Did you realize that Congressman Charles Rangel fully intends to enact a massive tax increase this year?

Oh, you thought that the Harlem representative only wants to fix and/or eliminate the dreadful Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

If you know otherwise, it’s probably only because you read Robert Novak’s September 17 syndicated column, which is the only meaningful coverage of Mr. Rangel’s plans I have seen (HT to a NewsBusters e-mailer). In it, Novak revealed what Old Media either doesn’t care to cover, or appears to not want you to know (bolds are mine):

Rangel Making History

Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, (intends) to turn the need for ….. a temporary tax fix (to AMT) into the most radical left-wing tax revision in half a century.

Unlike the Republican Ways and Means chairmen who preceded him over the previous 12 years, Rangel has a comprehensive tax strategy and a tactical game plan. His wedge is the AMT, the latest and most egregious lunacy imposed on the American taxpayer. Its present form would raise $1.4 trillion in revenue over the next decade, through taxation of 23 million additional families this year alone. Congress regularly prevents this calamity by enacting a patch that limits AMT coverage to 4 million upper-bracket families.

But Rangel has refused to pass a patch, and he has not hidden what he has in mind.

….. Rangel called in reporters (on September 7, the day after Sept. 6 hearings — Ed.) to tell them an AMT “one-year patch is not on the radar screen.” Advocating total repeal of AMT, he promised to pay for $800 billion in lost revenue over the next 10 years with “the mother of all reforms.”

….. Rangel talked about closing “loopholes,” but the real money would come from drastically increasing the number of Americans paying the top 36 percent income tax rate and applying that rate to present capital gains taxpayers. Rangel also is considering the old millionaires’ tax, but applying it to much more than millionaires: a surtax on household incomes over $200,000. All this would reverse the tide of across-the-board tax reduction begun by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and renewed by Ronald Reagan.

While Rangel appears to be preparing for big-time tax increases in 2009, he is giving it a try for 2007.

A Google News search on “Rangel Alternative Minimum Tax” (with only the last three words in quotes) shows little coverage, and almost no indication that anyone recognizes the existence of the tax hikes Congressman Rangel envisions. The same search at the New York Times shows no coverage since July 30. The fact that the net tax increase will theoretically be zero is really no excuse, as the press has obsessively covered the “who gains, who loses” angle in previous tax legislation.

So, why is a possible trillion-dollar tax increase on a large percentage of taxpayers, while granting relief to a relative few, not news?

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UPDATE: A NewsBusters commenter pointed to this. If this doesn’t make your blood boil, you might be dead –

Can’t Take My Eyes Off of Me
July 20, 2007

New York’s Charlie Rangel provoked smirks this week when news emerged that the Harlem Congressman was humbly seeking a $2 million earmark to create a “Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service” at the City College of New York.

Titters turned to dropped jaws yesterday when a 20-page glossy brochure popped up, describing the yet-to-be-created center. That flyer, which asks for donations, explains that organizers need a mere $4.7 million to restore a “magnificent Harlem limestone townhouse” that will house the center, plus another $2.3 million endowment for its operating costs.

I can see why Puddle Pirate said what he said in his comment below.

It’s here. All $2,555,110 of it.

Suitably Flip has much more (HT Ace).

Flip’s bottom line:

Where does all this leave us? There are still a lot of details yet to emerge that will undoubtedly shed additional light on these linakges, but it seems quite clear that Norman Hsu and Fred Hochberg are and have for some time been closely associated. It’s abundantly clear that the Clintons and Hochberg are quite intimately associated. This seems to draw Hsu and Clinton uncomfortably close to one another.

And while the complexity and duplicity that saturates this whole affair may offer Hillary a bit of confusion cover that she can use to equivocate when pressed, it’s now becoming increasingly far-fetched that Hillary took Norman Hsu for no more than a kindly, deep-pocketed fan.

Let’s just say it requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

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Previous Posts:
- July 1 — Complaints about GOP Pollster’s Presence at Dem Debate Ignore CNN Pollster’s Clinton Connections
- May 26 — NY Times Accidentally Does Opposition Research on the Clintons, Attempts Containment

From Carnegie Mellon University via the Wall Street Journal (HT Michelle Malkin):

September 20, 2007

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor, was about to give a lecture Tuesday afternoon, but before he said a word, he received a standing ovation from 400 students and colleagues.

He motioned to them to sit down. “Make me earn it,” he said.

They had come to see him give what was billed as his “last lecture.” This is a common title for talks on college campuses today. Schools such as Stanford and the University of Alabama have mounted “Last Lecture Series,” in which top professors are asked to think deeply about what matters to them and to give hypothetical final talks. For the audience, the question to be mulled is this: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?

It can be an intriguing hour, watching healthy professors consider their demise and ruminate over subjects dear to them. At the University of Northern Iowa, instructor Penny O’Connor recently titled her lecture “Get Over Yourself.” At Cornell, Ellis Hanson, who teaches a course titled “Desire,” spoke about sex and technology.

At Carnegie Mellon, however, Dr. Pausch’s speech was more than just an academic exercise. The 46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. His lecture, using images on a giant screen, turned out to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.

He began by showing his CT scans, revealing 10 tumors on his liver. But after that, he talked about living. If anyone expected him to be morose, he said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you.” He then dropped to the floor and did one-handed pushups.

Go here for the rest of the story. If the WSJ subscriber wall is on, or comes back on at a later date, go to this ABC story.