Free Republic

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel defended himself on the House floor Tuesday, daring members to expel him. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) maintained that he did not intentionally break any House rules and complained about the investigation and trial process conducted by the House ethics panel, which has brought 13 charges against him. "It may be stupid, it may be negligent, but it's not corrupt," Rangel said in a meandering speech that lasted more than 30 minutes. In professing his innocence of all charges, Rangel also invited the ethics panel and House to take its shot at expelling him. "I'm not asking...

Geithner: The Entitlements Shortfall Is Coming Sooner Than You Think Gus Lubin Aug. 5, 2010, 11:54 AM . Geithner's big report on entitlement programs makes it official. A long-term deficit arrives for Social Security in 2016 and for Medicare in 2017. The new timeline is worse than last year's report, which predicted shortfalls in 2017 and 2019. The report is light on details of how they would cover the shortfall. But as Timmy made clear early this week, new taxes are coming: The drawdown of Social Security and HI Trust Fund reserves and the general revenue transfers into SMI will...

THE devastation wrought by the great recession is still all too real for millions of Americans who lost their jobs, businesses and homes. The scars of the crisis are fresh, and every new economic report brings another wave of anxiety. That uncertainty is understandable, but a review of recent data on the American economy shows that we are on a path back to growth. The recession that began in late 2007 was extraordinarily severe, but the actions we took at its height to stimulate the economy helped arrest the freefall, preventing an even deeper collapse and putting the economy on...

... Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, ranking member on the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, said Rangel was given an opportunity to settle charges during the investigative process, and that time has passed. "Let me be clear that Mr. Rangel under these rules was given opportunities to negotiate a settlement during the investigation. Let me be clear that I did not participate in any attempts to cut a back room deal behind closed doors," McCaul said at the start of a hearing on possible corruption charges. McCaul said it's not lost on any member of the panel that the...

Per Foxnews, a local affiliate is reporting Rangel has struck a deal. FNC is working to confirm...

A Department of Revenue spokesman said Kerry would be liable for Massachusetts taxes if he berthed the boat in the Bay State within six months of its purchase. If the Isabel were brought to Massachusetts after that period, the state would have to decide if it wanted to pursue the taxes. Massachusetts, like most other states, has been grappling with plunging tax revenues. Last year's budget deficit was $600 million, and officials are bracing for a $1 billion deficit this year. The Republicans of Massachusetts spoke out meekly to criticize Kerry's cost saving measures. "While we can fault the...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the economy was experiencing "very encouraging" recovery, but cautioned that a transition from government intervention to private investment needed to be made to keep recovery going. Geithner, appearing Sunday morning on both ABC's "This Week" and NBC's "Meet the Press," struck a mostly optimistic tone even when asked about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's remarks last week that the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain." On NBC, Geithner said he didn't find anything unusual about cautious growth given the severity of the recession. "Americans are still living with some caution," he said, adding that healing was occurring...

Treasury Secretary Says Letting Bush Tax Cuts for Rich Expire Will Not Slow Economic Growth July 24, 2010 6:00 PM In an exclusive interview on ABC News’ "This Week" to air Sunday, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said the White House would push to let the Bush tax cuts expire for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000, but keep them for middle and lower income Americans. “We think that's the responsible thing to do,” Geithner said, “because we need to make sure we can show the world that they're willing as a...

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel said Saturday it would be unpatriotic to resign rather than fight his pending ethics charges - despite a call that he do so to save the Democratic party. "Well, it wouldn't be the American thing to do \[to step aside\]. I think I owe it to the process to find out first what the investigative committee finds out," Rangel told reporters after speaking at Harlem Hospital. The 80-year-old legendary lawmaker is accused of failing to pay taxes, abusing rent-control rules and trading donations for favors. A public federal trial on Thursday will determine his fate after...

The IRS files a lien against Abel Maldonado's Santa Barbara County farm. It is the ninth time since 1992 that tax collectors have filed liens against him to compel payments totaling more than $240,000. Federal officials filed the lien April 13, two weeks before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger swore in Maldonado as the state's second highest-ranking public official. The single-page IRS lien indicates that Maldonado owes the government $111,146 for underpaying a category of taxes that include Social Security, Medicare and federal withholding contributions for employees on his 6,000-acre farm in Santa Barbara County.

sury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday said a Republican repeal of the Obama administration’s financial overhaul law is “inconceivable.” 
House and Senate Republicans over the past week have argued for a repeal of the financial bill, arguing that it represents government overreach and threatens the growth of the U.S. economy. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) was the first to call for a repeal of the regulatory changes. Republican senators, including Richard Shelby (Ala.) and John Thune (S.D.), have also called for a repeal of part or all of the law. “The reason why this bill became law was because...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared recently at the Brookings Institution, "The rich are not paying their fair share." She then went on to praise Brazil as the tax holy grail for the rest of the world: "Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what—it's growing like crazy." At first blush those kinds of words must make her neosocialist boss, President Obama, jump for joy. But is the secretary of state actually a supply-side subversive? Take a look at Brazil's income tax rates—they are lower than ours. The highest rate is a mere 27.5%, far...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that he wanted to see Europe "follow through" with its rescue package aimed at stemming the spread of the Greek debt crisis. Geithner, speaking to CNBC Television in an interview, said: "Absolutely Europe has the capacity to manage through this. We just want to see them follow through."

May 3 (Bloomberg Government) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 12 other business groups asked members of President Obama’s cabinet including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for more leeway in implementing the health-care overhaul. The groups said they’re being forced to make contract, employee-benefit and other decisions without guidance on how to comply with provisions that take effect in September. The letter dated April 30 was sent to Geithner, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

What's Hidden in the Dodd BillApril 30, 2010 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Some interesting things are being gleaned from the financial regulatory reform bill. The Washington Times has an editorial today, and I'm waiting for the liberals in this country, when they find out about this, to start screaming fascist like they did at Bush over the Patriot Act. Remember, they hated Bush because they were going to spy on them, they're gonna monitor their phone calls out there. Why, why, that's a civil rights violation, human rights violation, fascism, they were just in sheer panic. "The next time you make...

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in an interview Sunday, when asked about the Tea Party protests, that the Obama administration is paying more attention to the deficit than the Bush administration did. Tea Partiers, the Obama administration is on your side. That's been the message from the White House over the past few days, as top officials dispute charges that Washington is on a spending binge and encourage conservative protesters to count their blessings. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, when asked about the Tea Party protests, said in an interview Sunday that the Obama administration is paying more attention to deficit...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday it is a "critical moment" for a financial regulatory overhaul and said he believed a legislative agreement was close. Geithner, briefing reporters at the White House after President Barack Obama met congressional leaders, also said the U.S. economy was "recovering faster than expected" and emerging from recession faster than other global economies. Geithner spoke mostly about the financial regulation debate. "I think it's a critical moment for reform, a promising moment, a lot of hard work, a lot of progress," he said. Rejecting a key Republican argument, Geithner said Obama...

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service could tap individual tax returns to collect fines against people who fail to buy health insurance as required under recently enacted healthcare legislation, the U.S. tax commissioner said on Monday. Most individuals are required to get health insurance under the new law, or face penalties that would be phased in over time. By 2016, people without coverage could see fines of 2 percent of their income. Subsidies would help poorer people buy coverage, and states would set up exchanges to allow individuals and small groups shop for insurance. People who do...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday it's "deeply unfair" that some financial institutions that got taxpayer-paid bailouts are emerging in better shape from the recession than millions of ordinary Americans. He acknowledged public outrage over that and said people watched with disdain as Washington protected high-risk banks and investment houses, even as the national unemployment rate was soaring to double-digit levels for the first time in a generation. But in a nationally broadcast interview, Geithner also argued that President Obama had no choice when confronted with a financial crisis. "As the president has said, we had to do some very...

Stealing a page from Bud Light's radio advertising, right-leaning PJTV.com has created a "Real Members of Congress" spoof targeting Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., for his tax shenanigans. The title: "Mr. Tax-Law-Writing-Tax-Evader."