The Rule Of Law

Floor Speech

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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