Charles Rangel: “In the old partisan days, I would say this resolution is good because Santa Clause is coming through. But recognize that…”

“In the old partisan days, I would say this resolution is good because Santa Clause is coming through. But recognize that we have not had too many legislative accomplishments. Being very anxious to display some degree of bipartisanship, let me congratulate the majority for this resolution for whatever it means. In the olden days, when people saw a problem, they started legislating. But if this is a new thing, where you send a message that I recognize the problem and I do intend to legislate, well, who can be against that? So let me join with my Republican colleagues and say we have a very, very serious problem with Social Security in its present form. The majority party is acknowledging that it is going to do something about it. They have met the President halfway in terms of identifying the set-aside of the 62 percent. But they have a great deal of difficulty in stating that they will not entertain a tax cut from using the surplus until such time as we take care of the Social Security system and the Medicare trust system as we know it. Now, I do not know why these things are omitted. I have no idea as to why they are difficult to talk about. But let me join with my friend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Shaw) and say that half a loaf is better than nothing. I sincerely hope that we get beyond these resolutions and see what we can do in a bipartisan way to find a solution to this serious problem.”