auditcongress.com

This month has seen the public humiliation of a Congressman who has served into his 21st term in the House of Representatives.

The House voted 333-79 to censure Rangel for failing to pay all his taxes, filing misleading financial statements, improperly seeking money from corporate interests for a college center bearing his name and setting up a campaign office in a subsidized, New York apartment designated for residential use.

Rangel is a Korean War Veteran.  Sixty years ago his unit was trapped behind enemy lines as the Chinese army advanced.  Although only a private, and wounded, he lead 40 men back to safety, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor.

Yet all these years later, there seems to be an inability to operate under explicit rules of conduct.  One person said that Rangel is a very busy man, and that failure to follow rules might be expected from a very busy man.  It appears that ambition is considered an excuse for prudence by some.  When life becomes so disordered that paying taxes can't be done correctly, and shortcuts that bypass ethics seem the best course, then perhaps it is time to re-examine the lifestyle.  Living within one's means is not simply a matter of controlling spending, but extends to behavior of all kinds.

And in a twist of irony, this from Rangel's own website:

In 2007, Congressman Charles Rangel became the first African American to chair the oldest and argualbly the most powerful Commitee in the House of Representatives, the Ways and Means Commitee. As a senior member of the Commitee and as the vice chairman for the Joint Committee on Taxation, he continues to wield influence over tax revenue legislation and oversight authority over the major issues of the day – economic policy, international trade, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and health care.

The Rangel story is a tragedy of sloppy behavior and a cautionary tale that "success" does not guarantee continued propriety.  Simply put, this mess might have been prevented had his tax returns been reviewed by the IRS.  The issue with his thousands of dollars of unreported or misreported income would have been addressed earlier, perhaps providing an encouragement to be more diligent about his other dealings. 

Now we will see how far privilege goes in reducing the sting of criminal penalties that would apply to any ordinary citizen who committed the same acts as Rangel.  Will there be justice?

Can compliance with the tax code encourage better behavior overall?  Perhaps it does not, as it is unclear that being held to one standard is an encouragement for any other proper action.  But perhaps it may.  Compulsory tax compliance may bring more consciousness to personal financial dealings and more awareness to the consequences of sloppy personal actions.  Some have said that Rangel's behavior does not sink to the level of "corruption" as they say there was no personal gain. How quickly we dispense decorum for politics.  Corruption is not just from "personal gain" but also comes from the corrosive effect of our leaders shattering the rules that society sets for proper conduct.

Pete Langlois