Charles Rangel: “And now, my colleagues, we get to act two of this bill. And as was indicated by the chairman of the committee, while the…”

“And now, my colleagues, we get to act two of this bill. And as was indicated by the chairman of the committee, while the tax provisions may not be unconstitutional, in my view they are unrealistic. The President has seen fit to provide some $84 billion to taxpayers in order to encourage them to do the right thing, to make charitable contributions. But there was no money to do that. So the leadership in the Committee on Ways and Means reduced the $84 billion down to $13 billion. Well, we cannot do much with that if we want to give incentives to those people who do not itemize. But in order to make certain that this size 12 foot fits into a size 6 shoe, they had to put a cap on the amount that a person could deduct. Now, listen to this, because if you are a charity, you are in trouble. The cap on the amount of money that a taxpayer who does not itemize can give is $25. Of course, if it is a married couple, it increases dramatically to $50. If an individual is in the 15 percent bracket, they will be able to get a return up to $3.75. So much for a realistic incentive. What we are trying to do with the $13 billion is at least to pay for it, and we believe that the highest income people in this country can afford to pay for at least the $13 billion that hopefully will be given to those people in our great society that are least able to take care of themselves. It should not be that we should have to give incentives. But if we have to do it, let us give those that can really work.”