Q: Did Congressman Rangel fail to pay backtaxes and misuse Congressional funds?

A:

According to ABC news:
House Launches Rangel Investigation

September 24, 2008 6:06 PM

ABC News' Dean Norland reports: The House Ethics committee announced today that they are launching an investigation into Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) on allegations that he failed to pay back taxes and misused Congressional resources to fundraise.

Rangel, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, had asked for months that the Ethics Committee review the allegations against him. House GOP leadership had also called for the investigation.

In a written statement, the Ethics panel said they had created a subcommittee with jurisdiction to determine "whether Representative Rangel violated the Code of Official Conduct of any law, rule regulation."

The subcommittee will specifically investigate whether Rangel failed to pay taxes on rental income from a resort condo and whether he got a special deal on at least three rent-controlled apartments Rangel owns in New York (one of which he uses as his campaign office.)
The subcommittee will also look into whether Rangel misused official resources by sending out letters to potential donors of his for public service center on congressional stationary. Finally they will look into allegations that Rangel improperly stored his car in the congressional parking garage.

Many GOP House leaders are calling for Rangel to step down. House Minority leader John Boehner recently issued a statement calling for Rangel to step down temporarily as Ways & Means committee chairman during the investigation and said that the "American people deserve far better than this."

Rangel characterized these calls as "guerrilla tactics" in a letter to his constituents.
Representative Gene Green (D-TX) will chair the investigation but because of timing, it is likely to carry over into the next year.

Source: ABC News Political Radar blog

According to the New York Post:
RANGEL TANGLE
FRIENDS AND FOES ON ETHICS PANEL

The members of the House panel investigating Rep. Charles Rangel's possible ethical lapses are no strangers to the embattled Harlem pol.

Rangel, a 19-term Democrat, has crossed paths with all four members of the special subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee that is probing four possible breaches of ethical rules.

He partied with the chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), at Tony Bennett's 80th-birthday gala.

But the two have also butted heads over tax policy. Green, from Houston, opposed Rangel's attempt as chairman of the powerful tax-code-writing Ways and Means Committee to further tax oil companies.

The second Democrat on the committee, Bobby Scott, of Newport News, Va., received $1,000 from Rangel's own congressional campaign fund on March 28, federal filings show.
"It would be better to give the money back," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "You want this Ethics Committee to instill public confidence."

Scott's office did not return calls for comment.

Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, is no friend of Rangel. He'd been calling for an investigation for months.

The fourth member, Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), has also denounced Rangel's tax proposals in the past.
The Ethics Committee is probing Rangel's four rent-stabilized apartments, including one used as a campaign office; his solicitation for a City College center to be named for him, written on official congressional stationery; his failure to pay back taxes on rental income from his Dominican Republic getaway; and his storage of a broken-down 1972 Mercedes-Benz in a Capitol parking lot.

Source: New York Post

Q: What are Congressman Rangel's views on "disconnected" youth?

A:

Chairman Rangel Statement on Disconnected Youth HearingExcerpts of the

Rangel submission for the record at today’s

Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee hearing on disconnected youth.

“My generation, now described as 'The Greatest Generation,' was the beneficiary of an American society that bore opportunities for all – no matter what your station in life.

I am a personal testament to the possibilities that this nation presented for young men and women, college graduate or not, to live the American Dream and become productive citizens.

Today, we seem to have lost our way in making sure that all of our young people have a chance to succeed. And that disturbs me greatly. So, as colleges and universities held commencement exercises over the last several weeks, I could not help but think about the millions of young people in our country who don’t have a college education in their future, and by no fault of their own are out-of-school and out-of-work. Are we now going to tell these young people that they are 'out-of-luck?'

The consequences of doing nothing are frightening: research shows that individuals who have not engaged in productive employment by age 25, have a vastly lower chance of ever being economically successful for the rest of their lives.

The case for a comprehensive policy response to the challenge of disconnected youth also has a clear moral dimension: our values compel us to pursue every option to help these young men and women have rewarding and worthwhile lives.

But there are two powerful economic rationales for action as well. The first is simple math: it’s a lot cheaper—and more effective--to address the problems of young people not connected to the economic mainstream when they’re young, than it is to attempt doing the same when they have more responsibility, less time, more immediate need for money and more difficulty learning. The second is that, to the extent that disconnected youth remain outside the world of work and community, they represent a squandered resource. In an increasingly competitive global economy, the United States needs all hands on deck.

I am hopeful that this hearing will jumpstart our efforts to develop a comprehensive policy initiative to support disconnected youth in our nation. I am confident that given the number of talented individuals and groups that are currently serving this population, we can come up with a plan of action that will meet the needs of these young people and serve our national interest.”

Source: House Committee on Ways and Means, June 19, 2007