Charles Rangel: “And so now we have really reached the epic in legislation without Members. I made a mistake. I really thought it was…”

“And so now we have really reached the epic in legislation without Members. I made a mistake. I really thought it was just the Speaker and the Committee on Rules. It is just the Speaker and the Speaker, as a matter of fact. All that must be done is to tell the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon) ``For God's sake don't let the members of the Committee on Rules see this. Just come to the floor. Put your name on it. They'll think it was a legitimate process, and we'll have some debate.'' Oh, no. Listen. First of all, we all know this: that these are recommendations made by the President of the United States. In the olden days, it was the Committee on Ways and Means that would really legislate and bring it to the floor because of the Constitution, which says that all revenue raisers would emanate from the House of Representatives, and not the Speaker's office and not the office of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon). Second, it does not surprise me that this is the way they would like to deal with the President's budget as it relates to paying for services because, God knows, we will never have hearings in talking about what is in the President's budget. But I understand it all. They are in the majority, and the further away they can get from substantive legislation, the better they can enjoy the comfort that the President's budget and the surpluses have brought to us.”