Charles Rangel: “Mr. Speaker, I am so surprised that my Republican friends on the Committee on Ways and Means, the tax writing committee…”

“Mr. Speaker, I am so surprised that my Republican friends on the Committee on Ways and Means, the tax writing committee, have distanced themselves so far from this bill. This is a tax bill. No one challenges that this is a tax bill. My Republican friends are saying that this code is so complicated, so unfair, that it ought to be pulled up by its roots. And yesterday it said after we get rid of President Clinton, we will get rid of the code, which is good talk before an election. But if the code is so complicated, why would the Republicans add this fertilizer to the roots that they want to pull up? This is supposed to be an education bill? What does it say? The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), my good friend, never even talked about that. He talked about all of the fine efforts that we have to make to have our kids to read. Mr. Speaker, let us talk taxes. Let us say what we are going to do for the American parents here. Because the gentleman and I agree that one of the most important things that we have to do to maintain America's competitive position is to educate our young people so that they will be able to meet the challenges of the next century.”