[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26087]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE RULE OF LAW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, this past week, I discovered I made an error 
on my House financial disclosure forms for 2006 and 2007. Let's get 
this clear.
  I properly reported my stock dividends, stock sales and capital gains 
on my Federal tax returns, and I paid all the taxes in full. I properly 
reported dividend income on my stocks and the sale amount of my stocks 
on my House financial disclosure forms in both of those years. My error 
was in leaving the amount of the capital gains from the sales off the 
forms. I have amended both of these forms to reflect these amounts, and 
this has not changed my net worth one penny.
  There was a good editorial on this in the Roll Call this week, and I 
urge my fellow Members to read that editorial.
  To make the point on this issue of my amending my House disclosures, 
today, I have posted online my Federal tax returns for 2006 and 2007 so 
there can be no question about whether or not I paid my taxes as they 
were due. I do this because I intend to continue my discussion of the 
rule of law, and I think it's important that I do that.
  Yet I'm not the first one to take this step. In one of the same years 
that we're discussing here, then-Senator Barack Obama made the 
identical, same error that I made on my House disclosure forms. When he 
discovered that he made that omission, the same as the omissions I 
made, he did the same thing as I am doing. He corrected his return, and 
posted his Federal tax return online. I have followed the lead of the 
President of the United States in correcting this issue.
  It's now time for House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles 
Rangel and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to pony up. Could it be that 
the only reason these two hold back is that, maybe, they have something 
to hide?
  Chairman Rangel failed to pay income taxes for over a decade on his 
Caribbean resort property while Secretary Geithner evaded withholding 
taxes on income from the International Monetary Fund over multiple 
years. Neither of these gentlemen has paid any penalty on their 
violations as would a normal American taxpayer.
  The American public needs to know that Chairman Rangel has not again 
failed to report or pay Federal taxes while still not paying penalties 
and interest on his previous evasions, all while overseeing the IRS on 
behalf of the House of Representatives.
  They also need to know that the Secretary of the Treasury is not 
using his high station to avoid complying with the same IRS rules as 
his fellow citizens. While Secretary Geithner is asking his fellow 
taxpayers to pay a 20 to 50 percent penalty for failing to report and 
to pay income taxes on foreign deposits, he has failed to pay a nickel 
on multiple years of evading Federal taxes on income from the 
International Monetary Fund.
  My opinion is that anyone who fails to disclose income or to pay 
taxes should pay a reasonable penalty with interest. If not, our Tax 
Code becomes unenforceable.
  I also believe there is a higher law here, which is the equal 
protection clause under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the 
United States. Secretary Geithner cannot and should not legally charge 
his fellow Americans penalties when he has paid none himself. That 
would seem to be a violation of the Constitution.
  Next week, I will introduce legislation dealing with the Secretary of 
the Treasury's failure to abide by the same laws as the rest of the 
country. If anyone thinks that I will slack off defending the rule of 
law because of a House disclosure error, they obviously have got 
another thing coming.

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