[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11666]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IN GOD WE TRUST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Rangel) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RANGEL. Good morning, my colleagues.
  Like most of you, I have taken so many things around this wonderful 
Capitol for granted. And this beautiful statement, ``In God We Trust,'' 
unfortunately for me has been one of them. It has not really struck me 
like the pledge of allegiance to the flag or the ``Star Spangled 
Banner'' or so many other things.
  But I think that now is the time that we really need God to guide us 
to do the right and the moral thing. And the reason we have to do it is 
because we're dealing with something that is basic to all religions and 
faiths and this is our responsibility to make certain that we balance 
our budget, do what is fiscally necessary for our great Nation to 
survive. But also to do it in such a way that the poor and the 
vulnerable, who have nothing to do with the crisis that we face, are 
not hurt.
  So I guess this is what we're talking about when we say ``In God We 
Trust.''
  But God works through us. We are the tools. We have the 
responsibility of the missionaries. We don't have lobbyists that come 
down to say protect those people. And I guess this is one of the 
reasons why this saying here is a constant reminder to us that even 
though we're carried away with our ability to create statutes, that we 
respect our court system and the Supreme Court, in the final analysis 
it's the higher authority of morality that should be guiding all of us.
  Recently, I called upon religious leaders to help us in this 
guidance, to make the right decisions--Christians, Catholics, 
Protestants, Muslims, Mormons, Jews, and gentiles. And I was so pleased 
that a long and dear friend named Jim Wallis--he's a Lutheran pastor, 
was an adviser to the President, and just yesterday he brought in a 
group of ministers to help the President to make the moral decision as 
he struggles so hard to make the proper decision as it affects our 
budget and how we're going to reduce our deficit.
  But the things that he had cited, like Matthews, ``Truly I tell you, 
whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, 
you did for me,'' what it is, is that whatever you have done to assist 
a poor person or those who are not as strong physically and financially 
as you and I that you really did this, in a sense, for Jesus because 
you have done the right thing.
  And then he goes on to have something that sounds like statutes when 
it says: Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write 
oppressive decrees--oppressive decrees--depriving the needy of justice 
and robbing poor people of their rights.
  Is health care a right? Is Social Security a right? Is decent 
housing, education, the pursuit of happiness--is all of this a right? 
And does this permeate the entire budget and every decision that we're 
trying to make?
  Well, in these statements that he made, we have the Torah that says 
the same thing: If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of 
the towns of the land, we have a responsibility. The Koran indicates: 
Believe in Allah and his messengers and spend on charity.
  And so my brothers and sisters, it seems to me that now is the time 
for us to really get in touch with the Gang of Six because it seems 
like nobody in the House of Representatives has any clue as to what 
ultimately the President and his advisers will decide. Certainly the 
Senate doesn't know what we will decide.
  But somehow we should include not just the question of revenue, not 
just the question of trillions of dollars to be cut, but in the course 
of these negotiations to think of the lesser of our brothers and 
sisters. Remember that it is a part of our very lives in saying ``in 
God we trust'' and to know that you just can't cut services without 
losing jobs.
  In other words, when you have people who are jobless, homeless, who 
lost their savings, these are God's children and they need hope for the 
future.
  So thank you for once again giving me this opportunity. And what 
words could better express what I've been trying to say, and that is, 
Mr. Speaker, ``in God we trust.''

                          ____________________