[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
                           THE AMERICAN DREAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Rangel) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RANGEL. I think I share the embarrassment of all of the Members 
of this great legislative body when it appears as though in our hands 
we have the ability to tell people, our creditors all over the country 
and the world, that for the first time in our Republic's history we are 
prepared to say we are not going to pay our debts.
  We're not doing this because of some pledges that we've signed or 
because of some commitment that some Members have made that they will 
never, never, never do anything in support of our President. They would 
never talk about raising revenue; that they will never vote for a bill, 
whether it's a health bill, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, 
education. If the President supports it, they just don't want it.
  I don't know how many Americans are really waking up this morning 
wondering exactly what would happen if we hold our country and our 
President hostage in order to reach just short political gain by people 
who have been recently elected and believe that compromise is 
unpatriotic instead of the legislative objective. But more important 
than the jobs that we would lose, the money that we would lose, the 
fact that government would have to be expanded and larger than it's 
ever been, what I'm really afraid of is that we lose the American Dream 
and create a scenario where that dream becomes a nightmare.
  I don't know what it is that made America so great. I can't imagine 
what kind of dream that someone could have in Europe or a foreign 
country and just believe that making it to America would be better than 
staying in their own country with their own language and with their own 
race of people. Yet these tens of thousands of people were prepared, in 
many cases to risk their lives, to come to participate in that American 
Dream. I can't imagine how people who have been snatched from Africa 
and brought in chains in the bottom of vessels and were actually sold 
as property, and yet, instead of saying that they want to go back to 
Africa, they adopted our Bible, they adopted American customs. But most 
importantly, with all of the obstacles that they had to overcome, they 
adopted the American Dream.
  What makes America so different is that we're one of the few 
countries that no matter what you look like or what your last name is, 
you can become an American. It's absolutely amazing the attractiveness 
that this dream has. Does it mean that a part of that dream is getting 
rich inheriting or getting property, having yachts and cars? No. It's 
having hope and dreams that you would be able to do better for 
yourself, your family, your kids, your grandkids, your community, and 
yes, our great country. It means that you're willing to make sacrifices 
to help others because even though you never fulfill that dream, the 
dream never, never stops. There's always the ability to say that even 
though I didn't make it, my kid is going to go to school. Even though I 
didn't make it, there's going to be the possibility that I'll be living 
in a better world--a world of peace, a world of harmony, a world that 
makes no difference where you came from, that you have a dream that can 
be fulfilled in this country.
  In other countries, you can't dream. How you're born is how you die. 
That's going to be your legacy. But in America, all of this is going to 
be placed in jeopardy because we don't have the guts to call out these 
people that obviously would rather have this dream shattered, not just 
for those people that are here but for people all over the world that 
watch us, and maybe they don't have the ability to come here and become 
a part of that American Dream still. Throughout the Middle East you see 
other people saying, I too can dream. I can be somebody.
  Don't let that dream become a nightmare. Support our President, 
support our fiscal system, and support that dream.

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