mr. speaker , i yield myself 30 seconds .  mr. speaker , perhaps the gentleman from new york ( mr. rangel )  is not aware that the senate has included the alternative minimum tax in their reconciliation tax package .  they have already voted on it .  so there is no need to provide any assurance from the house side , because the senate has already included it .  but , again , that is reality .  the economy is not good because the president told us so .  leading economic indicators tell us so : the unemployment numbers , the productivity numbers .  the real problem with my friends on the other side of the aisle is that if reality does not coincide with their rhetoric , they choose rhetoric rather than reality .  