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Taxes (420) Globalization-WTO-WB-etc (257) Tax Breaks (45) Tax Dodging Evasion (34) Rangel-Charles (15) Tax Inheritance (11)
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Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) represents one of the poorest congressional districts in New York City. He also chairs the House Ways and Means Committee - the panel that oversees taxes and entitlements. This combination would lead the casual observer to think that Rangel, trying to represent his district, would be aggressively using his chairmanship to redirect President Bush's tax cuts to lower-income people, strengthen and even expand Social Security and renegotiate trade deals to protect American jobs. But, no. That's not what appears to be happening. In the weeks after the congressional election, Rangel has expressed interest in doing the exact opposite: preserving President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy; considering Social Security benefit cuts and retirement age hikes; and supporting lobbyist-written trade pacts that have no wage, environmental or human rights protections in them. He has, in other words, moved to side firmly with the Money Party against the People Party. Think this is hyperbole? Let's let Rangel speak for himself. At the same time leading conservative Republican commentators like Ben Stein are saying it's time to raise taxes on the rich to pay for the war and the deficit, here's Rangel in the New York Observer yesterday, defending tax cuts to millionaires and falsely claiming Democrats never talked about repealing those tax cuts:
Here's Rangel on Social Security in the New York Daily News today, saying he will consider proposals to cut benefits and raise the retirement age:
Trade? Well, it's a bit better, but not much. Here's Businessweek :
All of this, indeed, makes one's head explode, especially since it is coming just weeks after an election mandate that gives all politicians - especially those from the poorest congressional districts - strong backing to do exactly the opposite of what Rangel is moving to do. To be sure, Rangel's proposal on the draft was a courageous one. He's absolutely right that one of the reasons our foreign/military policy is so screwed up right now is because a lack of a draft has institutionalized Chickenhawkism - the phenomenon whereby old cloistered Serious People in Washington and the media's courageous 101st Keyboard Brigade, comfortably removed from ever having to serve in combat, push aggressively to have other people's children go off to die or be maimed in wars based on lies. You'd better believe that if, say, the children/relatives of Bill Kristol or Paul Gigot or Tom Friedman or Joe Lieberman or Hillary Clinton were going to be sent off to Baghdad, we would never have invaded Iraq in the first place. And you can bet that if younger, draftable, prime-fighting-age pundits like John Chait and Peter Beinart thought they themselves were going to have to actually be on the frontlines in Iraq carrying out the hawkish policies they so fervently pushed, Washington publications like the New Republic would be leading the cheering section for anti-war protests on the National Mall. As one columnist at the Detroit Free Press said, Congress and Washington insiders are still willing to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship" whenever our commander-in-chief calls us to arms - "just so long as it doesn't come out of our own hides or those of anyone we love." But beyond the draft issue, Rangel's statements about how he is going to use his chairmanship are quite disturbing. A 60-second look at Rangel's campaign contributions from the industries who are smiling at his statements (financial services, corporate lobbying, etc.) indicates that his behavior undoubtedly has something to do with the recent Time Magazine article headlined "When the Democrats Take Back K Street."
In the years before becoming a full-time writer, Sirota worked as the press secretary for Vermont Independent Congressman Bernard Sanders, the chief spokesman for Democrats on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, the Director of Strategic Communications for the Center for American Progress, a campaign consultant for Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and a media strategist for Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont. He also previously contributed writing to the website of the California Democratic Party. For more on Sirota, see these profiles of him in Newsweek or the Rocky Mountain News. Feel free to email him at lists [at] davidsirota.com Note: this online publication represents Sirota's personal views, and not the official views of the organizations he works with.
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David Sirota is a full-time political journalist, best-selling author and 
