On the recordJanuary 19, 2010
I think the American people now realize that Republicans in the majority disappeared here in November of 2006, and Democrats have been in control of this Congress ever since then. In the previous years, they all said that if you would just let them have control of this Congress, things would be better. Give us the majority, they said over and over again. The 30-something Group, which now I think is in the 40-somethings, just consistently, night after night, made the same case: the economy would be a lot better off if you had Democrats in charge. Well, they came into control in November of 2006 and immediately what we saw was a significant decline in industrial investment. That was the first indicator of what was happening with our economy, and it happened this way: Charlie Rangel became the likely, and not yet formally named, but he did become the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
