Tea Party Patriots Ordinary citizens reclaiming America's founding principles.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Mayo Clinic Cuts off Medicare Patients

How's this for irony.... the model given for efficient health care -- The Mayo Clinic -- is no longer taking Medicare patients. With the current deforming of health care being pushed by our "head in the bed pan" politicians, you can be sure there will be more of the same to come....

H/T Ashland Tea Party/9.12 Group --
(Bloomberg) -- The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Obama in June cited the nonprofit Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and the
Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for offering “the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm.” Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’” said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. “If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it.” (More...)

And I believe they want to cut the overall funding of Medicare AND decrease the amount of the payments to doctors.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

U.S. Govt. now owns Controlling Stake in GMAC with $3.8 Billion Bail Out

The U.S. Government now owns a controlling stake in GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors. Refusing to call it a bailout, the administration is calling it an injection of funds....
The US Treasury announced Wednesday a 3.8 billion dollar fresh capital injection into ailing GMAC, the former finance arm of General Motors that became a bank to access federal rescue aid.

It had previously injected 12.5 billion dollars in capital into GMAC.

The 3.8 billion dollar capital injection will be in the form of 2.54 billion dollars of trust preferred securities and 1.25 billion dollars of mandatory convertible preferred (MCP) stock.

Treasury said it would also receive warrants for both types of stocks, totaling 190 million dollars, which it would exercise immediately at the close of the transaction.

The Treasury, headed by Secretary Timothy Geithner, said it would convert 3.0 billion of its existing MCP, which was invested in May 2009, into common equity "to boost the quality of the capital supporting GMAC."

That move will raise Treasury?s equity stake in GMAC to 56 percent from 35 percent. (Google News)

Why does it always seems like "we" are the ones being injected?!?

Volunteer for the Cuyahoga County Charter Transition Advisory Group

Cuyahoga County is looking for people to join committees to help with the Issue 6 Reform transition. These committees will serve under and at the pleasure of the three-member Transition Advisory Group that has been formed as required by the charter.

The County Commissioners have already appointed County Administrator Jim McCafferty, Human Resources Director Joe Nanni and Justice Affairs Director Gary Holland to head this group.

The transition group will include at least eight committees, covering finance and administration; human services; human resources; justice services; infrastructure and supportive services; economic development and planning; county council planning; and boards and commissions. Specific meetings will address specific issues, such as a draft of a code of ethics for county employees, Rawson said. (Plain Dealer)

If we want to help improve this region and be part of forming the future of Cuyahoga County, it is of the utmost importance that the Cleveland Tea Party Patriots and local 9.12 Groups members get involved in this process and volunteer to serve on some of these boards.

You can click here and go to the County Charter Transition Advisory Group website and sign up for one of the committees being seated.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year

The Cleveland Tea Party Patriots wish you and your loved ones a healthy and prosperous --

What we has been accomplished in a short 8 months is nothing short of a miracle!

Could you have imagined where our country would be today had it not been for your hard efforts and dedication? None of this could have been done without YOU -- the heart & soul of the Tea Party Patriots!

We look forward to working with you as we roll out the new year and start cleaning up the crap in D.C. and the rest of the political cesspools in this country.






Thursday, December 31, 2009

Town Hall's Top 10 Conservatives of 2009

From Town Hall Columnist John Hawkins --

The Honorary Mentions

10) Andrew Breitbart: Andrew Breitbart has really come into his own this year. He now has two huge successful blogs: Big Hollywood and Big Government -- with Big Journalism soon to come. Breitbart was also instrumental in getting James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles' outstanding reporting about ACORN into the hands of the public. Conservatives could use another dozen media entrepreneurs like Breitbart.

9) Marco Rubio: When the establishment Republicans at the NRSC coronated Charlie Crist with their endorsement, many people figured it was over for
Marco Rubio. Crist was a popular, ideologically ambiguous Florida governor with a penchant for fundraising while Rubio was merely a young, charismatic conservative leader who was reaching out to conservatives.

A few months later, after some aggressive campaigning by Rubio, he's done the cover of National Review, he's headlining CPAC, and he's already tied with Crist. This race in Florida isn't just about Rubio and Crist; it's about who runs things in the Republican Party: the conservative base or the sort of elitists in charge at the NRSC. Rubio's waving the banner for the base and he's going to win.

8) Rush Limbaugh: It goes without saying that Limbaugh makes a big splash on the radio, but has a radio host ever been such a pivotal player that a presidential administration
treated him as a huge threat? Perhaps the fact that Rush's ratings went up while the Obama Administration targeted him might explain why fighting with radio hosts is usually something Presidents avoid. If only Obama had as much enthusiasm for going after terrorists as he did for going after conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, we'd have the war on terror won in no time.

7) Jim DeMint: Nobody in the Senate has been more true to conservative ideals or fought harder against the Obama Administration than
Jim DeMint. He has no official
leadership post and lot of establishment Republicans curse his name, but in the fight against socialism, DeMint is the guy who always seems to be on the front lines trying to encourage other Republicans to follow him into battle.

6) Carrie Prejean: Carrie Prejean never sought to involve herself in the battle over gay marriage when she entered the Miss USA contest, but after being asked a question about the subject and politely stating her opposition, she was thrust into the spotlight. Many people might think a bikini model with
racy pics and "sex tapes" in her past might make a poor spokesman on an issue -- and they may be right.

However, the extraordinarily vile, over-the-top and perverted attacks on Carrie Prejean by gay marriage supporters fully revealed an extremely ugly side of a movement that too many Americans falsely view as victims. Prejean's respectful courage under fire in difficult circumstances helped make that possible and she deserves to be honored for standing up, not kicked under a bus.

The Runners-Up

5) Dick Cheney: There was a time when former Presidents and Vice-Presidents stayed away from the political arena out of respect for the men who followed them in office, but after years of meddling by Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney has decided that if the rules don't apply for Democrats, they shouldn't apply for Republicans either.

Cheney has not only done an excellent job of defending the Bush Administration's foreign policy, he has also been an extremely effective critic of the Obama Administration's poorly thought-out national security decisions. Americans should be grateful that there's still a Vice-President who's serious about
defending America from attack. Too bad he's not the VP who's in the White House.

4) Sarah Palin: Quitting her job as governor of Alaska may turn out to be a mistake, but if it is, at least Sarah Palin is making the most of it. Her book tour was a tremendous success, not only in the book-selling department, but in repairing her image. Moreover, she was one of the most effective Republican voices in the health care debate and in an innovative move, she did it from her
Facebook page. If Sarah Palin can be as successful in 2010 and 2011 as she was in 2009, we may be calling her President Palin in 2012.

3) Glenn Beck: Beck's ratings exploded in 2009 -- and no wonder. He has a unique charismatic style and he has become one of the Obama Administration's most fierce and effective critics. He created his own 9/12 movement, did a comedy tour, blistered ACORN, and knocked off Obama czar
Van Jones. It has been a big year for Beck and hopefully, there will be more big years to come.

2) James O'Keefe & Hannah Giles: Who would have ever thought that a couple of kids in ridiculous outfits would end up doing the best reporting since Woodward and Bernstein? O'Keefe and Giles posed as a prostitute and pimp trying to set up a child prostitution racket, and they managed to get ACORN employees in at least 6 cities to help them out on hidden camera. The resulting scandal badly tarnished ACORN's reputation, cost it a considerable amount of money, and made it so radioactive as an organization that it made it into a
South Park episode. If O'Keefe & Giles were liberals who had targeted conservatives this successfully, they'd be getting fawning mentions in the media, Pulitzers, and their own hokey, romanticized made-for-TV movie -- and they'd deserve it all.

The Winner

1) The Tea Party Movement: Is it fair to choose a growing, thriving, leaderless mass of American citizens who've sprang up across the country as the conservative of the year? I think so. In the past, those of us on the Right have mostly left the political rallies to liberals. However, the radical and dangerous socialistic impulses of the Obama Administration have panicked the American people and caused conservatives across the country to come together in the streets to say "enough is enough."

The Tea Party movement has been mocked, slandered, and smeared at every opportunity for a simple reason -- it's getting members of the "silent majority" who make the country work, out of their armchairs and into the streets where they're being inspired to go to Townhall meetings, call their congressmen, and vote. Today's political landscape will probably look very different after November of 2010 and the Tea Party movement will deserve a lot of the credit.

If you want to join the heart & soul of the Tea Party movement & largest grassroots movement in the history of the United States -- click here and become a Tea Party Patriot!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Top 10 Most Outrageous Use of Stimulus Funds

And they wonder why the Tea Party's started!

From Verum Serum -- (Emphasis Added)

Putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done“…

10. A $427,824 research grant to design better video games for senior citizens based on their unique “game-play needs”.

9. Funding of a Dartmouth College study involving “sexual arousal in anesthetized female rats” ($9,870).

8. Funding of a $168,300 SBA loan to the Escape Massage parlor in Midlothian, VA.

7. Funding a $447,492 Univ. of North Carolina study on the development and use of “African American English” amongst 70 adolescents.

6. $10,346 for a heating and cooling company to provide “escort services” for other companies performing a laser scanning survey at a courthouse in Honolulu, Hawaii.

5. An academic study comparing outcomes of the concurrent and separate use of malt liquor and marijuana ($389,357).

4. A $225,000 study at Ohio State University on the relative and combined impacts of air pollution and a high fat diet on obesity development.

3. A $712,883 research grant to develop “machine-generated humor“. Project will design artificially intelligent “comedic performance agents”, and will “deploy them both on and off-line for the enjoyment and illumination of everyday citizens”.

2. A $54 million project to relocate one bridge for the Napa Valley Wine Train (!) in order to mitigate the possible impact of a “100 year storm event”.

And the number one most ridiculous use of stimulus funds…

1. $9.3 million (!) to fund the design and development of a “coordinated colony of robotic bees“!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009

From Kimberly S Speer
On Facebook

Washington, DC

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 “Ten Most Corrupt” list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against Dodd for undervaluing a property he owns in Ireland on his Senate Financial Disclosure forms. Judicial Watch's complaint forced Dodd to amend the forms. However, press reports suggest the property to this day remains undervalued. Judicial Watch also alleges in the complaint that Dodd obtained a sweetheart deal for the property in exchange for his assistance in obtaining a presidential pardon (during the Clinton administration) and other favors for a long-time friend and business associate. The false financial disclosure forms were part of the cover-up. Dodd remains the head the Senate Banking Committee.

2. Senator John Ensign (R-NV): A number of scandals popped up in 2009 involving public officials who conducted illicit affairs, and then attempted to cover them up with hush payments and favors, an obvious abuse of power. The year’s worst offender might just be Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign. Ensign admitted in June to an extramarital affair with the wife of one of his staff members, who then allegedly obtained special favors from the Nevada Republican in exchange for his silence. According to The New York Times: “The Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are expected to conduct preliminary inquiries into whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as part of an effort to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide…” The former staffer, Douglas Hampton, began to lobby Mr. Ensign's office immediately upon leaving his congressional job, despite the fact that he was subject to a one-year lobbying ban. Ensign seems to have ignored the law and allowed Hampton lobbying access to his office as a payment for his silence about the affair. (These are potentially criminal offenses.) It looks as if Ensign misused his public office (and taxpayer resources) to cover up his sexual shenanigans.

3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): Judicial Watch is investigating a $12 million TARP cash injection provided to the Boston-based OneUnited Bank at the urging of Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank. As reported in the January 22, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department indicated it would only provide funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending. Not only was OneUnited Bank in massive financial turmoil, but it was also "under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives' use." Rep. Frank admitted he spoke to a "federal regulator," and Treasury granted the funds. (The bank continues to flounder despite Frank’s intervention for federal dollars.) Moreover, Judicial Watch uncovered documents in 2009 that showed that members of Congress for years were aware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were playing fast and loose with accounting issues, risk assessment issues and executive compensation issues, even as liberals led by Rep. Frank continued to block attempts to rein in the two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). For example, during a hearing on September 10, 2003, before the House Committee on Financial Services considering a Bush administration proposal to further regulate Fannie and Freddie, Rep. Frank stated: "I want to begin by saying that I am glad to consider the legislation, but I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two Government Sponsored Enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury." Frank received $42,350 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 1989 and 2008. Frank also engaged in a relationship with a Fannie Mae Executive while serving on the House Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

4. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner: In 2009, Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted that he failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes from 2001-2004 on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization with 185 member countries that oversees the global financial system. (Did we mention Geithner now runs the IRS?) It wasn’t until President Obama tapped Geithner to head the Treasury Department that he paid back most of the money, although the IRS kindly waived the hefty penalties. In March 2009, Geithner also came under fire for his handling of the AIG bonus scandal, where the company used $165 million of its bailout funds to pay out executive bonuses, resulting in a massive public backlash. Of course as head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner helped craft the AIG deal in September 2008. However, when the AIG scandal broke, Geithner claimed he knew nothing of the bonuses until March 10, 2009. The timing is important. According to CNN: “Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG's impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28. That is ten days before Treasury staffers say they first learned ‘full details’ of the bonus plan, and three days before the [Obama] Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG.” Throw in another embarrassing disclosure in 2009 that Geithner employed “household help” ineligible to work in the United States, and it becomes clear why the Treasury Secretary has earned a spot on the “Ten Most Corrupt Politicians in Washington” list.

5. Attorney General Eric Holder: Tim Geithner can be sure he won’t be hounded about his tax-dodging by his colleague Eric Holder, US Attorney General. Judicial Watch strongly opposed Holder because of his terrible ethics record, which includes: obstructing an FBI investigation of the theft of nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory; rejecting multiple requests for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising abuses by then-Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House; undermining the criminal investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr in the midst of the Lewinsky investigation; and planning the violent raid to seize then-six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint in order to return him to Castro’s Cuba. Moreover, there is his soft record on terrorism. Holder bypassed Justice Department procedures to push through Bill Clinton’s scandalous presidential pardons and commutations, including for 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican terrorist group that orchestrated approximately 120 bombings in the United States, killing at least six people and permanently maiming dozens of others, including law enforcement officers. His record in the current administration is no better. As he did during the Clinton administration, Holder continues to ignore serious incidents of corruption that could impact his political bosses at the White House. For example, Holder has refused to investigate charges that the Obama political machine traded VIP access to the White House in exchange for campaign contributions – a scheme eerily similar to one hatched by Holder’s former boss, Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The Holder Justice Department also came under fire for dropping a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. On Election Day 2008, Black Panthers dressed in paramilitary garb threatened voters as they approached polling stations. Holder has also failed to initiate a comprehensive Justice investigation of the notorious organization ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which is closely tied to President Obama. There were allegedly more than 400,000 fraudulent ACORN voter registrations in the 2008 campaign. And then there were the journalist videos catching ACORN Housing workers advising undercover reporters on how to evade tax, immigration, and child prostitution laws. Holder’s controversial decisions on new rights for terrorists and his attacks on previous efforts to combat terrorism remind many of the fact that his former law firm has provided and continues to provide pro bono representation to terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Holder’s politicization of the Justice Department makes one long for the days of Alberto Gonzales.

6. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL): One of the most serious scandals of 2009 involved a scheme by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to sell President Obama’s then-vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Two men caught smack dab in the middle of the scandal: Senator Roland Burris, who ultimately got the job, and Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, emissaries for Jesse Jackson Jr., named "Senate Candidate A" in the Blagojevich indictment, reportedly offered $1.5 million to Blagojevich during a fundraiser if he named Jackson Jr. to Obama's seat. Three days later federal authorities arrested Blagojevich. Burris, for his part, apparently lied about his contacts with Blagojevich, who was arrested in December 2008 for trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat. According to Reuters: “Roland Burris came under fresh scrutiny…after disclosing he tried to raise money for the disgraced former Illinois governor who named him to the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama…In the latest of those admissions, Burris said he looked into mounting a fundraiser for Rod Blagojevich -- later charged with trying to sell Obama's Senate seat -- at the same time he was expressing interest to the then-governor's aides about his desire to be appointed.” Burris changed his story five times regarding his contacts with Blagojevich prior to the Illinois governor appointing him to the U.S. Senate. Three of those changing explanations came under oath.

7. President Barack Obama: During his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption to the White House. Consider just a few Obama administration “lowlights” from year one: Even before President Obama was sworn into office, he was interviewed by the FBI for a criminal investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s scheme to sell the President’s former Senate seat to the highest bidder. (Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and slumlord Valerie Jarrett, both from Chicago, are also tangled up in the Blagojevich scandal.) Moreover, the Obama administration made the startling claim that the Privacy Act does not apply to the White House. The Obama White House believes it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability. President Obama boldly proclaimed that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," but his administration is addicted to secrecy, stonewalling far too many of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act requests and is refusing to make public White House visitor logs as federal law requires. The Obama administration turned the National Endowment of the Arts (as well as the agency that runs the AmeriCorps program) into propaganda machines, using tax dollars to persuade "artists" to promote the Obama agenda. According to documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the idea emerged as a direct result of the Obama campaign and enjoyed White House approval and participation. President Obama has installed a record number of "czars" in positions of power. Too many of these individuals are leftist radicals who answer to no one but the president. And too many of the czars are not subject to Senate confirmation (which raises serious constitutional questions). Under the President’s bailout schemes, the federal government continues to appropriate or control -- through fiat and threats -- large sectors of the private economy, prompting conservative columnist George Will to write: “The administration's central activity -- the political allocation of wealth and opportunity -- is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.” Government-run healthcare and car companies, White House coercion, uninvestigated ACORN corruption, debasing his office to help Chicago cronies, attacks on conservative media and the private sector, unprecedented and dangerous new rights for terrorists, perks for campaign donors – this is Obama’s “ethics” record -- and we haven't even gotten through the first year of his presidency.

8. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): At the heart of the corruption problem in Washington is a sense of entitlement. Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2008 that suggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline. These documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, include internal Pentagon email correspondence detailing attempts by Pentagon staff to accommodate Pelosi's numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker's 11th hour cancellations and changes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also came under fire in April 2009, when she claimed she was never briefed about the CIA's use of the waterboarding technique during terrorism investigations. The CIA produced a report documenting a briefing with Pelosi on September 4, 2002, that suggests otherwise. Judicial Watch also obtained documents, including a CIA Inspector General report, which further confirmed that Congress was fully briefed on the enhanced interrogation techniques. Aside from her own personal transgressions, Nancy Pelosi has ignored serious incidents of corruption within her own party, including many of the individuals on this list. (See Rangel, Murtha, Jesse Jackson, Jr., etc.)

9. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven: Rep. John Murtha made headlines in 2009 for all the wrong reasons. The Pennsylvania congressman is under federal investigation for his corrupt relationship with the now-defunct defense lobbyist PMA Group. PMA, founded by a former Murtha associate, has been the congressman's largest campaign contributor. Since 2002, Murtha has raised $1.7 million from PMA and its clients. And what did PMA and its clients receive from Murtha in return for their generosity? Earmarks -- tens of millions of dollars in earmarks. In fact, even with all of the attention surrounding his alleged influence peddling, Murtha kept at it. Following an FBI raid of PMA's offices earlier in 2009, Murtha continued to seek congressional earmarks for PMA clients, while also hitting them up for campaign contributions. According to The Hill, in April, "Murtha reported receiving contributions from three former PMA clients for whom he requested earmarks in the pending appropriations bills." When it comes to the PMA scandal, Murtha is not alone. As many as six other Members of Congress are currently under scrutiny according to The Washington Post. They include: Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-VA), Norm Dicks (D-WA.), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-KS.). Of course rather than investigate this serious scandal, according to Roll Call House Democrats circled the wagons, "cobbling together a defense to offer political cover to their rank and file.” The Washington Post also reported in 2009 that Murtha’s nephew received $4 million in Defense Department no-bid contracts: "Newly obtained documents…show Robert Murtha mentioning his influential family connection as leverage in his business dealings and holding unusual power with the military.”

10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): Rangel, the man in charge of writing tax policy for the entire country, has yet to adequately explain how he could possibly "forget" to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental property. He also faces allegations that he improperly used his influence to maintain ownership of highly coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem, and misused his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center by preserving a tax loophole for an oil drilling company in exchange for funding. On top of all that, Rangel recently amended his financial disclosure reports, which doubled his reported wealth. (He somehow “forgot” about $1 million in assets.) And what did he do when the House Ethics Committee started looking into all of this? He apparently resorted to making "campaign contributions" to dig his way out of trouble. According to WCBS TV, a New York CBS affiliate: “The reigning member of Congress' top tax committee is apparently ‘wrangling’ other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles...Since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.” Charlie Rangel should not be allowed to remain in Congress, let alone serve as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and he knows it. That’s why he felt the need to disburse campaign contributions to Ethics Committee members and other congressional colleagues.