Economic Stimulus Act of 2008

ECONOMIC STIMULUS ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - February 07, 2008)

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Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may utilize.

Madam Speaker, I have asked the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation to make available to the public a technical explanation of the tax divisions of H.R. 5140. The technical explanation expresses the committee's understanding and the legislative intent behind this important legislation. This explanation document, JCX-16-08, is currently available on the joint committee's Web site.

Madam Speaker, first and foremost, I want to extend my deep appreciation for Speaker Pelosi, for her leadership and commitment to a bipartisan spirit, and to the minority leader, Mr. Boehner, for his hard work and the cooperation as we move toward this truly critical legislation.

In addition, I want to thank my friend, Hank Paulson, for working to broker a compromise between the Congress and an administration that not before had indicated the depth of cooperation that the Secretary of the Treasury invoked.

Finally, I would like to thank the Senate leadership for recognizing the urgency of this relief and finally getting to work to ensure its quick passage today, enabling the House to pass the Senate amendment and delivering it to the President's desk.

I also would like to thank Mr. McCrery, who made it easy for us to work with our leadership in the House to cooperate with the administration to make certain that our mission to speedily pass the stimulus bill was done and sent over to the Senate.

I also want to point out that they should give us all, in our country, and indeed in this House, an opportunity to see that we are not sending these hundreds of billions of dollars in rebate dollars to the people that need it out of compassion. We are not sending it to them because we think it's right that they should put a roof over their heads or clothing on their backs or provide food on the table. We are doing it because, once again, we want to stimulate the economy, and therefore, it means that we want goods and services to be purchased.

We do this and we support this effort because the economists say it's the right thing to do and we do it because these are the people, middle-class people, lower income people, hardworking people, disabled veterans, we do it because it's the right thing to do. But, Madam Speaker, my colleagues in the House, I hope when this recession is over, and it will be over, that we'll take a good look at the people that we are talking about today, and we should be able to say that there is something wrong with this picture and there is something wrong when we can find millions of people unable to provide the basic goods and services they need and, at the same time, find that those who are most affluent are not even disturbed by the recession that we find ourselves in today.

And so we should be pleased that the Congress is doing the right thing. But we also should also remember that it is not with a lot of dignity and pride that people receive this assistance. They receive it because, as the economists and elitists said, they're going to spend this money because they have to spend this money.

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