Congressman Comes Clean - Admits Memory Loss!

So look at who's the latest unscrupulous political hack to be caught with his hand deep in our cookie jar! That paragon of honesty (oops ... it was just a mistake on my taxes), Democrat Charles Rangle of New York! Now, I know that you are shocked and probably convinced that I am just attacking yet another liberal politician (Charlie isn't a "Progressive", he's just looking out for Charlie), but really I'm just commenting on the irony that the Chairman of the tax writing House Ways and Means Committee (they find the ways to steal your money through excess taxation and they have the means to do it) was allegedly cheating on his taxes. Yes, allegedly ... it's still America no matter what Obama and company want to do to change that.

This guy is accused of hiding (we say hiding, he says forgetting ... semantics only) $1.3 million in income and $3 million in business transactions. I know this sounds like it could be criminal, but hey, let he who is without guilt cast the first stone. I mean, a couple of years back, I forgot to report $27 in garage sale income so really, Charlie and I are in the same boat. We both suffer from lapsed memory ... it's just that his lapse is somewhat larger than mine.

Fortunately for guys like Charlie and me, there is the "amended tax return". This means that when we make a mistake, we can just go back and officially say "hey, I forgot" and all is forgiven, especially if you're the Chairman of a powerful political committee. The good news is that Congress polices it's own and deals with them harshly for indiscretion. The House makes it's members fill out disclosure forms that allow a range of values on reported outside income, so we can't be exactly sure of how big Charlie's memory lapse was, but we do have it zeroed in at somewhere between $118,000 and $1.04 million. In an effort at full disclosure to my readers, last year my income was between $48,000 and $3.8 million. Any questions?

The bigger issue is that we should all be worried about Charlie's health. Why? Well because his memory lapse wasn't for just one year. He's had huge memory losses for at least 7 years and possibly longer. This is yet another reason we need socialized medicine. If we had it, this serious condition may have been discovered and treated sooner. And, don't forget, a lot of this is Bush's fault!

If you want a good laugh (or a good cry, depending on your point of view), read the following links. You'll get a great view of what hypocrisy and arrogance combined look like.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08282009/news/regionalnews/oops__charlie_forgot_this_1m_house_186849.htm

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574376720192072820.html

Stuff like this is just so egregious, so blatant and so infuriating, you just couldn't make it up if you tried!