Charles Rangel: “Let me thank you so very much for giving me this opportunity to address the House. I think today and tomorrow may be…”

“Let me thank you so very much for giving me this opportunity to address the House. I think today and tomorrow may be recorded in history as one of the most serious decisions that this Congress has had to make. Personally, I don't know enough to see where the President needs authority to do what we are about to allow him to do because of a threat to the United States of America. I have talked with everyone that is willing to listen to me in my congressional district and they have given me a whole lot of things that they are concerned about. But I haven't come close, as much as they love this President of the United States, in convincing them that training people overseas that we don't know to fight ISIS is in their best national interest. The point that I asked to come to the floor is that it is so easy to try to bring justice to a situation if it doesn't cause you anything or any inconvenience. Already we have lost trillions of dollars and over 6,000 lives in this area, and I don't think we have yet to declare war. What I am suggesting on drafting legislation is that if it does reach the time that this honorable body is prepared to discuss all of the issues and determine whether or not any enemy is a threat to the United States and that we are going to go to war with them, that we should attach to that two provisions that would force every American to evaluate whether or not they believe that they are prepared to make sacrifices.…”