I HEART CHARLIE RANGEL

I think it's time to show what a fraud the GOP economic policy of tax cuts for the rich is and ity seems Rep. Rangel has taken a good first step in exposing it. Remember what Warren Buffett said: There is class warfare and his class is winning.

Republicans Welcome Rangel's Tax Bill as Election-Year `Gift'

By Alison Fitzgerald

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel has dropped a political bomb that Republicans say may derail his fellow Democrats' pre-election momentum.

``Very seldom in politics do your opponents give you this kind of gift,'' said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri. ``Very seldom in politics do your opponents say, `If we could just elect a president and if we can hold onto the House and Senate, here's what we're going to do: We're going to raise taxes.'''

Republican presidential candidates seized the opportunity. ``We certainly shouldn't raise taxes the way Charlie Rangel wants to,'' said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. ``It would devastate the economy.''

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, a House Republican leader, said Rangel would fail. ``This is all about class warfare,'' he said.

Meanwhile, another Rangel bill is putting Republicans in a bind. The measure would curb the alternative minimum tax, which was originally designed to capture taxes from wealthy individuals but over the years has taken in more and more middle-income families.

Unless Congress acts this year, the tax will impose an extra $2,000 in levies on 21 million families. New Yorker Rangel, 77, will propose to forestall that for a year through a $48 billion tax increase on hedge funds and buyout firms, presenting Republicans with the politically painful options of voting for higher levies on wealthy investors or hurting middle- class voters.

``It's an awful choice,'' said Terry Holt, a Republican political strategist and former spokesman for George W. Bush's presidential campaign. ``I'm not sure what members will do.''

The measure would raise levies on the compensation that executives at buyout and venture-capital firms, as well as real- estate and oil and gas partnerships, receive for managing investments. It would also require hedge-fund managers to pay tax on income they defer in offshore accounts.