John Garamendi: “I thank the Chair for this time to talk about something that is rather important. Something we did today was to pass a…”

“I thank the Chair for this time to talk about something that is rather important. Something we did today was to pass a horrendous tax cut that doesn't meet this fundamental goal. Really, whenever we legislate here, we really ought to keep in mind our values: What is the purpose? What are we trying to accomplish? What is the goal? What is the human value that we are trying to put in place? I often use this because it is here in Washington at the FDR Memorial. It is on the marble there: ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much.'' Let me read that again, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: ``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 want to use this as my compass, my guiding light on where we need to go. So this afternoon, this House of Representatives, by a vote of, I think, just over 200 voted to enact a tax law that goes in exactly the opposite direction of what FDR would say is our value, our goal. Here it is. The Speaker of the House came here to bring down the gavel to announce the vote that he was so proud to have. Eighty percent of the individual tax cuts don't go to the poor, don't go to the middle class. They go to the top 1 percent. How does that fit with what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said to the American Nation during the height of the Great Depression? No.…”