John Garamendi: “With all the things that are happening in Washington, it is pretty easy to feel concerned and to lose faith in what it…”

“With all the things that are happening in Washington, it is pretty easy to feel concerned and to lose faith in what it is that we are doing here. It is language, questions of racism, questions of tax policy, winners, losers. Mr. Speaker, I decided today to be optimistic, to be upbeat, and to say: Hey, there really are things that we can do if we just put our minds to it and begin to work together. Before I start these sessions on the floor, I always like to ground myself in what is it that I would like, and that I would like my colleagues, to accomplish. I always turn to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who brought us through the Great Depression and the Great War. Etched in the marble at his memorial here in Washington, D.C., are these words: ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much . . . .'' I probably ought to repeat that. ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.'' I always want to start with that because it grounds me as I look at the multiple opportunities we have here to do just this: add more to those who have much. For example, the tax bill that passed just before Christmas and was signed into law clearly does more for those who have much.…”