Charles Rangel: “I had thought that my Republican colleagues wanted to go into this election based on their legislative record, having…”

“I had thought that my Republican colleagues wanted to go into this election based on their legislative record, having changed the Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Airport. I thought you could go and win with that. But it looks like on the eve of the election you are coming back with substantive legislation that, even though you know you cannot win with it, that obviously there is some point to be made, and that is probably why we saw the raid on Social Security, coupled with the tax cut. And, even though it is a loser, who would have thought that you would deliberately come back to the floor with fast track, knowing that you have got another loser? There are certain things that we cannot do in a partisan way. Medicare reform, Social Security reform and trade agreements, they have to be bipartisan. But now that you refuse to include certain protections for the workers and for human rights and for the environment, and the President would like to work and to fashion a fast track bill that does not embarrass us with our trading partners, does not embarrass us with our business community, you insist on bringing this up before the election, not caring how many Republicans or Democrats get hurt by having to vote for a bill that is far from perfect. It would seem to me that if we are concerned about giving the President that authority, the first thing we should do is ask the President, does he want it at this time?”