Charles Rangel: “Mr. Speaker, the difference between H.R. 6 and the Democratic alternative is that H.R. 6 is going to be vetoed and the…”

“Mr. Speaker, the difference between H.R. 6 and the Democratic alternative is that H.R. 6 is going to be vetoed and the Democratic alternative can be signed into law. When the chairman had his blank sheet up there saying that this would provide zero, he was the only one on the other side that admitted that, yes, the Democratic plan and tax alternative is conditioned. I would say that the 20 or 30 Democrats who joined with the other side in trying to remove this penalty must have thought that they would be working it out in a bipartisan way and not have it fly in the face of the President's budget. They must have thought that the other side would not come and bring a tax cut bill to the floor without first having a budget. They must have thought, as the President would hope, that in the budget they would say that they wanted to deal with Social Security, that they wanted to deal with Medicare. They must have thought that, just being a Republican, that they would say that before a tax cut they would want to pay down, not eliminate but pay down, on the national debt. We are paying hundreds of billions of dollars of interest on the trillions of dollars that we owe on the national debt. Why should not the President think, as he gave his State of the Union message, that the Democrats and Republicans would come together, have a budget, deal with these issues, so that we can deal with the serious problem of the marriage penalty.”