Charlie Rangel

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I oppose this resolution, and I call on my colleagues to vote against it. We, as Americans on the bridge of going into the next century, while we have a boom in our economy, there is no question that, in order to sustain this economic boom, we are going to have to continue to maintain our technological leadership and expansion in trade. The whole thing for the next century is going to be trade, trade, trade, and more trade. It is true that we have lost a lot of our low-skilled jobs here, and we have to do more to protect those people that have been dislocated and placed out of work. There is no question that, as a result of our important leadership role in the world, that more and more is expected of us to protect the human rights and political rights of other people. But I think that there is a lot of hypocrisy in terms of America's ability to monitor these things all over the world and, at the same time, to ignore many of the same inequities that exist in our country. I was among those who lead the fight in sanctions against South Africa because the whole world saw exactly what was happening to majority rule there. But, now, America has singled out sanctions and trade punishment when most of the time we stand alone, Cuba being an example of how just wrong trade policy can get. It would seem to me that we have an obligation for the next generation to say what we have done to prove that America leads the way in moral leadership; that we never have to explain how we get on the Amnesty International list in terms of violation of human rights; that we should not have to explain why 1.8 million Americans are locked up in jail, why 90 percent of them are locked up for nonviolent crimes, and how we find that most all of them came from the most terrible schools that we have in America. We have to make certain that this new technology, that we have investments in it, and that we move forward and turning away from countries that we trade with, but to take advantage of our power, our influence, to make certain that, by example, we show the people that we protect human rights and political rights in this country and throughout the world. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), and I ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to allocate that time.

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. The Republicans have been very creative and political in putting together their document. But before they even put it together, Chairman Greenspan said, the best thing that you can do for this great democracy, this great republic, this great economy, is to reduce the debt. Now, you have come up with this cockamamie do not cut back the taxes unless the interest rates are dropping. Mr. Greenspan says do not help him. For God's sake get rid of this. You know it is going to be vetoed. Let us try to create a climate today where Republicans and Democrats can work together, where we can go to the President and negotiate something within a quarter of a trillion dollar tax cut, where we can reduce the Federal debt. But the most important thing is that you and I can go home and let the American people know that we fulfilled our commitment to the generation that is coming with Social Security and with Medicare. Now, we know you do not like these programs, but we know that the American people want you to support it. So forget your pride, forget the fact that these are Democratic proposals, and let us try to work together as a United States Congress and not like Republicans and not like Democrats.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis). (Mr. DAVIS of Illinois asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the reason the Republicans think that they know what is in the Rangel substitute is because we gave it to the Committee on Rules and we did not change it in the middle of the night. So they have had an opportunity to read it and they read parts of it as they will. Oh, no, we are talking about a $250-billion tax cut. But we are talking about it being contingent on the certification that we repair Medicare and Social Security. Now, if what the majority is saying that they do not intend to do anything with Medicare and do not intend to do anything for Social Security, the one thing that we did, not that we trust them that much, is to assure that the provisions for research and development and job opportunities be continued and we knew we had to pay for those. And where did we find the money to pay for them? We went to Forbes Magazine. We went to the General Office of Accounting and found out who was violating the corporate laws and we got the corporate shelters people that have been hustling off of this IRS code that they are trying to pull up by the roots and we raised the $4 billion by closing those loopholes. I tell my colleagues this: Even if they did nothing, we would still go back to trying honest, equitable tax code and not give away money to people who do not deserve it. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) someone who made a great contribution to our substitute and to the motion to recommit. (Mr. STENHOLM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dooley). (Mr. DOOLEY of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Weygand).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I was just waiting for somebody to point out that there are revenue raisers in our bill. I did not think it would be the distinguished majority whip. He says that we raise $4 million. Oh no, $4 billion is the figure that he is looking for. And how did we do it? We did it by closing the Republican loophole for those corporate tax shelters that we are talking about. And we will do it again and again and again. We are not in business to protect those people who abuse the system. Oh, I know, one day, someday, the Republicans want to pull the Code up by the roots. Well, the Republicans have been in the majority for 5 years, and instead of pulling up the Code by the roots, they fertilize it by these tax shelters. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Baird).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Rivers).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey). (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Clement). (Mr. CLEMENT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I would ask that the gentleman put the cartoon over here so we can see it too. We cannot see it.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the major thing that should be before us at a time like this when we have unexpected revenues is to fix the roof while the sun is shining, and the repairs that have to be made is in our Social Security system and our Medicare system and to provide some relief for our aged who are dependent on prescription drugs. We really believe that we should do more in reducing the Federal debt, and at the same time the President has suggested that we do have a $250 billion tax cut. We have tried to include many things that would help and have it targeted to be of assistance to the American people rather than just to target it for close to a trillion dollars to the wealthiest Americans. Mr. Speaker, we also support having even more details to a tax cut in the motion to recommit which could be done later once we make that commitment. But no matter what we do, no effect comes into being until it is certified that we did what we were supposed to do, and that is to make certain that the Social Security system and Medicare is solvent and we reduce the Federal debt. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the majority leader of the Democratic Party, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), who is trying desperately to bring about a bipartisan solution to this problem. (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)