Charles Rangel: “I don't know how proud we can be as legislators to say, at the end of the year, instead of legislating-- having…”

“I don't know how proud we can be as legislators to say, at the end of the year, instead of legislating-- having hearings, listening to what this is going to do to help America, and where it is going to hurt--we are so proud of the fact that we are negotiating. Here we are talking about $680 billion of tax cuts, yet, we all know that, when we get home, there is nobody in the world who is going to think that their pockets, that their jobs, that their educations are going to be better. The world should be screaming for America to provide the leadership and to say that we have a system based on a Tax Code that we can depend on. Yes, we shouldn't have to extend these every year. We should work together to bring all of this together so that we know exactly what is going on. I hate to say this. People talk about the earned income tax credit. I fought for this. I am one of the people who goes against loopholes, and I guess I have really tried to get more loopholes in it in order for poor people to get some justice out of the tax system. The truth of the matter is, because of the disparity in incomes, because people work hard every day and they are still in poverty, we are going to use the Tax Code in order to say that we will give them a refundable tax credit. No. What this is going to do is to remove the ability for this great country of ours to have the discretionary funds to do the right thing, which is really conditioned in what we call the pursuit of happiness.…”