.3 million brownstone.
Americans for Limited Government also launched a petition website, RangelOutNow.org, to encourage Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately investigate Rangel’s “repeated violation of public disclosure laws… [and] exactly how Mr. Rangel came into at least $650,000 in undisclosed income, and to audit the extent of his income.”
Wilson also called upon Holder to “prosecute Mr. Rangel to the fullest extent of the law for any and all infractions of the law.”
Rangel is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, but Wilson stated that the committee may be deliberately stalling, writing, “[T]he Ethics Committee — comprised of some of Mr. Rangel’s most ardent apologists — has clearly decided to turn its ‘internal investigation’ into an ‘eternal investigation.’ And justice delayed has long since become justice denied.”
“CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.
The report continues,
“Charlie’s ‘angels’ on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.”
In a statement, Wilson compared the stalling that has taken place with Rangel’s investigation with the swiftness that Congressman Joe Wilson had a resolution brought against him for shouting “You lie!” at Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress. Yesterday, the House voted 240-179 in a resolution against Congressman Wilson.
Said Wilson,
“Think about it. Joe Wilson screws up, immediately apologizes to the public and Obama and they want to ‘investigate’ him. Meanwhile, Chairman Rangel lies, cheats and hordes millions of dollars we know not where from and nothing happens. This is the face of the leftist in control on Congress—the rack for small infractions for their opponents, a pass for heinous crimes by their allies.”
For more background info, check out “The Man Who Knew Too Little,” by Carter Clews.
ALG is dedicated to putting the principles of limited government into action. They work with local groups across the nation to promote freedom, limited government, and the principles of the U.S. Constitution.
