Charles Rangel: “it took so many years for the other body to come up with some plan to jeopardize Social Security and Medicare, these…”

“it took so many years for the other body to come up with some plan to jeopardize Social Security and Medicare, these programs that the American people have come to rely on for so many, many years, the pride and the dignity that older folks had that they did not have to depend on their children and their grandchildren for survival. We knew a long time ago when Mr. Stockman was here with President Reagan that it was not a question of just fiscal irresponsibility, it was not a question of tax cuts. No President has to campaign around the country to encourage the people to support a tax cut. No, the American people knew exactly what was happening. It is, ``Get the money out of Washington. Why? Because they will spend it. This is your money. This is not the Congress' money.'' Well, whose is the deficit? Is that the Congress' deficit or does it belong to our Nation? Is this what we want which we had after Reagan, a country that was spending more money on interest on our debt than paying for health care? And what about the cases that we have of the education program, the prescription drug program, all of the things that were adopted during the President's campaign but we do not hear anything about that today. No, the real question is that in 10 years, all of this is over. Whatever benefits anyone receives under this tax bill, it is over. Because the Republican accountants and tax writers in the middle of the night came up with the strangest gimmick of all.…”