Charles Rangel: “Tonight is going to be a rather historic vote. In the old days, the House would initiate tax bills, and then we would…”

“Tonight is going to be a rather historic vote. In the old days, the House would initiate tax bills, and then we would send it to the Senate, and then the Senate and the House would come together and have what was known as a conference. But it's clear to me that rules are changing fast, and now that the House has spoken in terms of a tax bill, in terms of giving some comfort to those people who are unemployed, it seems to me now that it works that the President works with a handful of Republicans and tells us, on the House side, that if we change anything, there's absolutely no deal. I think the President said that these people that were unemployed were being held as hostage. In addition to that, we find that all of the tax benefits seem to be centered among the people who are the richest that we have in this country, while we find more and more Americans going into poverty. I submit to you that democracy cannot grow with this type of diversity, where we find so much wealth held in the hands of so few and so many other people are without jobs and without hope. It would seem to me that we have time to correct these things.”