Richard E. Neal (MA-2), Nancy Pelosi’s and Ireland’s Tax Man on the Hill

by Charles C. Johnson

taxman

The Beatles had it best when they sung about the Tax Man.

Now my advice for those who die (taxman)

Declare the pennies on your eyes (taxman) ‘Cause I’m the taxman,

Yeah, I’m the taxman. And you’re working for no one but me.

But Massachusetts’s residents in the second congressional district might be surprised to know that they are working for Congressman Richard E. Neal (MA-2) and that he, rather than working for them, is working for the Irish.

Unfortunately, before long, we’ll likely all be working for him, as Mr. Neal plans to seek the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee now that the ever corrupt and cantankerous, Charlie Rangel, has stepped down.

With Rangel gone, Neal seems the likely pick for Pelosi. According to The Washington Post’s database, Neal has voted with Nancy Pelosi’s 111th Democratic Congress 98.9 percent of the time, tying him for third place.

Unfortunately for Neal and fortunately for Republicans, this record ties him to one of the most liberal and profligate congresses in American history. At at time of recession, Neal wants to raise, not lower, taxes.

Neal’s big government record on taxes makes him the worst candidate possible for limited government conservatives. He supports the death tax, which is currently repealed, saying to The Wall Street Journal that “there is no question” that it will be restated in 2010.

At root though is just what those taxes will be spent on and here Neal hasn’t shown the best wisdom, especially after he defended the stimulus plan to a local paper,

“I voted for TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), and I think it was the right thing to do and a responsible position to undertake. The stimulus I voted for because the stimulus was done to create demand in the absence of demand. You forget that people were changing their patterns all at once. The stimulus was to substitute for a lack of demand in the private sector and to address many long-standing public initiatives.”

But that same article shows what Neal’s district spent the stimulus money on — twenty new transit vehicles for the Pioneer Valley Authority — hardly an essential expenditure with Massachusetts unemployment hovering around 10.4%. Neal also bragged about a $15.1 million “wastewater treatment plant, opening up in his district that a local state senator admits would generate only 65 jobs.

Neal was surprised by the vehemence against taxing health care plans in his district, according to The New York Times. He continued to defend Obamacare on February 12, but wants the health care bill to be debated in a much more piecemeal fashion. For conservatives, it’s likely death by a thousand cuts.

As St. Patrick’s Day rolls around, we’re all forgiven for thinking we are a little Irish. But Neal advocates exclusively for the Irish, not the people of the second congressional district. As chairman of the Friends of Ireland in the US House of Representatives, Neal did his best to encourage more American companies invest in Ireland.

“I have no doubt that American companies will find enormous opportunities in the northwest of Ireland. Similarly, our world-class universities in Massachusetts look forward to creating mutually beneficial alliances with the University of Ulster at Magee, Derry.”

Of course, most recently, he suggested a U.S. beer for President Obama at the beer summit, but apparently doesn’t want to keep U.S. jobs here, preferring to send them to Ireland instead. Indeed, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley told Business & Finance Magazine in 2007 confidently predicted that any change in U.S. tax policy would not affect Ireland?

The reason for [Foley's] confidence stems from a recent conversation between him and Congressman Richard E Neal, the head of the Ways and Means tax panel in the States, who assures Foley that the recommended changes in US tax legislation are not targeted at Ireland.

“We talked to him [Congressman Neal] and alerted him to the issue that we needed to make sure that if there was [change in] legislation then it didn’t inadvertently snag Ireland or US multinationals. We were assured that it would not happen and I can pretty reliably say that it will not affect Ireland,” says Foley.

Sometimes his love for Ireland clouds his judgment: he invited ex-terrorist Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein to the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.

But what Neal fails to do is understand why Ireland has become the Celtic Tiger that it is: lower corporate taxes. Maybe his actual country, America, would do well to embrace the Irish model? Over 470 U.S. companies have set up shop in Ireland, in part thanks to its English speaking population and ultra low-corporate tax rate. Why won’t Neal follow the evidence?

Good tax man that he is, Neal isn’t in favor of just any tax havens – just ones that happen to share his ethnicity. He’s railed against lost tax revenues in Bermuda and he happens to think that Americans should pay still more in taxes, all but guaranteeing that more and more Americans will move their money overseas.

In the past ten years, Neal has hardly been a friend to the tax payers.

  • He has voted no on reducing taxes on job-creating capital gains and dividends.
  • He voted no on providing tax relief and simplifying the tax code.
  • He voted no on increasing the child tax credit, making it harder on Massachusetts’s parents.
  • He voted no on eliminating the marriage penalty, twice making it harder on Massachusetts’s married women.
  • He voted no on making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
  • He voted no on a $99 billion economic stimulus, cutting taxes and capital gains.
  • He voted no on eliminating the death tax.
  • He voted no on tax cuts for small businesses.

Fortunately, Congressman Richard E. Neal may be a congressman no longer. His district broke for Brown by some 56.9%. Residents in November have a chance to remind Mr. Neal that Bay State residents don’t revere tax collectors, they tar and feather them. Luckily it won’t come to that this November, because of at least one good Republican running.


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Posted Mar 17th 2010 at 9:23 am in Congress, Justice/Legal, Local Government, Regulation, State Politics, Tax Reform | 61 Comments