Charles Rangel: “My colleagues, I do not know why the majority is reserving their time. Some pretty rough accusations have been made…”

“My colleagues, I do not know why the majority is reserving their time. Some pretty rough accusations have been made against them as a party. It would just seem to me that there should be enough sensitivity if not to respond to us then at least to respond to those 9 million people who are without work and without hope for the future. I can understand the majority in trying to eliminate all taxes for corporations and the rich. I can understand them trying to dismantle the Social Security System and the Medicare system. These are things they have dedicated themselves to doing and can be described as being Republican and Democratic positions. But how can someone out of work be the victim of partisanship? How can they determine whether they are Republican or Democrat? How can they benefit when a kid has to be withdrawn from school because of their parents' failure to pay their tuition, or their mortgage is forced to be foreclosed on? It seems to me that at this time of the year we can at least join ranks to take care of those people who want to work each and every day. If we can spend $1 billion a week rebuilding Baghdad, we should at least give some token of appreciation for those people who have worked hard to build this Nation, to make her as strong as she is by giving to them out of their own trust funds that this Congress established to protect them; that we have the compassion, no, not the compassion, we have the responsibility to respond to their needs.”