VIDEO~Rep. Charles Rangel: Dems Didn't Pass Budget In 2010 Because 'It Was A Hot Potato'

Bill O'Reilly interviews Rep. Charlie Rangel about the pending budget crisis.  In one of his most honest moments, Rep Rangel admits the Democrats didn't want to do anything about the budget in 2010 because it was a political "hot potato."

  

With the government on the verge of shutting down, many are wondering how the nation will run if Congress refuses to compromise on the budget. For Bill O’Reilly, the bigger issue appeared why the budget is an issue now anyway, given the typical budget determinations at the end of the year. Asking Rep. Charlie Rangel, O’Reilly got an admission that the budget was a “hot potato” and a lengthy condemnation of Congressmen who think they can “slash and burn” through the national budget.

“I have a series of very, very foolish questions,” O’Reilly began his segment, eliciting a smile from the colorful (today, magenta and yellow) Rep. Rangel. The first question had nothing to do with the current budget issue, and Rep. Rangel made it clear he intended to distinguish it from the current crisis: “you guys [the Democrats] had the majority– why didn’t you do it?” O’Reilly added that, with the majority, the budget could have included many of the programs in contention today, including Planned Parenthood and NPR. 

 “We didn’t get to it,” Rep. Rangel said earnestly. “We didn’t do it. It was a political hot potato, but that has nothing to do with where we are today.” 

Pressed further by O’Reilly, Rep. Rangel added that, not only was the budget a “political hot potato,” but “there was no uproar in November about whether or not we passed the budget” and that the legal budget “was merely a guideline,” anyway.

Rep. Rangel then took a shot at answering why the budget crisis was happening today and, for the most part, appeared to blame inexperienced new legislators. “There are a lot of people down here that really don’t understand the process,” he noted, adding later that “you can’t say it’s either my way or the highway.” O’Reilly agreed that he saw the problem with that perspective, but that there was a lot of waste in government. 

Distinguishing health care from NPR or Planned Parenthood, O’Reilly retorted that, with these programs, “nobody’s life is at stake.” When Rep. Rangel added to the list environmental legislation, O’Reilly hollered “Environmental programs are what? Trying to get climate control money? God controls the climate, come on!”

SOURCE: MEDIATE

~~We should issue a recall for every one of these Democrats that have been derelict in their duties and kick them to the curb with NONE OF THEIR BELOVED LIFETIME BENEFITS!~~

INSTEAD OF "DRAINING THE SWAMP", PELOSI IS ENCOURAGING CORRUPTION WITHIN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

Democrat Lawmakers Try To Restrict Ethics Probes

Last Updated: Fri, 06/04/2010 - 10:12am

After being targeted in a series of corruption probes, black congressional leaders have quietly introduced legislation to essentially gut the independent office they helped create to investigate wrongdoing among lawmakers.

Ohio Democrat Marcia Fudge introduced the measure to drastically weaken the independent Office of Congressional Ethics that recently determined her top aide improperly helped black caucus members take a lavish Caribbean trip funded by corporations. Congress created the citizen-run ethics office in 2008 because the House Ethics Committee is a joke that seldom investigates corruption

But the panel’s inquiries have hit the Congressional Black Caucus hard and nearly half of its members want the vibrant new ethics office to cut back on its aggressive agenda to weed out corruption in the U.S. House of Representatives. Twenty of the 42 members of the all-Democratic caucus support Fudge’s measure, which is also sponsored by Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee of California.

In its short existence, the ethics office has investigated at least eight black caucus members, including the notoriously crooked Charlie Rangel of New York who got booted as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee this year. Besides violating House gift rules, Rangel is under investigation for tax evasion, hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, using his office to raise money from corporations with business before him and illegally accepting multiple rent control apartments in his New York district.

Until the independent ethics office was created, Rangel was practically untouchable because fellow lawmakers on the House Ethics Committee refused to take any action against their beloved colleague. Now his buddies in the Congressional Black Caucus want to severely restrict the powers of the civilian ethics office by making it harder to launch investigations and by keeping probes from the public, among other things

In a statement to the Cleveland newspaper that broke this story, Fudge claims that she’s simply trying to “perfect” the “processes” of the new ethics panel to ensure that its aims are “achieved in a manner consistent with America’s spirit of justice.” The so-called “processes” must be fair to all people involved, Fudge’s statement goes onto say. Sounds like she just doesn’t want any of her pals to get investigated.

Source: Judicial Watch

Here is an additional story on this attempt to re-write the Ethics Rules. If this doesn't scream of an attempt to cover up and protect corruption in the Democratic Party, nothing does.  This is from the same woman that said that they were going to be the most "ethical" Congress and that she was going to "drain the swamps".

The Corrupt Pelosi Congress Looks To Water Down Ethics Rules

June 11, 2010

What do you do when too many of the sleazy members of your caucus are getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar? If you're Nancy Pelosi, you try to weaken the ethics rules to keep so many of them from getting busted,

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has privately indicated she is willing to rewrite some of the ethics rules that House Democrats implemented two years ago.

Pelosi late last month met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) about the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was created to bolster the ethics of the lower chamber.

At the meeting, which was also attended by CBC lawmaker and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), sources said Pelosi heard complaints about the OCE’s new powers and investigation tactics.

....Some CBC members also are questioning why Fudge was allowed to lead the effort after the ethics committee just last year admonished her chief of staff, Dawn Kelly Mobley, for advising members and corporations how to get around new House rules against corporate sponsored-travel while serving as the ethics committee staff director under Tubbs Jones....

...While amending the OCE is being considered, making such changes now would be politically difficult because Republicans are citing Democratic ethics scandals in their effort to retake control of the House.

CBC members and Pelosi discussed a plan to begin a dialogue over the next few months about changing the OCE’s rules following the midterm elections. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), a former prosecutor who was elected in a 2009 special election after the death of then-ethics committee Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), volunteered to lead the effort.

Sources say Fudge was expected to craft proposed changes to the OCE and circulate them among like-minded lawmakers on both sides of aisle. But in a move that has irritated some House Democrats, Fudge quietly introduced the legislation on May 28 with 19 CBC co-sponsors. Days later, government watchdogs and the editorial pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times blasted Fudge’s resolution.

How corrupt does our Congress have to be for the Washington Post and New York Times to come down on Democrats for changing the rules? If anything, they should be toughening up the rules in Congress, doing quicker investigations, and doing more to prevent the sleaze that has become the rule there.

There are a lot of things Americans may disagree about, but cracking down on crooks in Congress shouldn't be one of them.

Source: Right Wing News

Charlie Rangel "Crook In Charge" of House Ways and Means Committee

Charlie Rangel's Official Website
Above, please find a number of articles regarding the most recent proof of Charles Rangels overt criminal act of Tax Evasion.  The funny thing is if you click on the "taxes" link on his website, he has a host of links and topics related to taxes....the links I find most amusing are the ones about the "tax tip of the day" and the transcript from the "Fiscal Responsibility Summit February 24, 2009" (What a Joke...especially when they have proven themselves to be completely Fiscally Irresponsible with the passing of the "Stimulus Bill" that noone read just weeks later that was loaded with Pork that Obama swore he would not support on the campaign trail.)  There is a link on his website so you can read the entire transcript.

I especially love the paragraphs taken from the transcript that are quoted as follows:
THE PRESIDENT: Just a quick thought on taxes, Charlie. My instinct is, is that you're absolutely right that the individual tax rate is always the hardest thing. There's some philosophical differences between the parties on this and I understand that. On the corporate side, I at least have always maintained that if we try to think in the same ways that we thought about it in 1986, and if you closed loopholes, you could actually lower rates.

REPRESENTATIVE RANGEL: No question about it.

THE PRESIDENT: And that's an area where there should be the potential for some bipartisan agreement, because I think, on the books, the rates in the United States are high. In practice, depending on who it is that you can, what kind of accountant you can hire, they're not so high. And that's an area where we can work on. Simplification, same thing. I don't think there's anybody out here who thinks that we are making it customer-friendly for the taxpayer. And that's an area where we can make some great progress.

(Gee...I wonder who Rangel's accountant was...'cause he missed by the latest estimate...at least $1.3 million in outside income/assets-- including up to $1 million for a Harlem building sale -- on financial-disclosure forms he filed between 2002 and 2006, according to newly amended records. The documents also show the embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee -- who is being probed by the House Ethics Committee -- failed to reveal a staggering $3 million in various business transactions over the same period.)

REPRESENTATIVE RANGEL: Well, if you're looking for a fight and a partisan fight, any loophole you close is a tax increase. We have to get over that and make certain that the vast majority of businesses recognize it's in their best interest to do the right thing as relates to those who've taken unfair advantage of the government.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you were here in '86 – it's been done before. We might be able to get it done this time.

REPRESENTATIVE RANGEL: Well, under your leadership, I'm looking forward to it.
(Laughter)

I SAY PROSECUTE THIS LYING SCUM BAG TAX CHEAT, SEND HIM TO FEDERAL PRISON AND THROW AWAY THE KEY!!!

Michele
"I realize that on the sea of life, I can't control the weather, but I can adjust my sails." unknown