Charlie Rangel on taxes

If you don't him, Charles Rangel, the current Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is wild.

He is a flamboyant, in the New Yorker sense, Democrat who if you were to see him on TV sounds more like a Rev. Jackson or Al Sharpton (these guys are great leaders in their own right, but not the people that I want in charge of the tax code, SS, medicare, medicaid.......etc), than a well versed and knowlegdable Chairman of one of the most powerful Committees on Capitol Hill.

In person, Mr. Rangel is thoughtful and fair.

That brings me to a Wall Street Journal yesterday: Rangel Expresses Openness To Corporate-Tax Rate Cut

There are two possible motives to this and I believe that it is the better of the two.

Motive #1: With the present forecasts of the American economy- Loss of our AAA rating, possible de-pegging of currencies, low dollar....etc. New Yorkers, no matter their party are starting to see an uprising from Wall Street. So, we now have Sen. Chuck Shumer, who is now for some tax cuts just to make sure American companies, Wall Street still has an edge in the world market. Therefore, is this what Charles Rangel is doing?

Motive #2: After reading the Treasury paper that was released in July he thought the time was right. The paper suggested that by removing certain tax preferrances, such as a deduction for firms that keep production in the U.S. , the top corporate rate could be dropped from 35% to 27%.

The Answer: Timing = Motive #2! Mr. Rangel is politically savvy enough to know what he is doing and when he is working on something. If he wanted to be anti Bush on this he could have been, but he thinks it is a good idea and he is being fair about it.

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