Charles Rangel: “Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means…”

“Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, it is only seven pages, but what is in those seven pages? This is not the tax bill that we hear the President talking about. This does not give relief to people who are married and suffer the marriage penalty. It does not take care of the estate tax. Who it takes care of politically are the top rollers in the United States. Mr. Speaker, 60 percent of the relief that is in this part of the bill and the other parts that they will bring in tomorrow will go to the top 10 percent of the people in America, 43 percent of it goes to the top 1 percent. Yet they do not even have a budget. They would have us to believe that they are working under last year's budget, and technically it is this year's budget. But one thing is clear that they waived all rules that would prevent them from having to say that there is a budget on the floor today. We do hope that those of us who are concerned about Social Security, about Medicare, about prescription drugs, about improving the quality of education, about making certain our farmers and those young men and women who serve in the military that they are protected.”