Charles Rangel
Charles Rangel
Charles Bernard "Charlie" Rangelis the U.S. Representative for New York's 13th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the second-longest currently serving member of the House of Representatives, serving continuously since 1971. As its most senior member, he is also the Dean of New York's congressional delegation. Rangel was the first African-American Chair of the influential House Ways and Means Committee. He is also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus...
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth11 June 1930
CityNew York City, NY
I worry that we are losing our capacity to feel the pain of this war for which few Americans have been called to sacrifice in any way.
As a Korean War veteran, I know firsthand and understand the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform.
Meanwhile, our young men and women whose economic circumstances make military service a viable career choice are dying bravely in a war with no end in sight.
The Iraq war took priority over domestic disaster prevention.
The President is destroying the fabric of America with a combined policy of war, tax cuts for the wealthy, and reductions in spending for domestic needs.
As a Korean War Veteran, I know too well the troubling nature of war. This is why I will always support a diplomatic answer before military intervention.
The use of our military in combat should first require declaration of war. I have long called for reinstating the military draft, simply because I believe strongly that a national decision to go to war must also include a broad commitment to share its burdens. Whenever Congress decides to fund a war or other U.S. combat activities, it must provide a means to pay for it-then and there-not later. If we don't have the will to fully share the burdens of war, then we have no right to send our sons and daughters into harm's way.
I assume the president's going to say he got bad intelligence... I think that wherever you see poverty, whether it's in the white rural community or the black urban community, you see that the resources have been sucked up into the war and tax cuts for the rich.
A quality education grants us the ability to fight the war on ignorance and poverty.
The war has not changed the fact that our children need better schools, the sick need to be assured of patients' rights protections and our seniors need affordable prescription drug benefits,
I think America and the world wants us to show the outrage not by rhetoric, but by taking action,
I think it's wrong, whether it's President Clinton or President Bush, to take this extraordinary action without the direct support and consultation of the U.S. Congress as well as the U.N.,
Some of you know I've been reported as saying Eliot Spitzer is one of the smartest people in the world, if not the smartest. It takes a lot of political courage to reach out and make an independent decision.
We've opened up our doors to Mexico, Central and South America, to all of Asia, and here is the richest continent we've got, ... We have to start somewhere.