[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 45 (Friday, April 2, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2135-H2136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to follow my 
fine colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), who I think 
touched on some very important points that we need to address in this 
Congress and we should not be leaving.
  Many of us to go back to our districts, some of us to go on Easter 
vacation, before we address this issue of unemployment benefits; and I 
think this issue illustrates for the country exactly how removed the 
United States Congress actually is from the problems that we are 
dealing with in middle America.
  It is easy for politicians to mouth words that somehow we are 
supposed to address the problems that we have in this country. But the 
American people are beginning to realize that the rhetoric that has 
been coming from the Nation's Capitol, the rhetoric that has been 
coming from this administration, has not been addressing the issues 
that face average working families in the State of Ohio. The 
unemployment rate actually crept up to 5.7 percent.
  Do we want jobs to be created in this country? Absolutely. You will 
never hear me, or I think any other Member of this body, somehow 
downplay job growth as if it is a bad thing. Because we want the 
American people to go back to work.
  But there is so much that needs to be done with this economy. Let us 
look for a second at the issue of the minimum wage. I want to talk 
about a couple of other issues, but for now we want to talk about the 
minimum wage.
  During most of the 1960s and 1970s, working at the minimum wage kept 
a family of three out of poverty. Today, that same family is 24 percent 
below the poverty level.
  The purchasing power of the current $5.15 per hour minimum wage is 
well below that of the 1960s and 1970s level. From its peak in 1968, 
the purchasing power of the minimum wage has declined over 36 percent.
  If you are wealthy in the United States of America, you are doing 
pretty well, and you get all the benefits

[[Page H2136]]

and all the energy of this legislative body to help you in any way 
necessary. You need tax cuts? We are for tax cuts. You need subsidies? 
We are for subsidies. Whatever it is that corporate America, the top 1 
and 2 percent of the people living in this country need, they get.
  But people living in the United States of America who want 
unemployment benefits, they are not working, their unemployment 
benefits are going to run out, this legislative body has no time for 
you. If you are making the minimum wage and you are 36 percent below 
the purchasing power the same wage of 1968, we do not have time for 
you.
  I think it is a shame that this Congress dictates its policies by who 
is contributing to the campaigns and who is making the biggest 
donations, and that is the problem. That is what the American people 
are going to have to decide in this next election that is coming up, is 
are the money people going to win out or the people who need help in 
this country?
  Look at the kind of future we are leaving to our kids. Almost a $600 
billion deficit. We give tax cuts now, we borrow money to pay for them, 
and we put the burden on our kids who are going to be left to foot the 
bill for this thing. It is wrong. It is a tax for our kids that they 
are eventually going to have to pay.
  We talk about outsourcing jobs and competing on a global economy. We 
are underfunding No Child Left Behind by $1.5 billion a year in the 
State of Ohio, $1.5 billion a year. We say we want everyone to 
participate in the global economy, we say we want to move the last 25 
percent of the kids in this country over the finish line, make them 
proficient, let them be happy, have the education they need to be able 
to compete in this country, but we are not willing to put the money up 
because we have to give tax cuts to the top 1 percent. That is the 
priority of this legislative body.
  If we are going to outsource and if we are going to compete on a 
global level, which everyone has seemed to have agreed that we need to 
do, then we better put the resources in educating our kids. We better 
make sure we have an adequate, livable wage for people. Because there 
is going to be displacement. We better make sure everybody has health 
care in this country.
  The American people are beginning to recognize that the rhetoric from 
this body and the rhetoric from this administration doesn't match the 
reality that needs to be addressed in middle America. It is time that 
we start addressing it.

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