Washington, DC -Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) issued the following statement during debate on H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which passed with a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives:
"It has only been a few short weeks since President Bush wrote the outline of this bill and I want to recognize the tremendous work of Chairman Frank and so many of my colleagues here to improve this bill to include protections for families on Main Street.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill, because if we do nothing, the sacrifice will be felt by the middle-class - it will be felt by employees who will see their pensions and savings accounts dry up. In a sense, we have a political gun to our heads. We cannot wait for the perfect bill to come along because we have all heard the warnings from Secretary Paulson and economists about what will happen if we do not act swiftly.
"Add to that the threat of expiring tax relief for families and companies and the situation is even more urgent. We sent fiscally responsible tax relief to the Senate at least five times and each time they ignored the legislation. Now they send us a monster of a package with tax relief for disaster victims, health parity for those suffering from mental illness, and a patch to make sure that the alternative minimum tax does not hit 25 million unsuspecting middle-class families this year. We know how important these things are - that is why the House acted, and acted early.
"Now we’re being told by the Senate and the Administration that things will get worse if we don’t pass this package. Not only would failure throw the financial markets into further chaos, but it would also deny families and businesses critical tax relief we have been working so hard to provide. I just hope and pray that we might be able to regain the power we used to have in the House - introduce bills, hold hearings and fully understand what we’re doing, rather than having to yield to the threat of fiscal disaster or unwarranted tax liability for hardworking families. The American people send us here to do no less."
