Last week, I took to the House Floor to explain an unfortunate situation.

I was the subject of several false attacks that I failed to pay income tax on 2006 and 2007 sales of Exxon-Mobil stock that I own. The allegations were wrong; I paid my taxes, and even reported my sales on House Disclosure Forms. None of this changed my net worth a penny.

Reports also insinuated that I would back off my persistent calls for House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to face the music for their tax-paying problems.

That was wrong, too.

Rangel and Geithner still should come clean with their previously admitted tax violations by paying penalties and interest in line with those paid by other taxpayers in similar cases.

They might benefit from making their tax forms public as well. It’s time for them to pony up. The only reason for these two to hold back is if they have something to hide.

We knew these attacks against us would come when we started our campaign to demand a return to the Rule of Law in the House. Whenever people stand up to this systemic Democrat corruption in Washington, you can bet the smear campaigns against them will soon follow.

Rangel failed to pay income tax for over a decade on his Caribbean resort property, while Geithner evaded withholding taxes on income from the International Monetary Fund over multiple years. Neither has paid penalties on the violations, and Rangel has failed to even pay interest charges.

My opinion is that anyone who fails to disclose income and pay their taxes should pay a reasonable penalty with interest. If not, our tax code becomes unenforceable.

And I also believe the higher law is the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Secretary Geithner cannot legally charge his fellow Americans penalties when he has paid none himself. That is a violation of the Constitution.

Next week I’ll introduce legislation dealing with the Treasury Secretary’s failure to abide by the same tax laws as the rest of the country.

So if people were thinking I would slack off defending the rule of law because of a House disclosure error, they obviously have another thing coming.