New York's Charles Rangel: Why Is He Protecting Interests Of Rich Rather Than Middle And Lower Class?

[Yes, boys and girls: one of the big differences between so-called progressives and [whisper]liberals and Kool-Aid Conservative Red State Reactionaries is that the latter is happy to quote the GOP talking points while progressives and liberals are just as likely to rip a Democrat as a Republican.]

As the text below points out, Rangel truly does represent some very poor people (certainly compared to the rest of the greater NYC area, so why he's interesting in preserving fat cat tax breaks and Social Security benefit cuts, among other measures harmful to his own constituency is very bad. As for these so-called free trade pacts, tell me anyone best served by these who isn't already a billionaire.

From David Sirota, and I don't like it one bit:

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) represents one of the poorest congressional districts in New York City. He also chairs the House Ways and Means Committee - the panel that oversees taxes and entitlements.

This combination would lead the casual observer to think that Rangel, trying to represent his district, would be aggressively using his chairmanship to redirect President Bush’s tax cuts to lower-income people, strengthen and even expand Social Security and renegotiate trade deals to protect American jobs. But, no. That’s not what appears to be happening. In the weeks after the congressional election, Rangel has expressed interest in doing the exact opposite: preserving President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy; considering Social Security benefit cuts and retirement age hikes; and supporting lobbyist-written trade pacts that have no wage, environmental or human rights protections in them. He has, in other words, moved to side firmly with the Money Party against the People Party.

Think this is hyperbole? Let’s let Rangel speak for himself. At the same time leading conservative Republican commentators like Ben Stein are saying it’s time to raise taxes on the rich to pay for the war and the deficit, here’s Rangel in the New York Observer yesterday, defending tax cuts to millionaires and falsely claiming Democrats never talked about repealing those tax cuts...