WASHINGTON: Charlie Rangel stepped down as House Ways and Means chairman yesterday amid a House ethics investigation. The ethics committee last week finally admonished him for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

News first broke of impropriety in June of 2008. While rent controlled apartments in New York City are increasingly hard to find, the New York Times reported that Rangel had four of them, including three adjacent units overlooking Upper Manhattan. The next month Rangel officially requested an ethics probe to clear his name over the allegations. Two months later he acknowledged that he owed taxes for rental income he did not report. Finally that month on September 25, 2008 the House ethics panel convened an investigative subcommittee. Meanwhile many other allegations came to light.

Nearly two years later the investigation has censured Rangel on the least of the charges, forcing him to step down. This amounts to a slap on the wrist which will move Rangel out of the spotlight to enable Democrats focus their attention on ramming healthcare reform down the throats of the American people. Left unadressed are several issues:

• Failing to report hundreds of thousands in assets, including mutual funds and stock
• Failing to report ownership in an overseas luxury residence
• Using his official position to raise money for a school named after him
• Tax evasion on unreported assets and other ethics violations

This month millions of Americans will grapple with the complex US tax code as they prepare their tax returns for the upcoming deadline. Many struggle to pay their tax liability to fund this out of control government. Charlie Rangel as head of the Ways and Means Committee was in charge of writing this tax code. No one would know better than Rangel the illegality of hiding nearly one million in unreported assets. Yet he holds himself above the law, depending on his cronies who are still covering for him.

This is all too often the case with the ruling class. They pass laws that others must obey, taxing the serfs who serve to finance their power and decadence. Meanwhile they exempt themselves from the very laws they impose upon others.

Pelosi promised to “drain the swamp” when she took control in 2006. Instead she has pumped raw sewage into the bayou and has spritzed her private cologne to cover the stench.