[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 81 (Monday, June 14, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3955-H3960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         30-SOMETHING DEMOCRATS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett of New Jersey). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Meek) is recognized for the remainder of the time until 
midnight.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again, as I always start, it 
is an honor and a privilege to stand here and speak not only to Members 
of the House but also to the American people. And as the Members know, 
for several weeks now, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) has 
appointed a 30-Something working group to address the issues that are 
facing middle-class Americans throughout America and some of the issues 
that we need to work on to make sure that their voice is heard in this 
democracy and this U.S. House of Representatives.
  Lately, we have been having quite a bit of discussion on some of the 
issues that are facing democracy here in the United States, and we have 
been working with Rock the Vote in making sure that young voices are 
heard throughout this country to make sure that they have access to 
voting, to make sure that they know the things that they need to know 
to fight to register on their campus.
  There have been several reports that have been quite disturbing 
throughout the country. We encourage young people to go to 
rockthevote.com to find out more about voter suppression that is 
happening throughout this country. We also inform young people in the 
public and their parents that are also concerned about making sure that 
they are able to receive good information to go on the rockthevote.com 
site or the 30-something Dems site to make sure that they get 
information so that they can share it with supervisors of elections 
that are misinformed.
  Based out of that discussion, we received several e-mails, Mr. 
Speaker, of times that young people had to actually go get an attorney 
to register to vote. And I think that that is very unfortunate due to 
the fact that many of

[[Page H3956]]

us in this country are concerned about voter apathy, concerned about 
the 18- to 32-year-olds or 18- to 24-year-olds, the reason why they do 
not vote or the reason is not great enough for them to vote. We have to 
make sure that their voices are heard.
  And in this light, I want to share again with the American people 
that are watching us right now that in 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court 
spoke to this issue. It said if a person is enrolled in school and 
needs to be out of state or in state, they have the right to register 
where they are attending school. That is so very important.
  The reason why I mention that is the fact that, as we start looking 
at issues that are hindering young Americans from being able to educate 
themselves, that once they leave that higher education opportunity that 
they are given in their State or another State, they should not leave 
that educational experience in debt. When they leave that experience in 
great debt because of student loans, because the President said that he 
was going to raise the Pell grant opportunities for young people that 
would like to educate themselves, middle-age people that would like to 
educate themselves, to $5,100 versus what we are experiencing now, a 
little bit over $4,000 and some change, that is more a reality now for 
young Americans than fiction. So I want to make sure that they have the 
opportunity to vote.
  As we cut the Federal commitment here in Washington, D.C., States do 
not have what we have, the opportunity to put it on a credit card and 
continue the deficit clock is running. Right now the deficit is well 
out of control, and we are experiencing the highest deficit in the 
history of the Republic. The States do not have that opportunity. They 
have to balance their budget. When they balance their budget, they then 
pass that cost on to local government and in this case to State 
university systems that then ask students to pay more money for tuition 
and for services that ordinarily they would receive at a lower cost or 
for free.
  The educational experience is quite financial these days, and I think 
it is important that these individuals or the young people or middle-
age individuals, even in the community college experience, that they 
understand that they have an opportunity to have their voice heard in 
November; and it is very important that they are able to not only have 
their voices heard in November but also during the primary season to 
let it be known that they are voters too. They are our future, and it 
is important that we stand with them and for them.

                              {time}  2320

  On another point, and I am just going back to some of the e-mails we 
received, I think it is important for us to talk a little bit about 
what we are experiencing here today, Mr. Speaker, even though we have 
seen a 6 cents or 5 cents in some areas, 3 cents in others, drop in gas 
prices.
  I will share with you even from my great State of Florida that this 
is really putting a crunch on the middle-class. They did not receive an 
additional dollar from an employer or a small business person did not 
receive more dollars from a bank to be able to deal with the gas price 
crunch that we have right now.
  I have a chart here, Mr. Speaker, if I can just share it here with 
the American people what has happened over the last 2 years in America. 
In 2002, the gas prices were $1.44. This is just for regular grade gas, 
the retail prices. Then in 2003 it was raised to $1.60 here. Then in 
2004 it skyrocketed, and it was projected to be $1.87. Now, May 31, in 
recent numbers of this year, it is now up to $2.05.
  I know some Americans are looking and saying, ``I want to know where 
I can find $2.05 gas.'' Before I came here to the floor, I was going to 
fill up my tank, and then I hesitated and I said hopefully tomorrow 
will be a better day. We cannot judge our spending based on the fact, 
middle-class spending, based on the fact maybe the gas prices will be 
cheaper tomorrow, and in many instances throughout America it is going 
to be quite a lot higher.
  OPEC has done some things that are very interesting. They have put 
more crude on the market now to try to deal with the issue of gas 
prices. But I will tell you that this administration has to have a 
better response than to try to encourage OPEC to do something that is 
short-term.
  This is a real issue. We have Americans that are trying to work, 
trying to get to work, trying to use mass transit, and at the same time 
we are trying to find some of the solutions to be able to alleviate the 
financial burden of American families at the same time we are stalling 
legislation here in this House.
  There is a Federal highway bill. The President has also said he would 
veto it due to a bipartisan effort here in this House to make sure we 
are able to give States the necessary dollars for the roads, bridges 
and modes of transportation to be able to help the middle-class and 
help working Americans.
  I am here today as a witness from a State that we have individuals 
that wake up and go to work every day, young Americans that are trying 
to do the things they have to do to be able to meet the obligations of 
their family. And so many of those individuals that are watching us now 
with one eye open, they have to wake up. Their reality is at 6 a.m. in 
the morning to get their kids ready for school and make sure they have 
what they need. If they are fortunate to have transportation or can 
afford to fill that tank up, take them to school, go to work. These are 
individuals that know what it means for a 15-minute break in the 
morning, a strict half an hour lunch break, punch in and out, and 15 
minutes in the afternoon.
  These same working individuals, I must add, and I am not talking 
about individuals that are not contributing to our economy in the way 
they should and trying to support their families, these are the same 
individuals that are a part of the 43 million Americans that are 
working every day that do not have health care.
  I think it is so very, very important for us to take up this point, 
the fact there is not a bill that is being considered in this Congress 
that will see the light of day at any time in the very near future that 
will be a national health care plan so individuals will have an 
opportunity to provide for themselves, to provide adequate health care.
  If you want to talk about a health savings plan that the President 
has proposed, under these gas prices, under the strain American 
families already have, there is not a lot of room about talking about 
okay, we are going to save in case I get sick. They need preventive 
care. They have to have it, their children need to have it, and it is 
important to prioritize that.
  If we are going to make tax cuts permanent for the millionaires in 
this country, knowing of the unmet needs of being able to finds 
alternative fuel sources here in the United States, to be able to pull 
back on our dependency on crude oil, that I believe has a lot to do 
with our American troops as I speak on guard in Iraq and in the Middle 
East, and if we are going to be able to set forth an America that is 
set for young people and families that are trying to do the best they 
can to provide for their families, something has to give, Mr. Speaker.
  The 30-something group is working toward solutions, not just 
identifying these problems, but solutions, and continuing to put 
pressure on this administration to make sure that the President knows 
that it is very important that we do some of the things that American 
people need.

  One, we need to make sure that on this gas issue that Americans do 
not have to find themselves going to a gas station and saying ``give me 
$5 worth.'' Now, that is something that I used to do when I was in 
college. There was a time in college when you are financially 
challenged, you probably do not have the opportunity, I know I did not, 
to fill my tank up every time I showed up at the pumps, but it was 
something I knew was temporary in nature.
  But individuals that have jobs that work every day trying to provide 
for their families, they should not pull up with a child seat in the 
back and say, ``Give me $5, because that is all I can afford, and 
hopefully it will last me for a day or two if I do not turn on my air 
conditioner.''
  This is reality in America right now. We are at war now. A lot of 
folks feel throughout the world we are at war because of oil and our 
dependency on oil. Is there a real move from this administration to 
take us off that dependency of Middle Eastern oil?

[[Page H3957]]

  I think it is important for us if we are going to hold Saudi Arabia's 
feet to the fire that this administration should stand up to Saudi 
Arabia and stop making excuses for them. I think it is also important 
for us to realize we have to find alternative ways of finding fuel and 
encouraging more cleaner burning vehicles.
  I think it is also important for us to realize that we have to do 
some work here in America in trying to find new oil resources within 
our own control, but also be very sensitive not to go into natural 
environmental areas in this country that we have great respect for, 
that we would turn into an example that we chastise other countries for 
doing. I think that this could definitely be able to assist us in our 
efforts in keeping gas prices down.
  My talk here tonight is about making sure that individuals that have 
children, or do not have children that are trying to make this time in 
their lives from college on to 40, 45, and on, and even grandparents 
that are now stepping in, or the parents of these children that I am 
mentioning in this age range, that are trying to provide not only 
information, but provide financial assistance to their children because 
they are not able to make ends meet, it is in that vein.
  I think that it is important for us to remember that declining real 
wages are putting a squeeze on middle-class Americans, and that gas 
prices have a lot to do with it.
  I also want to share with you that in the last 3 months, average 
wages in the United States increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent, 
but what is sad is the fact that during this same time, the most recent 
stage of so-called Americans that actually have worked, took a pay cut 
as relates to the costs they had to spend for their health care.
  So in this circle of not doing anything at all, in this circle of not 
passing a transportation bill that is going to help not only States be 
able to stimulate more jobs or be able to help us to find alternative 
ways of finding fuel outside of the Middle East, we are at a standstill 
now, and we are at a standstill that Americans are actually suffering. 
We are at a standstill of their voices being heard.
  I think it is important that Americans understand that this Federal 
Government has chosen, this administration has chosen to make sure that 
millionaires receive a permanent tax cut over health care for working 
Americans, over making sure that we are able to keep gas prices down so 
that Americans can be able to continue doing the things that they are 
trying to do and providing for their families, over a prescription drug 
benefit for seniors.
  So when we start talking about the middle-class and we start talking 
about the 30-somethings and the 20-somethings and even those 
individuals who are looking forward to getting to that particular age, 
we look at all of these impediments. So our government is supposed to 
be here to assist, not to hinder. I do not think that anyone sets out 
at the beginning of the day saying, ``Well, let's see what I can do to 
throw a log in front of young people in America.''

                              {time}  2330

  But I think it is important for us to bring into question this 
upcoming election season whose side are you on when it comes down to 
the policies that are either being made or not being made in the 
process.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to just share a few other issues as it relates 
to what is happening to so many young people, and as we look at the 
squeeze of what is happening with the gas prices, as we look at the 
squeeze of what is not happening as it relates to health care, and what 
I mentioned at the top of the hour, voter suppression; and I know that 
this Congress has tried to deal with that. I have to mention, when we 
talked about a couple of weeks ago, the issue of Iraq, and I am going 
to come back to the middle-class squeeze.
  In some of these families we have troops that are serving and we have 
parents that are raising children on their own. Now, they receive 
correspondence, they also receive support from the spouse or the 
significant other that is fighting on behalf of this country of what 
they have been told to do in Iraq and Afghanistan and other areas. We 
even have troops in Haiti as I speak right now trying to provide some 
way of life for that country, and security. No one is giving anyone a 
gas voucher to that spouse or significant other to make room for this 
squeeze. They have to suck it up. So this is very, very important 
business that I am talking about here this evening.
  My good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), we 
have been working together for some time; we had a very late night 
tonight, we had a hearing in the Committee on Armed Services, a markup, 
which is disappointing at best; but this may be a time that we can talk 
about that. The gentleman represents Ohio, and they have been hit hard 
on this middle-class squeeze. A lot of people that are around the 
gentleman's age range and even above have experienced economic hard 
times on top of not having a job, on top of not having health care, 
even though small businesses in the gentleman's State that are trying 
to provide and trying to continue to keep the workers working, they are 
taking a squeeze, they are taking a hit on the gas prices. So I think 
that not only the gentleman being a Member of the Congress and being a 
very insightful person, that the gentleman's purpose here is even 
greater to give those individuals voice, and I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I think he 
is absolutely right. In places like Ohio, things are very difficult. 
The $300, $400, $500 increase over the course of a year in the gas 
effects people's lives. I know the gentleman from Florida is also 
concerned. But, Mr. Speaker, I have been very disappointed tonight, 
because several of the Special Orders tried to, I guess, address issues 
and make persuasive arguments I think that really do not exist, and one 
just wonders to oneself what the communities are like where these 
people are living. I know in Youngstown, Ohio, and in Niles, Ohio and 
in Warren, Ohio, and in Akron, Ohio, that people are feeling the 
squeeze; and people are losing jobs that pay $20, $25 an hour, health 
care benefits, pensions, 401(k)s, defined benefit plans, and they are 
losing those jobs, and the jobs that are being created are jobs that 
are paying $7, $8, $9, $10 an hour and no health care, in addition to 
the gas prices, in addition to these people trying to send their kids 
to school or to college. In Ohio, as I am sure it is going on around 
the country, that increase in tuition is 10 percent, 15 percent every 
single year.
  So the reason we are here, the reason we want to talk about these 
issues is because we think something needs to be done. I do not believe 
that we should just sit here and criticize, although I do believe that 
is part of our constitutional responsibility, to make sure that we 
identify our platform where we want to take the country and we compare 
that to where the country is or where the opposite political party 
would like to take the country; and we try to make a comparison. I just 
want to share a couple of ideas that are the Democratic proposals for 
some of the education squeeze issues that people are feeling.

  Senator Kerry, Presidential candidate Kerry, has several plans that 
we also agree with here in the Congress. A couple of them I would like 
to share with the American people here tonight. One of them is a tax 
credit for $4,000 for anyone who sends their kid to school or they are 
paying for their own school; $4,000 a year tax credit. Phenomenal. Not 
terrible; phenomenal. I think that is the kind of direction that we 
want to go in, when we can say to a young student, we are going to be 
here, the government is going to be here to support you.
  Now, some people may say, what is the responsibility of the Federal 
Government on the issue of education, at least on the issue of college 
education? Well, some of it is Pell grants where we can give actual 
grants. When the Pell grant program was started in the middle of the 
1970s, it accounted for almost 80 percent of a person's college 
tuition. Today, the Pell grant accounts for nearly 40 percent of a 
person's college tuition. So the buying power of the Pell grant program 
has decreased, almost cut in half. President Bush, when he campaigned 
in 2000, said that he was going to increase the amount invested into 
the Pell grant program so that young students would have the 
opportunity to go to college, but that just

[[Page H3958]]

was not the case. So one of our proposals is to also increase the 
amount of funding for the Pell grant program.
  Another specific proposal that I think is something that we really 
need to look into and hopefully act on the first of next year, although 
many people believe that we cannot wait, is the issue of the States not 
having the money, the resources to invest. Many of the colleges in the 
States are publicly funded through the State tax coffers, so the State 
aid to universities in Ohio, for example, has decreased. And because 
the State aid has decreased, the local universities and colleges have 
been forced to raise tuition to compensate for the lack of State 
funding. One of the issues that we are proposing here is to have $25 
billion given across the country to the States with one provision: this 
money is to go to reduce the increases in tuition; this money is to go 
directly for State aid to our colleges. This will have a direct impact. 
It will lower the cost of tuition for many of these universities; it 
will allow access.
  Since 2001, I believe the statistic is, and I will have to get it, 
but I think it was 2001, 250,000 potential students, college-eligible, 
qualified to attend, proper test scores, proper GPAs, would be able to 
access the college system. I say to the gentleman, 250,000 have not 
been able to go to school because they cannot afford it. In the United 
States of America, that is unacceptable.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, that 
was the U.S. Department of Education report.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes. This was not the Kendrick Meek Report, this 
was not the Tim Ryan Report, this was not the Democratic Caucus report. 
This was the U.S. agency's report. I just think it is important for 
people who are listening here tonight to say is that we can do better 
in the United States of America. Why would we want 250,000 people who 
want to go to college be somehow prohibited from going to college 
because of their financial situation? We know that if we invest in 
these people; and we did a study, I say to the gentleman, when I was in 
the State Senate in Ohio, the University of Akron did a study. For 
every dollar that the State would invest into higher education, they 
would get almost $2, there were two or three studies, but they would 
get almost $2 back from tax revenues.

                              {time}  2340

  Because you get someone who graduates from high school, goes out and 
is working somewhere for seven, eight bucks an hour and paying taxes on 
seven, eight bucks an hour as opposed to someone who is college 
educated making 40 or $50,000 a year paying taxes on 40 or $50,000 a 
year. It makes sense for us to invest. We have to get return on our 
investments. That is not the reason we are doing it but we know the 
societal benefits. Less racism, more tolerance for people from 
different cultures, different walks of life, different religions, and 
not to mention the added benefit to our economy, the entrepreneurship 
and everything else. So the point is this is an investment we should 
make.
  The University of Akron study is applied to this particular proposal 
of $25 billion. It would mean an increase in revenues to the States by 
$50 billion. Each State would get $1 billion.
  Now, you go to a State like Ohio or Florida and say Governor Bush, 
Governor Taft, what would you do with an extra billion dollars? You 
would pump it right back into education. You would pump it back into 
health care. You would make sure your kids are healthy. You would be 
able to fund the No Child Left Behind that is underfunded.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let me share with you, we received a rebate in 
the State of Florida of a billion dollars. And the State Governor Jeb 
Bush said, let us hold it off to next annual year versus trying to 
resolve some of the issues that are facing Floridians right now.
  I am going to tell you nine times out of ten if it is the wrong 
governor or the wrong way of thinking of continuing to way say, well, I 
am here to make sure that we do the right thing with the people's 
money, well, let me just say this, nine times out of ten when things 
are held off it is in the kitty to justify another tax cut for 
individuals and for big corporations that are not necessarily on their 
knees and need it right now. They are carrying out the tax cuts because 
they cannot because they need to.
  When the gentleman talked about that report, basically colleges and 
community colleges are not able to provide the courses for the 
individuals that would like to educate themselves. Right now, I just 
want to read something almost from the same report that was given to 
us. The fact that we talk about the 30 percent, we talk about the 
250,000 college qualified students that have been shut out of last 
fall, 2003, in many cases because of cutbacks, because colleges will 
have to pull their belts tighter and cut courses. They just did not 
have the room to be able to adequately serve these students. Also as we 
start looking at the debt issue, Mr. Ryan, I mentioned earlier that 
many people are leaving the college experience in debt and right now.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Big time debt.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We have individuals now that are ungraduate 
level and just to do a comparison between what happened in 1997 to 
2000, and if you move beyond that you really start getting in trouble. 
But here between 1997 and 2000 the typical undergraduate debt rose 66 
percent to $18,900. And more than a quarter of today's 14 million 
undergraduate students will incur more than $25,000 in debt to earn 
their degree.
  Now, that is a good story because I know of stories that individuals 
leave the higher education experience 75,000, $100,000 in debt.
  Now, you mention that yes, we are here to point those issues out but 
at the same time we are here to talk about solutions, and there is 
legislation on this side of the aisle from the Democrats with our 
fearless leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) that has 
served this Congress so well as the Democratic leader, and wants the 
opportunity to be Speaker of this House, so to summon these issues that 
are facing real Americans can rise to the top, need it be carrying out 
if the American people would have it, Senator Kerry's plan which 
hopefully will be President Kerry, or Members of this body that want to 
be see this legislation top shelf in this House. But now we have 
Republicans that are blocking legislation to lock low interest rates 
in, to allow students to be able to continue to receive low interest 
rates versus a variable in the long run. They will pay more if this is 
not taken care of.
  I will tell you that if we go to a variable as some of the big banks 
want us to do, I will tell you right now they are not talking to me 
because they know they will be wasting their time because I am all 
about being on the side of the individual who tried to educate 
themselves, and unfortunately had to go beyond the call to pay for that 
education. It will cost those individuals $5,500 over time. That is 
real money. That is while you are trying to buy a house. That is while 
you are trying to provide for your family.
  I will tell the gentleman right now this is a real issue. We talk 
about the dollars and cents. This is a Democratic proposal. Lock it. 
Make sure the individuals have what they can be able to have, more 
money in their pocket versus more money out of their pocket.

  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The official Democratic proposal says that the 
Democrats would double the maximum petroleum grant to $11,600. Now, for 
many people that will cover pretty much most of your college 
television.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. That is correct. Right now we are experiencing 
the highest deficit in the history of the republic. And you would 
assume that if we have the highest deficit and it was Democrats that 
balanced the budget. I just want to remind the American people of that 
in this Congress, it was not the Republicans, it was not the Republican 
President. It was the Democrats in this House that balanced the budget. 
Just 3\1/2\ years ago, the discussion was on the floor on what are we 
going to do with the surplus. Now the discussion is, can I take my 
credit card out? This is a big number.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is a big number.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. A big number. And I will tell you right now if 
we had a little ticker here these zeros would be moving to a higher 
number as we speak. So the experience now that the American people have 
to witness and

[[Page H3959]]

this is the U.S. Treasury credit card here, and we have Republican 
Congress there. What we are experiencing now is that every 3 weeks we 
are knocking on the bank of China saying, can you loan us money to be 
able to pay down on the debt? So as we look at that, more money in the 
American people's pocket versus out of their pocket.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are talking Democrat and Republican. And there 
are several Republicans I think who have taken a very courageous stand 
on this particular issue. If you had an opportunity today to read the 
New York Times, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) I believe had 
a marvelous, marvelous letter to the editor, or op-ed today. It was 
phenomenal and I cannot say enough about it.
  It basically said that the Federal Government should be directly 
loaning money to students. We do not need the banks involved in this. I 
do not think the banks are inherently bad people, but why would I give 
money to you for you to give it to somebody else and then you charge me 
more and I give you a little bit more so you can make a profit and then 
you give somebody else the money? We insure your loan. We guarantee 
you. So the Federal Government gives the money to the banks or we 
guarantee it to the banks so the banks takes no risk at all. Why not 
eliminate the banks, directly lend to the students, and give them the 
money and tell them to go to school and tell them that we are going to 
give him or her and many students like him or her around the country 
$25 billion. And when it is all said and done, we are going to make $50 
billion on the deal.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Is the gentleman actually suggesting that we do 
something that will actually help the students? Are you suggesting 
that?
  Mr. RYAN of ohio. I am working on it. I do not want to be so bold but 
we need to start peeking in that direction.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I have a Bachelor of Science Degree, and I am 
not an economist, but one would argue, well, if we take the banks out 
of it, what kind of effect will it have on the economy? And I think 
very little. If any of us that have gone to banks knowing the kinds of 
praying at the alter, at the end of the day to be able to get money, 
for them to trust us enough to pay them back, it reminds me of the 
pharmaceutical companies in the prescription drugs.
  I think the pharmaceutical companies are doing good things in 
America, in research, things of that nature, but when you look beyond 
the blankets of all of that we are paying, it is subsidized research. 
With the banks we are guaranteeing their loans.

                              {time}  2350

  So the real issues for that individual that is trying to educate him- 
or herself, this feeds also to the parents that we are talking 30-
something, but individuals that are 50- or 60-something, high 40s, they 
are picking up the slack, and they are paying the interest 9 times out 
of 10 for young people because they cannot afford it.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Because the Federal Government guarantees the 
loans, now the banks have no real incentive to go capture somebody who 
defaulted on their loan. Why would they? They are going to get 
reimbursed anyway from us. So, actually, the Federal Government, if we 
eliminated the banks or removed the banks from this process, we would 
lend the money directly, and there would be more incentive for us to go 
and capture people who defaulted on the loans that we gave them. We 
would want there to be incentive because we would get the money back. 
The banks are going to get their money one way or the other. They are 
either going to get it from the student or the Federal Government. So 
there is no real incentive.
  Again, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) was phenomenal today 
in his op-ed, and I cannot say enough about his courage to say if you 
are a conservative, if you do believe in the private, free markets, 
this kind of government intervention with the banks and playing all 
these games is no way to do it. It was very articulate, and I commend 
him for doing that and having the courage to do that.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is all depending on the kind of 
leadership that we will have come November, and I, for one, believe 
that the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who believes in some 
of the things that we are talking about here tonight, making sure that 
children or young people receive the opportunity that they need to be 
able to move in the direction, that they would like to move in to make 
this country strong, also making a decision like you just mentioned, 
what will be best for the American young person or the American family.
  I mentioned early in our time here tonight the crunch, the squeeze on 
the middle class, the gas issue, and you have the gas chart there. We 
talked about voter suppression, also. We did a little cutback on that, 
but I think it is important when we talk about the middle class squeeze 
that folks say, well, you know, I received a $35 check in the mail and 
I am so glad or $100 back in my middle class tax cut, but I will tell 
my colleague, this gas thing is very real.
  This is not the Tim Ryan report or the Kendrick Meek report. We 
actually do a little homework before we get to the floor. We spend the 
week making sure we get this information so that we are factual and we 
are sharing it with the American people, the good, bad and ugly, but 
according to the Forbes Magazine, it says the gas price increase since 
the beginning of this year cost Americans $35 billion. That is a big 
number, much more than the 15 to 20 billion middle class consumers got 
from the Bush tax cuts this April.
  I think it is important for us to continue to bring these facts to 
the table because it is money in one pocket and it is more money out of 
the other pocket. I will tell you right now that is playing with the 
economy of families and will continue to do so, and it is important 
that we share this information with them.
  We are asking on this side of the aisle the opportunity to lead, an 
opportunity to cut the deficit, an opportunity to be able to make sure 
that young people have greater opportunities in the future to make 
America strong and investing in U.S. jobs here versus overseas.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, with 
regards to what you were just talking about in the middle class 
squeeze, and I do not know if you had an opportunity to talk about this 
or not, but I think it is so fundamental to everything that we are 
talking about tonight.
  CEO wages average $8.1 million, 300 times that of the average worker 
in the United States of America, 300 times. Now, we are not begrudging 
those people. God bless them. You are in America. Make as much money as 
you possibly can. Unfortunately, taxes on wages earned average almost 
24 percent. So if you are out working 40, 50, 60 hours a week, make a 
wage, 24 percent. Taxes on income from investments like stocks and 
bonds average less than 10 percent.
  There is a shift in our tax code, our tax system, where we are moving 
the burden to wage earners. We are reducing the burden for those people 
who make money on stocks and bonds that has begun to divide the 
country, and there is this gap that is being created for the people who 
have a lot and the people who do not have too much.
  I think it is dangerous, and I want to share with my colleague a 
conversation I was having last week with an old school Republican, 
moderate, conservative, fiscally balanced budgets. I will not mention 
his name, but he was saying how this kind of system that we are running 
right now, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the 
middle class gets squeezed and tax burden goes on to those people who 
earn wages and the taxes are reduced for those people who make money on 
stocks and bonds and everything else, when we have a trading system 
that removes the good jobs to other places like China and India and 
they are not replaced by good paying jobs, where there is no health 
care, where people cannot find good employment, we begin to jeopardize 
the whole system. We begin to put the whole system at risk because we 
lose the stability that we need to have, and poor countries have 
revolutions because the poor get so poor that they just take up arms.

  Now, I am not suggesting we are at that point, but we are beginning 
to move in a direction where the very rich donate money to this place. 
They get the laws they want, the free trade agreements that they want, 
the tax

[[Page H3960]]

structure that they want, the cuts in government that they want, the 
investments in government that they want, defense spending and 
something where the big companies can make a lot of money. There is no 
stabilizing force, and that is what the government is here for. We are 
here to stabilize this democracy and stabilize this country, and we 
have always been that country where people can look and say here is the 
middle class, the average people have an opportunity, average people 
are going to get educated, average people are going to have health 
care; everyone is going to have health care; everyone is going to have 
an education.
  I think we take a step back and we look how the government and what 
we are talking about, the investments that we are talking about, have a 
stabilizing force on our society as a whole and allow us to be that 
kind of example that we want to be for the rest of the world.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say I do not think 
anyone on this floor could have shared in a way that the gentleman just 
summed it up and what he just shared with the American people. It is 
choices that one has to make.
  I believe that people are going to make the right choice this 
upcoming election season. I have said it before. President, commander-
in-chief, I do not envision him as what you might say a textbook 
Republican. I think he is something else. I think he is trying to take 
the country to another level, to where a number of Members of this 
House are not, and I think some of them are on the other side, and I 
think that they have gone to see the wizard to get courage and heart to 
be able to speak out against the present administration. So while we 
are trying to tell the rest of the world how a democracy works, it is 
going to be up to the American people ultimately to be able to stand in 
judgment of this Congress, Democrat and Republican, and also this 
President of making sure that we move in the next 4 years towards a 
safer, sounder, more job generating America, an America that is 
healthy, that has health care, so that we do not have literally 
millions of Americans experiencing emergency room health care.
  With that, I would say that we should try to run to catch the back 
end of David Letterman's monologue tonight and come back next week with 
solutions to problems but also pointing out the good, bad and ugly so 
that we can come clean with the American people so they can be able to 
make a sound judgment in a letter or e-mail that they may send to their 
Member of Congress or the President of the United States.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That would be great. I will be here. Would you like 
for me to share the Web site?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Do that Web site real quick. Then we are going 
to take this back to the Speaker.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Send us an e-mail if you would like, to 
[email protected]. We would love to hear any personal 
stories or opinions on the topics we discussed, and I would like to 
thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) for all his leadership.

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