I am particularly glad to see that the Multi-faith coalition, such as Catholics United, Judson Memorial Church and a range of other faith leaders have joined together to call attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement. The common faith tenets -- compassion, mercy, justice, human dignity, and caring for "the least among us" -- bring together disparate faiths to support a common cause. Our spiritual leaders have set their differences aside for the good of the American people. Why can't Republicans work with my Democratic Colleagues to do the same?
It's now been more than 300 days since the Republicans have taken over the U.S. House of Representatives yet they still haven't put forward a jobs plan. Meanwhile, the Occupy movement is spreading like wildfire because people are still mad as hell. What began in New York City has spawned new demonstrations in Washington D.C., Oakland, Houston, London, Sydney, and Tokyo among so many other cities throughout the U.S. and around the globe.
As the world takes note of people's frustration, income inequality remains unaddressed by many of our political leaders in this country. Clearly our religious leaders understand: they see this as the moral issue that it is. People are suffering. Americans are losing their jobs, homes, health care, and young people are unable to afford their education. Most disturbingly, 9 percent of Americans feel depressed because they're out of a job. That's why I support the Occupy protesters. With so many of my constituents in Manhattan impacted by the economic downturn, I understand their anger and frustration.
Getting people back to work should be the number one priority, but there are those in Congress who do not get it. Despite claiming job creation as their highest priority, House Republicans began the 112th Congress by threatening woman's reproductive rights, supporting callous budget cuts against teachers, and curbing bargaining rights of union workers across the Midwest.
Republicans have focused all their attention on defending the wealthy and defeating President Barack Obama's efforts to help our ailing economy. Their infamous Ryan Budget proposed an end to Medicare and was rightly rejected by our aged and vulnerable. They spent all summer threatening the full faith and credit of the United States to protect corporate tax loopholes and millionaires. And now they are tearing apart the American Jobs Act in order to steal the political credit from any job creating benefits.
Moreover, Republicans are more concerned with protecting the wealthy in the framework of the Super Committee. Deficit reduction is necessary to heal our country's long term fiscal challenges, but it shouldn't come at the expense of cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. We have an obligation to help the aged, the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable.
Even the Republican Presidential candidates completely neglect to take notice of the underlying problems inspiring the Occupy movement. They may think Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan or Governor Rick Perry's 20 percent "flat tax" would somehow solve our budget crisis, but in reality they make things worse. The 9-9-9 plan would generate less than $1.3 trillion in total federal tax revenue. That's only 9.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In contrast, 2007's tax revenue was 18.5 percent of GDP. In other words, the 9-9-9 plan would cut federal revenue in half. Under Gov. Perry's plan, the richest 1 percent would receive a tax cut of over $200,000, while the bottom 95 percent would pay an average of $2,900 more in federal taxes. Both of these tax proposals benefit the rich while they burden the 99 percent of Americans.
We should ask ourselves what kind of society we want to live in. If the Republicans' main concern is the next election, they should listen closely to the people at Occupy Wall Street and across the country. People are mad as hell right now. They need and demand jobs now. I hope that my Colleagues across the aisle would put aside their political ideologies and join me and Democrats in support of the President's American Jobs Act to put our country back to work.
Follow Rep. Charles Rangel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cbrangel
Bill Moyers: People "Are Occupying Wall Street Because Wall Street Has Occupied the Country"
“candidates completely neglect to take notice of the underlying problems inspiring the Occupy movement”. English translation: the representatives elected by voters are not letting an unelected movement set the national agenda.
“I hope that my Colleagues across the aisle would put aside their political ideologies and join me and Democrats in support of the President's American Jobs Act to put our country back to work.” English translation: I hope that the representatives who were elected by voters supporting the other party will join me to adopt the agenda of the party that the majority of voters rejected.
There is going to be an election next year, why not let the voters decide for themselves?
Cut spending, cut taxes and get ride of Obamacare along with Dodd/Frank..... then ask the President to stop stating he is going to raise taxes...... then you will get people to work. You even said the tax code was too complicated to understand when you had you tax issue and with Obamacare, no one knows when and how they will be taxed for sure....... "got to pass it to know what is in it" as your friend stated.....
Rangel may have lost sight of the fact that the jobs crisis was going on for two years BEFORE the House went to the GOP. While the Democratic House toyed with health care and passed an (almost) trillion dollar pork barrel "stimulus" package, the unemployment rate continued to climb. Now Rangel wants to blame the GOP for not "fixing" in one year what HIS party allowed to get worse and worse for two years.
The economy is going down for the count next year...not because of action/inaction of EITHER party but because Europe is about to tank and they'll drag the world's economy with them, just as we did in 2008. Obama will take the hit, since naive Americans always expect the guy at the top to make things all better. He can't. No one can.
We're in a credit recession caused by excessive leverage (borrowing). Unlike a cyclical recession, it's gonna last for YEARS...at LEAST another three. Hang on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!
Do not think that you can now, hitch your wagon to OWS,cause it's not going to happen.
Then came President Obama's illegal military intrusion into Libya. Finding Congress little more than a pack of spineless jellyfish unwilling to uphold and defend the Constitution's clear delineation of power regarding which governing body has power to declare war, what does the President do next? He orders the assassination of three U.S. citizens whose right of due process was just thrown out the window, because as we all have been told over the past ten years, the force of a bunch of cave dwelling, monkey bar climbing, dog gassing rats has more sway on the moral authority of the nation than does the Constitution.
You want to know what Americans are dissenting against, well, there you have it. We're tired of spineless technocrats who cower in the face of an ages old imperial enemy while masking this fear with vapid shows of "patriotism" directed against a bogie possessing no first-rate state intelligence service, no industrial might to back their war waging and, therefore, absolute no ability -- none! -- to bring this nation to its knees.
We should be getting behind the President in his push for a jobs bill. Get behind a murderer? No sir! We should be impeaching him, and without delay.
Truth hurts.
We were losing 750,000 jobs A MONTH when retardo boy fled the White House.
Maybe they should register Republican & look for work as water-boarders...
As for this President and this Congress "rescuing" the nation from the brink of a Second Great Depression, I've got bad news. The banking system is about to crater and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to continue the fantasy that, so-called "assets" accumulated during the build out of the greatest Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen -- structured finance -- possess even the faintest hope of remaining solvent. The chain reaction collapse of the trans-Atlantic banking system whose impact is imminent just might serve to clarify within the minds of those obviously confused those critical matters of principle I have raised here. Indeed, this nation, if it is to survive, depends on it.