Charles Rangel: “I rise to oppose the motion for the previous question so that we might have the opportunity to amend a rule and to bring…”

“I rise to oppose the motion for the previous question so that we might have the opportunity to amend a rule and to bring to the House legislation that would bring some equity to the recently passed tax bill. I do not think many Members of the House knew that those that were making the decision would deliberately exclude the benefit of the child tax credit for people making less than $26,000. I refuse to believe that people can be so callous that they would deliberately try to make adjustments to a tax bill that was geared to, as the leadership would say, those who pay the taxes, and exclude the privilege and the opportunity for people to get credit that are in low income merely because they do not pay 'the taxes.' We have 6.5 million working families that do pay taxes, albeit those taxes may be perceived by the majority not to be important. But they do pay taxes, and they have lost the benefits of receiving tax credits for their children. But Mr. Speaker, even worse than that, yesterday we passed the resolution paying honor to those brave men and women that were placed in harm's way as a result of the so-called 'victory' in Iraq. As I said yesterday, parades are important, saluting the flag is important, having a bumper sticker is important; but how we treat these veterans is even far more important.”