That he is my voice in Congress.
Text from a letter written to constituents on Dec. 29 2004.
You can reach him at CONTACT: Emile Milne (202) 225-4365
MAYBE NEXT YEAR
by Congressman Charles B. Rangel
WASHINGTON, December 29, 2004 -- As we close out the year 2004 with a catastrophic earthquake and tidal wave in Asia, we are reminded of the power of nature and the frailty of humankind. Even as we mourn for the tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters who have perished in that natural disaster, I remember, with bitter sadness, the calamities wrought on our nation by the deliberate actions of our leaders.
It has been nearly two years now since President Bush and his henchmen in the Administration moved to implement a plan to invade Iraq by exploiting the anger and fear born of the Nine-Eleven calamity. Iraq and Saddam Hussein were made the scapegoats for the terrorist attack. Americans were harangued by the President and Vice President, Secretary of Defense and State, and the National Security Advisor with warnings of the imminent threat of Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction and nuclear capability. None of it was true.
Whether the real motive for the invasion was domination of Middle East oil reserves, or an insane strategy to protect Israel, Americans were distracted by a pack of lies. In the meantime, the President's allies in Congress raided the U.S. treasury, yielding massive tax cuts for the rich while our poor and working-class soldiers were marched off to war.
We have paid a heavy price for the President's war of choice: 1 million troops deployed overall, 300,000 of them more than once; 1,325 killed, 100 of them on their second tours, 145 of them National Guardsmen or Reserves; 10,000 wounded in combat; 15,000 injured in battlefield accidents, 12,000 of them too severely to return to the front. As of last October, by one estimate, 160 have lost limbs; 200, all or part of their eyesight; and hundreds more have suffered head and spinal chord injuries.
In Upper Manhattan, we have lost Marine Staff Sgt. Riayan Tejeda, a 26-year-old father of two young children, in a battle in Baghdad on April 11, 2003. Dozens more, including members of our beloved 369th National Guard Regiment, have been placed in harm's way in Iraq. Some are grandparents, and most have left behind families who never expected they would be called on to sacrifice yet again for their country. In New York State, we have lost at least 45 dead in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Amid all of this no one has been asked to make any personal sacrifice or contribution. The brave and loyal troops and their families are given lip-service for their patriotism, while they continue to bear the burden of war as well as the economic cost of President Bush's policies.
The war's projected cost into next year is expected to reach $200 billion. The nearly $130 billion expended so far could have paid for 19 million children to attend a year in Head Start, or hired 2.5 million additional teachers, built 1.3 million housing units, or fully funded worldwide AIDS programs for 14 years.
But the biggest financial cost to Americans is the President's tax cuts. Drastic reductions in government revenues have turned a budget surplus at the start of the Bush Administration into a massive deficit and increase in the national debt, all of which will be passed down to our children and grandchildren. This decimation of the nation's wealth did nothing to stimulate jobs, as was advertised by the President. The highest income households benefited most, while Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, programs vital to the poor and middle-class, were put at risk. Where is the outrage?
While the number of children living in poverty increased by nearly 1 million to 13 million last year, while 36 million people lived below the poverty line, while half of the Black men in New York City were unemployed, where was the outrage? The silence of the churches, the synagogues and mosques in the midst of this assault on the poor and suffering borders on hypocrisy when pronouncements over same sex marriage take precedence over Matthew's admonition of compassion for the least of our brothers and sisters.
Maybe, someone has asked where you were and what you did during the struggles of Civil Rights Movement. Maybe you were too young to have been involved. Someday, someone else may ask, what were you doing when Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest were spreading war in the Middle East, sacrificing our children, and starving the poor.
Maybe we can spend next year doing something about it.
