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facebookWashington, D.C. – The following is a transcript of Congressman Charles Rangel’s floor remarks on Republican Default Resolution on January 18, 2012.
"I was awed in listening to my friend Congressman [Ron] Paul…What he just said was right: America is walking down a very serious economic path that will jeopardize what is left of our fiscal system, which will also impact the entire world.
I cannot believe that some Americans, especially Members of Congress, would say that the President of the United States is not authorized to pay off our Nation’s debts. One thing certain that we can all agree on is how we got to this point. It does not matter whether you think it’s because of President Obama, Bush's Tax Cuts, or two wars that the Congress never declared. All you need is a mathematician to add it up and show the massive debt our nation is in and the need for us to pay our bills. Those in the world who care so little about our country, in addition to the many falsehoods they say about us, don’t need the idea that we don’t pay our debts.
I know the debate has to deal with people who don't pay taxes. The debate says that people are taking unfair advantage of a tax code with so many loopholes that the most conservative Republican has to agree it's time for reform. There's a broad area we can talk about and what we are going to do about wild, reckless spending. However you just don't do it by saying that I’m so angry with the President and so politically involved in opposing him that I refuse him the opportunity to do what every President has always done. Our President needs to be able to tell the world that you can count on us to pay the money that we have borrowed.
Being a politician myself, I know there are extreme political circumstances that occur. But love of our country has to be something that we believe in more than political gain. I don't know why Republicans feel such a strong commitment to the Tea Party, or whatever other conservative factions, that they would try stop America from paying its debts. I don't believe it; they don't believe it and they know this is not going to pass.
I don't believe we should be dictated by what foreigners think about us, but we should have enough pride in saying that if we make mistakes, they are our mistakes and not European mistakes or other foreign mistakes. If we borrow money and we don't like how much we borrow, that's our domestic problem. But for God's sake, don't let us fall into such a partisan position that we are going to say that the United States of America, the leader of the free world, doesn’t know how to borrow or take responsibility for our debts.”
