Friday, October 23, 2009
U.S. Rep. John Carter, whose seat includes Coryell and Bell counties, is amending financial disclosure forms with the House ethics committee to reflect nearly $300,000 in profits from the sale of Exxon stock in 2006 and 2007 that he did not report during those years.
Carter’s office said the mistake was an honest one and was being corrected with the ethics committee.
“What this amounts to is he reported his stock sales in both years, but there’s no box on the form to put the amount of the capital gains,” Carter spokesman John Stone said.
But for some Democratic groups, the Round Rock Republican’s error was evidence of hypocrisy. For the last month, Carter has been hammering New York Democrat Charlie Rangel over a series of tax errors and disclosure mistakes.
Earlier this month, Carter pushed to pass a resolution on the House floor that would have stripped Rangel of his Committee on Ways and Means chairmanship while he’s under investigation by the House ethics committee.
Carter’s office also has sent a flurry of news releases in the past three weeks, many questioning why Rangel has not paid penalties or interest on back taxes he owed on income from a villa in the Dominican Republic.
“Carter’s violations might be seen as inadvertent and even forgivable had they not exposed his utter hypocrisy, especially in light of his recent vicious floor attacks against a respected colleague,” Democratic strategist Matt Angle posted on his Web site, The Lone Star Project.
Stone, however, said the two congressmen’s mistakes couldn’t be more different.
Carter’s failure to disclose profits from stock, first reported by Washington-based newspaper Roll Call, was not only minor but common, he said.
“Obviously, it was an error, but it was one a lot of members made,” Stone said, citing more than a dozen other members of Congress who have made the same error.
He also credited Carter for working quickly to amend his disclosure forms and making his federal tax returns public to prove he had paid taxes on the Exxon stock profits.
Carter’s office also showed that its scrutiny of Rangel isn’t going to let up.
At the end of a statement Stone issued on the disclosure error, he challenged Rangel “to open his federal taxes returns to reporters for the years he has admitted errors on his House disclosures, in the same way that Congressman Carter did today.”
mshapiro@wacotrib.com
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Comments
By Alamo
Oct 29, 2009 11:08 AM | Link to this
Carter's "inadvertance" just might have been due to the electorates regard for the "Big Oil" monopoly and the $4.00 gas prices seen last year. Profiting on ExxonMobil stock investment is a "whole 'nuther thing" when you are charged with the responsibility of representing people whose "interests" might not necessarily be consistent with those Big Oil corporate interests.
Why for example are we importing crude oil (which we produce very little of) when we are now the world leader in proven reserves of natural gas which is a far superior transportation fuel? Texas produces over 25 per cent of the nation's natural gas yet uses very little of that production as transportation fuel. Why is this the case? Couldn't be due to Congressmen profiting from investments in ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum etc could it?
Exporting crude oil from the Middle East is akin to buying the rope that hangs you. Where do you think funding for Islamic terrorism comes from? That 250 billion dollars Americans are sending out of this country each year is what funds much, if not all of that terrorism. Think about that when you pump gasoline or diesel into your vehicles America.
If we had no other choice that's one thing, but when we have a much cleaner, abundant, mechanically superior fuel produced right here in Texas and 32 other states, its insanity not to use it. All this has to do with Big Oil's control of "our" Congress---a better ,more correct statement would be to say, "Big Oil's Congress"!
By yolandita
Oct 28, 2009 2:37 PM | Link to this
Unbelievable. I could not believe my eyes when I read the comments made here. Did some of you bother to read and comprehend what was said? Congressman Carter PAID his taxes on the capital gain. He posted his federal tax returns online to silence false media attacks. President Obama had the same issue last year and he posted his income tax return. The issue here is are Mr. Rangel and our Treasury Secretary going to do the same? Lastly, please do not move to our district. We are happy with Congressman Carter.
By yolandita
Oct 28, 2009 2:36 PM | Link to this
Unbelievable. I could not believe my eyes when I read the comments made here. Did some of you bother to read and comprehend what was said? Congressman Carter PAID his taxes on the capital gain. He posted his federal tax returns online to silence false media attacks. President Obama had the same issue last year and he posted his income tax return. The issue here is are Mr. Rangel and our Treasury Secretary going to do the same? Lastly, please do not move to our district. We are happy with Congressman Carter.
By Pam
Oct 25, 2009 12:34 AM | Link to this
Holy smokes how much does John Carter make that he can "forget" to report $300,000 in capital gains on his ethics form. Carter's spokesman said, "ýWhat this amounts to is he reported his stock sales in both years, but thereýs no box on the form to put the amount of the capital gains.ý Does the spokesman want us to believe that this is the first time Carter has had capital gains that have needed to be reported so he didn't know how? Seems to me like maybe they need to open an ethics investigation into Carter. I think we should be just as generous in our judgment of Carter's "honest" mistake as he has been of Rangel's "honest" mistakes.
By rangelrunner
Oct 24, 2009 5:35 PM | Link to this
Can you believe this jerk once was a judge and rakes in over $70,000 a year in pension. WHAT A HYPOCRITE. Old man John is piece of wasted space from our district.
By ROFLMAO
Oct 23, 2009 3:04 PM | Link to this
Appreciate that you folks have Chet. john "Do Nothing" carter is also commonly referred to in CD31 as "Vacant Space" and "Judge NO". He had the balz to stage an interview in '06 in front of a gas station to talk about how the middle class was being hit so hard by high gas prices while the jerk owned MILLIONS in Exxon-Mobil stocks. A+ judge!
"If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly." Alan Grayson (D-Fla)
By chris
Oct 23, 2009 1:26 PM | Link to this
He is taking the Charley Rangel approach. Hel, Rangel is the chair of the financial committee of the whole country. Shocker an elected official is cheating. I never thought i would see such a thing. I dont think its even news worthy anymore.
By Donna Garner
Oct 23, 2009 12:27 PM | Link to this
Maybe I am missing something here, but this article says that Congressman John Carter reported his Exxon stock sales in 2006 and 2007 but failed to report the capital gains because no place was given on the disclosure forms for the reporting of capital gains. Now he is being castigated for not filling in something that was not required on the form.
The article is obviously trying to blast Congressman Carter unfairbly. How about this piece of valuable information on Rep. Carter? The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-partisan organization, just released its report that tracks Congressmen's roll call votes on fiscal responsibility bills. Congressman Carter scored a 76% with 100% being the best); Congressman Chet Edwards scored 4% which is categorized as in the "Hostile" range.
Where is the Waco Tribune-Herald article that exposes Congressman Chet Edwards' fiscally irresponsible use of taxpayers' dollars to buy himself votes?
By Truth Be Told
Oct 23, 2009 10:12 AM | Link to this
But another example of the Republican party and its ethical hypocrisy...
TRMPAC and a litter of Republican State Reps., Texas Association of Business, Tom DeLay, Bill Cerveha - to name a few!
Republican politics=let's turn that blind eye until we get what we want!!
By DBear
Oct 23, 2009 9:30 AM | Link to this
Carter is the epitome of stupidity. I really feel sorry for his constituents. Some of them still don't have a clue....
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