[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 1, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H145-H151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE 30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to come before the
House of Representatives once again. I want to give a special thanks to
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and also Democrat whip Steny Hoyer and
our chairman, Mr. Jim Clyburn, for leading us in the way that Americans
are now seeing that we are moving in the right direction.
Just today, Mr. Speaker, we had an election of Mr. John Larson, who
has become the vice chairman of our caucus. We are continuing to move
in this area of not only bright ideas about also a forward lean to make
America stronger.
It is also a great day for us to reflect on where we have been and
where we want to go as a country. And I think it is important to take
note of what took place last night. We had the State of the Union
address. We were all there. We paid very close attention to what the
President had to say, the Commander in Chief, about his vision for this
country. Also, some of the vision was embraced by all of us. Some of
the vision was embraced by a few of us. And some of the vision that he
was saying that he had we heard once before as a vision.
A reporter called me, Mr. Speaker, and asked me for a response to the
President's address, and I had to scratch my head for a moment because
it was a lot of what we heard in the past. Theme language. We have to
get tough on them before they get tough on us, we heard that before. We
have to fight them over there so we do not have to fight them here, we
have heard that before. We have to stay the course, we have heard that
before. A lot of themes, a lot of slogans. I think what the American
people were looking for was some direction on where we are going to go
and how we are going to get there, sending a very strong message to our
young people, to our middle-aged people, and also to our seniors that
are out there, also to our troops. And I think it is so very important
that we pay very close attention to what our troops are learning and
what they are hearing from this Congress and what they are not hearing
as it relates to the direction that we are going on the stateside. When
I say state, dealing with diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan and other
areas, and also as it relates to something as simple as body armor and
also continued support for our troops.
Of course, I did not see anyone say that we do not support the
troops. We
[[Page H146]]
all support the troops. Every American supports the troops. I think it
is important for us to understand that we have to make sure that they
have what they need. And, Mr. Speaker, as you know, this 30-Something
Working Group meets constantly to not only promote the ideas that are
bipartisan in nature but also the ideas that on the Democratic side we
want to share that not only with the majority side but also with the
Americans, and I think it is important.
I think it is important for us to even look at issues as it relates
to national security. We must stand behind the American military. That
is what the President said. But I want to make sure that everyone
understands, here on this side of the aisle and I would even say a
couple of my friends on the majority side, Democrats were calling and
have been calling for the last 3 years for implementing plans to
strengthen and revitalize our overstretched military at this time. It
is also important for us to understand that we have to be ready to
fight other wars and other conflicts when they do arise, and we need to
make sure that we are ready. We need to make sure we have Humvees. We
have to make sure we have the body armor. We have to make sure that we
have a clear task and mission so that our men and women know exactly
what their purpose is, they know what their mission will be, and they
know when they will be coming home. It is not a big secret to say when
you are coming home. Maybe it is a secret as to when you are leaving to
go to war, but when you are coming home is something that I think our
troops need to know. We hear little words like, well, they just want to
stop or they just want to cut and run or whatever the case may be. You
can use your slogans, but what we are now seeing in the polling, Mr.
Speaker, is that American people are saying, You have to be a little
clearer with us on this. You just cannot say, well, stay the course, we
will stay there as long as we need to be there. Well, that would be
great. I am pretty sure many of our U.S. city mayors, many of whom just
left town, Mr. Speaker, would love to hear, with our community
development blocks grants or what they had with their COPS program that
they no longer have the funding from the Federal Government. If the
President were to say we are going to stay the course in those areas
and make sure that we build small and big communities, that we are
going to stay the course in making sure that police officers have the
dollars they need to be able to get the things that they need to fight
crime in communities and have afterschool programs, that we are going
to stay the course, they would love to hear that. But fiscal
responsibility and just simple common sense, Mr. Speaker, would say
that you have to be able to set some benchmarks. You just cannot say I
would like to spend billions of dollars and do not ask any questions
and if you do, you are being a pessimist.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that Mr. Ryan has
joined us, and it is so good to be back here in 2006 with the 30-
Something Group once again.
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back with the
gentleman again.
I think the word that needs to be applied to this conversation is
``accountability,'' and this is something that the 30-Somethings have
talked about since we started. Being Democrats, we want to talk about
accountability. We have a responsibility when we get the taxpayers'
money that we are not just going to spend it and not ask any questions.
And if the program is not working the way it is supposed to work, we
are not for just throwing more money at the problem because that does
not work. We want to talk about accountability.
But before we can even begin the conversation about accountability
with programs and local communities, the COPS program, schools and
everything else, there needs to be accountability here in this Chamber.
And I believe that the Republican majority in the House and in the
Senate and in the White House has really not been held accountable for
what they have been doing. If you look at the budget deficits that we
have right now, and the 30-Something Group cares about this because
this is our generation that is going to have to foot the bill for this
thing, $500 billion more spent last year than we took in in tax
revenue. So we borrow it from the Chinese, from the Saudi Arabians,
from the Japanese. We have borrowed more money in the last 4 years, and
Kendrick will show this, from 2000 to 2004.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want Mr. Ryan to talk about this.
I know it is a chart that I usually speak from, but he is making a
valid point here and I think that the Members need to be able to see
it.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate you sharing, and I bet when you were
in grade school that your teachers put on there ``Kendrick Meek plays
well with others.''
Mr. MEEK of Florida. And governs well with others, and that is
something we want to do here in this Chamber on the majority side. We
want to move in a bipartisan way.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. In the last 4 years, this President and the
Republican House and the Republican Senate have borrowed more money,
$1.05 trillion, than any every other President before him and
Congresses before this one in the last 224 years. We are borrowing
money to give rich people a tax cut, period, dot. And when we talk
about accountability, this is what we are talking about because this
has long-term ramifications to our potential economic growth because
the money we are spending to pay down this debt and to pay the interest
to the Chinese government is money that we are not investing into the
COPS program, we are not investing into our veterans, we are not
investing into research and development, we are not investing into
making sure that every household has access to broadband
communications. We are not investing that money into public venture
capital that will lure private investment like they are doing in
Israel, and they have a lot of innovative things going on in Ireland.
These are the things that we need to do, but it all starts with
balancing here in budget in the United States Congress.
Mr. Meek has two beautiful kids. He cannot ask his kids to be
responsible and then his example is to be irresponsible. It just does
not work that way. He works hard and his kids see him work hard. So at
the end of the day, they are going to learn a lesson from him.
I appreciate the gentleman's yielding to me. I appreciate his
allowing me to use his chart because this has been his chart for the
last few months.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Unfortunately, the burden has been the American
burden, the American taxpayer.
Mr. Speaker, I must say that it is very important. Mr. Ryan was
speaking about this whole honest leadership piece, and I think it is
important. We know that we have some Members that have made some bad
decisions, and we are not going focus on that, and past Members. People
make mistakes. I am just going to fall on the side that people make
mistakes.
{time} 2000
But when you have institutions such as this one that is making
mistakes that cost American taxpayer more money, that is when we have a
problem.
Now, the good thing about this is in the next 9 months the American
people will be able to make some decisions. It is something that we
have in the U.S. Constitution. You know, when you come to the House all
of us have to run every couple of years. I call it a time where we are
judged by all of our constituents throughout this country.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. A job interview.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is a job interview. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. We
need to write that down. It is a job interview, where you come, you are
being interviewed by all of your constituents, and they are going to
evaluate, is my Congressman doing everything that he or she can do to
make sure that my life is better? A grandmother, is my Congressman or
my Congresswoman doing what they should do to make sure that my
children and grandchildren have better opportunities than what I had?
Is my Congressman or Congresswoman making sure that my health care
costs are under control and that I have to with my prescription drugs
choose between whether I am going to
[[Page H147]]
eat or take my medication like I should? Do I have a community where we
have a sound community? Is my Congress passing on unfunded mandates to
my local government that I have to then pay additional taxes just for
general services?
Those are going to be some of the questions that people are going to
ask. Is my Congress playing a leadership role in the area of the
culture, okay, Mr. Ryan, the culture of corruption and cronyism and
incompetence that permeates throughout this Chamber and throughout this
Congress?
This is not the Kendrick Meek-Tim Ryan report. Just pick up Newsweek,
Time, the Washington Post, the Washington Times. You can pick up the
Miami Herald, the Chicago Sun. Pick up any paper you want to pick up,
and there is no secret that there is a culture of corruption and
cronyism and incompetence.
Let me just say this: it means more, it means more to the American
taxpayer, the people that are paying taxes every day, when they have to
pay more because of certain special interests having worked their way
into getting sweetheart deals from this Congress. It hurts, because we
are here to represent those individuals that have sent us here to
represent them.
Mr. Ryan, you have heard me say this once before, and I will say it
again: the American people, all of them, just about all of them that
participate in the electoral process, woke up early, Mr. Speaker, one
Tuesday morning, 7 a.m. in some cases, to cast their ballot for
representation in the U.S. Congress. They didn't cast their ballot for
a K Street project. They didn't cast their ballot for a corporation who
is running an operation here on K Street for some sort of agreement
which was not an open agreement.
Mr. Ryan, I just started to think about this K Street Project, and I
can't help but think about what is going on now that we don't know
about similar to a K Street Project. K Street was fine a couple of
months ago. Now it is not fine.
Let me just talk a little bit about the whole K Street piece and make
sure the Members don't get amnesia as it relates to the K Street
Project.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Shakedown Street.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. You call Shakedown Street. The deal was, and I
am not talking about the deal with cards, the deal was, and may still
be, as far as we know, is that corporations and special interests had
to hire, okay, quote-unquote, former staffers from the Republican side
to work in their corporation. The leadership of those lobbying groups
had to be a Republican person that was trusted by certain Members and
certain former Members of the majority. So that was the deal. You do
that, and then you have to make sure that we have a line of
communications, because we are in this thing together.
I can tell you it has resulted in a lack of health care policy. And
now the President is talking about health savings plans, which is very
interesting, because we already have something similar and it is not
working, Mr. Ryan. Higher prescription drug costs, okay? Not allowing
us to negotiate with drug companies.
I must say, Mr. Ryan, I don't blame the industry. I don't blame the
industry. I don't want to walk around here and say ``you bad
industry.'' You made us, or you made the majority.
No. The majority voted for it, and that is what happened. The bottom
line is that it wasn't these special interest groups that voted to have
Members of Congress. They didn't go to the polls. I didn't see a
special interest group say, well, I am going to go to the poll and vote
for this Congressman because they are going to serve me when they get
to Washington. No, an individual American did that. I think it is
important that we realize what is going on here.
So now we have the majority saying we are going to disband the K
Street Project. Well, it was wrong from the beginning, Mr. Ryan, and
they all knew it, and we knew it. We talked about it.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It has been wrong for 10 or 12 years now.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. It has been wrong for a number of years. Guess
what, Mr. Ryan? We came to the floor definitely within the last 2 years
and since the creation of the 30-Something Working Group and brought
this to the attention of the Members that this is wrong. You even
called it Shakedown Street. We didn't even want to call it K Street,
because it promoted too much.
People laughed in their offices at us saying, look at them on the
floor. They are talking about it. We are in control. This is no biggie.
One article that I read, one Member that will go unnamed at this
moment, we all know, had a little booking office. If you were not in
the book, you did not get to see me, or that particular Member.
So I think it is important, Mr. Ryan, that we make sure that
Americans know and the American people know, no matter where they live,
that under a Democratic-controlled Congress, and this is the message to
the Members and the majority, because there are some Members in the
majority that feel the way we feel, Mr. Ryan, but, unfortunately, the
majority of the majority doesn't feel that way.
So maybe we can have a paradigm shift as we start working on this job
interview that you mentioned, which we call in broader terms an ``aka
election day,'' that hopefully there be a paradigm shift where these
Members will say, you know, I think it is important that we work in a
bipartisan way to benefit Americans, and I think it is important that
we make sure that the American people feel they are getting their vote
worth out of this Congress, versus a K Street Project or Shakedown
Street.
So, Mr. Ryan, I am glad to report that we, the Democrats, have worked
very hard in making sure that we bring this honest leadership to this
Chamber and to this institution to benefit the American people. It is
nothing against certain individuals and Members that have made bad
decisions. That is what they have to deal with individually, okay?
But when it deals with the overall function of this House, and I am
so glad in our legislation that we have, Mr. Ryan, on the Democratic
side, that we are doing away with those in-the-dead-of-the-night
special interest votes while Americans are sleeping because they got to
go to work in the morning and punch in and work with very little health
care benefits; that at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning their Congress,
their House of Representatives, took their vote, took their confidence,
and gave it to the special interests.
We are saying we want to disabuse this Chamber of doing that, we are
saying we have a plan to do it, and we are saying that we have been
amplifying this kind of what some may say is illegal activity that has
been taking place in so many different areas and what has been reported
in the media, we have been reporting this.
Mr. Ryan, I would feet uncomfortable saying what I am saying right
now on the floor of the House of Representatives if we hadn't been
saying it for months and months and months. Finally there is validation
that is happening, that it was happening, and that it is time for a
change and it is time for us to make sure that this country gets its
votes worth out of this Congress.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I agree. Not only the culture that you talked
about, let's talk about what the cost is. Let's connect the dots. Let's
talk about what happens here.
We talked about the Health Savings Accounts. This is the President's
idea to solve the health care problem, and it allows individuals to
take money, extra money that they have at the end of the month, spare
money, and put it in a side account.
Well, that is great if you have got spare money at the end of the
month to put in a side account. We have millions and millions of people
in this country who do not have that extra money to put in a side
health care savings account to address the health care issue, so there
is going to be millions and millions of people.
I am not saying it is a bad idea. Maybe it is a good idea for those
people who have money and they can set it aside. Great. But the vast
majority of the people who live in this country do not have the luxury
of having an extra $500 at the end of the month to put in a side
account.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Forty-six million.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Forty-six million don't have anything now, and
millions of others can't afford it, or can barely
[[Page H148]]
afford what they have. So our goal on the Democratic side is to figure
out how to reduce the cost of health care. And we tried to do that, Mr.
Meek, when we had the prescription drug bill here.
The Democrats, this bill started out at $400 billion, and later after
the vote we found out it was $700 billion. But all the seniors that are
out there, Mr. Meek, will qualify for this, $700 billion worth.
What the Democrats wanted to do to save the taxpayer money, to be
accountable for the money that we spend here, the Democrats wanted to
put two provisions on to that Medicare part D, the prescription drug
bill.
We wanted to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be
able to negotiate down the drug price on behalf of all the Medicare
recipients. We didn't want to create a new program, a new bureaucracy.
We just wanted to give the Secretary of HHS the ability to go to Pfizer
and negotiate down the drug price. You want the Medicare contract?
Fine. We got to talk price. Knock 15 to 20 percent off the cost and we
will give it to you. Boom, we save money, Democrats. That is our idea.
The Republican majority shot it down in the dead of night.
The other idea, we wanted to allow for reimportation of
pharmaceuticals, to allow these prescription drugs to come in from
Canada to create real competition in the pharmaceutical industry in the
United States and drive down the cost. We would save the taxpayer
money, we would lower the cost of prescription drugs, and maybe we
could start reducing our deficit and eventually make some investments
in the education and research and development and other things.
The cost of the pharmaceutical industry giving the Republicans $100
million is higher drug prices for average Americans and the taxpayers
not getting their money spent wisely because there is not the
accountability here that we need.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, it is interesting, Mr. Ryan, that when you
started talking about health care, I think it is important that we have
plans to cut health care costs. We also want to reduce the number of
the uninsured and provide tax credits for health insurance for small
businesses.
Mr. Ryan, there are a number of small businesses in my district that
say, you know something, Congressman? I would like to offer a real
health care plan to my employees, Mr. Speaker, but they can't. They
can't do it because they, A, cannot afford it, and, B, the insurance is
too high.
Even when you have insurance, you may call it insurance, but the
premiums are too high. Also making sure we allow patients to buy into a
CHIPA program, and also allow Americans age 55 to 64 to buy Medicare,
and also provide proposals to bring down the cost of prescription
drugs.
Mr. Speaker, the President mentioned nothing, absolutely nothing, you
can check the speech on the White House Web site, nothing on
prescription drugs, nada, even though we have seniors throughout the
country trying to figure out where is the cost savings in the bill that
was passed are. I mean, absolutely nothing. I can see at least like one
little word. ``Well, I want to address this.'' Just one line. Nowhere
in the speech.
So the American people know as far as the majority, the Republican
majority, you have the Republican U.S. House of Representatives looking
forward to the status quo. If you are happy with the status quo right
now, I think you need to stick with it. If you are not happy and are
concerned, like many millions of Americans are, I think you need to be
able to put that on that interview you have with your Member of
Congress.
{time} 2015
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I ask a question? I thought of this last night
as I was sitting right over there as the President was giving his
speech. It is almost amazing to me, I think, that the speech that was
given here last night was dealing with the same issues that we were
dealing with today.
Last night the President was talking about investing in education and
research and development, and we are going to make these great
investments. We came here today and did this Budget Deficit Reduction
Act that actually increases the deficit, and we are cutting education,
we are cutting the investments. So that was kind of perplexing to me.
But I was over there listening to him talk about energy independence
and how we are addicted to oil. And I thought, wow, he actually said
it, which I thought was great. It is a big first step to admit that
there is a problem. So maybe it has taken 5 years, but we have now
admitted, the administration has now admitted that we have a problem.
And then I was waiting for, you know, all right, this is it. And he
says, and we are going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 75
percent by 2025. And I thought, my goodness gracious, we went to the
Moon in 10 years. Where is the urgency?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. The European markets when they opened, they said
ha. You know, they were concerned because before the speech it was all
of this talk about what he was going to say. But they did not even
respond to what the President said, because they did not even take him
seriously.
So I think it is important that we understand, that the Members
understand, it is not about the President of the United States. It is
about what this House is going to do on behalf of the American people.
That is what it is about.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is exactly it, what do we do day in and day
out to improve the lives and improve the position politically of our
country? And the Democratic idea is to get our idea to become self-
sufficient, self-sustaining with energy in the next 10 years. And you
cannot tell me that if we marshall all of the intelligence and the
wealth of this country that we cannot do it in the next decade.
As I said, we went to the Moon in a decade. And look at not only the
economic impact that we would have in this country, the jobs that would
be created with ethanol and biodiesel, and all of the hydrogen engines
and hybrid cars and all of these things that we could create an economy
back in the United States that we are actually producing, which I think
is very positive, but let me make this final point.
Imagine the political position the United States would be in, the
Secretary of State would be in, if we told all of those oil producing
countries we are done. We do not need you. We do not want you. We will
deal with you and help you along the way, but we are not tied to you.
We are not addicted to your oil. So we do not need to get in all of
this international political stuff that we have been getting in for the
last 30 years.
It has been nothing but bad for the United States, to be in these
different countries playing with their internal politics and
puppeteering who is coming in and who is going out, and Saddam Hussein
needs to be here because he is a Sunni, and we have got the Shiias in
Iran. Hey, we are going to take care of home first.
A stronger America begins at home. And the Democratic idea is to take
the resources of this country, the intelligence of this country, and
become energy independent in the next 10 years. And no one can
convenience me that it cannot happen.
Got a chart. And this chart is the gasoline prices and oil company
profits. The bars, the grey bars are the profits starting in 2002. And
as you can see, every year 2003, 2004, 2005 the profits have
skyrocketed.
And look what happens to the price of gas. It has gone up as well. So
the profits go up, the cost goes up. Unbelievable. These people
continue to make money off a basic resource that everyone is dependent
on.
That is why we got to get away from this. Exxon, I think it was Exxon
that made $36 billion dollars in their last quarter. $80,000 per
minute. Come on. It is time for the Democratic ideas to take center
stage in this country.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, as you know, we believe in making sure
that we share with the Members that we are prepared, we are ready and
able to lead. And we are going to present a case every time we get an
opportunity to have the Republicans join the debate on some of our
ideas. We are willing to even share some of our ideas with the
majority.
And we have offered procedurally to the Republicans our ideas, but
since we are not a part of the legislative writing, the legislative
creating, the legislative process here, where we have
[[Page H149]]
folks outside of this process that are unelected that have more input
than our caucus on a piece of legislation of significance to the
American people, we have to make sure that we share our case.
I want to make sure, I want to make sure that the Members on the
majority side know that they can go to www.democrats.gov and pull up
our innovation agenda, Mr. Ryan, pull up our innovation agenda.
And this is just the executive summary of it on how we are talking
about how we are going to make America better, how we are going to find
alternative energy, how we are going to make sure that our next
generation is ready to lead the world, not the United States, but the
world. How we are not going to leave our young people behind, how we
are going to invest in technology so that we do not have to come up
with special visa programs.
Let me just break that down. Special passports or credentials from
foreign countries because we do not have the know-how here in our
country to do what we need to do as a country, and to continue to stay
the superpower of the world. If we continue on this track, we are going
to have some real financial issues, Mr. Ryan, that you mentioned
earlier. And we are going to have a brain drain, because we have some
folks that are more interested on the majority side on giving special
deals to the special interests.
I also want to add, and you mentioned this, and I just want to refer
to my notes, but I want to make sure that we are crystal clear, and
that everyone understands what we are saying here.
We have an energy independence plan within 10 years, like Mr. Ryan
said with new investments and clean energy and technology, calling for
the repeal of the $8 billion subsidy to the oil companies, and use it
for consumer relief.
Now, I think that is important. We are going to take $8 billion from
the special interests. This is our plan. $8 billion. This is not a new
program like they like to say, this is taking away from the special
interest programs, Mr. Ryan, our friends who you made mention of,
record profits, all of the way up. I know you mentioned Exxon and
Mobil, but there are a number of other companies taking the cookies
from them because they are making money.
I mean, it is not like, you know, a small business would love to say,
well, you know, I made money this year, but I do not even have to spend
my money to invest in future profits. I will just spend the taxpayers'
money to invest in my own profits and to my stockholders.
So folks want to talk about fiscal responsibility, I think it is
important that we understand that there are people working out there
that are paying more for heating oil and fuel and LP gas than at any
other time in history of this country.
But meanwhile the corporations that are able, that are a part of the
legislative process here in this Congress, Mr. Speaker, and a part of
writing legislation over in the White House as we have read reports on,
they are getting what they want. What about the folks that woke up
early one Tuesday morning to vote for representation? So there is a
clear choice. Just like we were talking about the K Street Project for
2 years, 24 months.
One member of the K Street project, a substantial member on the
Republican side admitted guilt, willing to, you know, okay, go spend
some time in jail. It was all right. And then when he did that, then
all of a sudden the K Street Project, it is not good. We need to do
away with it. We have been saying that on the Democratic side for a
long time.
It was not only working toward the demise of bipartisanship here in
this House of Representative, it was working toward the demise of the
American spirit. And making sure democracy rings, and making sure that
every individual received the just-due representation that they voted
for, not the just-due representation of the special interests, the
just-due representation of what they voted for.
Yes, Members, it is painful. It is very painful, Mr. Speaker, to come
to the floor and speak truths. But I think it is important that
Republicans, Independents, Democrats, Green Party, you name it, Reform
Party know exactly what is going on under the Capitol dome.
We were not sent here to be cozy-cozy and buddy-buddy and allow this
country or the leadership of this country to in many ways turn their
back on future generations and this generation.
You mentioned today, the budget once again passed by 1 or 2 votes,
passed by 2 votes today. That cut substantially student loans and
student opportunities to our young people, but better yet, the
President stood up here last night around this time, or last night, an
hour from when we are talking now, and said we believe in innovation,
we believe in making sure, because, you know, what the President saw
our plan and saw that we were talking about, our plan, and heard about
our town meetings, that we were having as Democrats, about our plan on
innovation.
So he decided to talk about it. But he is talking the talk but he is
not walking the walk. It is not in his budget. It was not in his budget
last year. And the action by the House today, by the majority that
voted to set back the clock on so many Americans that work every day.
Parents work every day, Mr. Speaker. They pay taxes every day.
I mean they pay the highest taxes because, guess what, they do not
get the big breaks like special interests get. And yet we made their
job even harder today in making sure that they educate their children.
So, Mr. Ryan, I would be uncomfortable in saying what they have been
saying, and saying what we have not been saying for a very long time. I
want to remind the Members once again that if we were in the majority,
when I say we, I am talking about the Democrats, there would not be a
lot of talk about what we should do or we could do, it will be the fact
that we are doing, and that we are working on behalf of everyday
Americans, and if they are a police officer, a teacher, a person
mopping up the floor at a hotel on the midnight shift, they are
retired, they are trying to figure out how they are going to make ends
meet, or if that they have reached the American dream, had a small
business, it is now a big business and providing jobs to everyday
Americans, and making sure that they are equally represented. It would
not be a question.
Mr. Speaker, it would not be a question, and we would not even have
to talk about bipartisanship, because we would have bipartisanship,
because that is what we are supposed to do in this House, and what the
American people voted us in and expect from us to do is to work
together, not only on naming post offices and bridges like we do to
Americans that deserve it, I am not belittling that process.
We all bring legislation here to honor our constituents and Americans
that have served our local communities. We all vote for it, with a few
exceptions, but on issues such as health care, on issues such as tax
reform, on issues such as the rights and body armor for our troops, we
should be united on that. It would not be a question if we could or we
would, we would be doing it.
So that is the programs that we make from this side, Mr. Ryan. And
guess what? We have history to prove that we work in a bipartisan
nature. So when you talk about election time in November, and you
talking about the fact that people will be coming forward, the American
people in an interview, as though they are applying for their job once
again, or we say an evaluation, when they sit down to that evaluation,
we want to make sure that the Members know exactly what the American
people, the kind of questions they are going to be asking or what kind
of action they will be taking.
{time} 2030
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely. I think you make several very, very
good points, and what we are trying to communicate here is that we have
better ideas and we want to take the country in a new direction. If you
are perfectly comfortable with the way everything is right now, then
you probably do not want to vote for Democrats, but if you are having
some trouble and you think the country is maybe going in the wrong
direction, just listen to what we are talking about and how we are
going to actually implement our plan.
We have figured out in the past 10 years that we have not always made
the best argument, we have not always presented ourselves in the best
way. We
[[Page H150]]
allowed our Republican friends to define us, and as they defined us,
they continued to win elections. But over the past few years, 4 years,
5 years in particular, they have defined themselves through their
actions, and we now have the ideas and the commitment and the energy to
take this country in a new direction and maybe we needed that time to
learn. Maybe we needed that time to figure out exactly what needed to
be done, but we are talking about, on the Democratic side, making sure
that every household has broadband access in the next 5 years, that the
country is energy independent in the next 10 years, by taking some of
the savings that we will generate through the prescription drug
program, by doing a couple of the things I talked about earlier by
saving money, by making government run more efficiently and not being
afraid quite frankly to ask Bill Gates to pay his fair share in taxes.
The President said again last night, make the tax cuts permanent. I
will agree with a part of it, making the middle class tax cuts
permanent, but let us ask these people who have been making money hand
over fist over the past 10 years, we need your help. You think we want
to ask you for more money? You think we like it? No, but we need you to
help us. The country is running a $500 billion deficit. We could either
ask you for it or we could borrow it from the Chinese, which is what we
are doing now.
So if we ask you for it, we get it and we hopefully balance our
budget, lower interest rates, and that will lead to economic growth.
Right now, we are borrowing the money because the Republican majority
does not have the guts to ask the wealthiest people in the country for
money, and we are borrowing it from the Chinese.
It is that simple. We are not making this up. This is not a
complicated process. We are spending $500 billion more than we are
taking in. So we have got to get it from somewhere, and if you run a
deficit at home, you go to the bank and you borrow it and they charge
you interest. That is what we are doing right now. We are borrowing
money from the Chinese bank, the Japanese bank, and we are paying
interest on it, and that is money that we cannot invest, that interest
payment. We cannot invest that into education.
I told this story earlier on the floor as we were debating the budget
reconciliation, and it really hit me. I had a meeting last week with a
school board member from Youngstown, Ohio, Youngstown City Schools, and
I asked him as we were sitting there what is the poverty rate for these
kids that go to Youngstown City Schools, a pretty simple question.
Ninety percent of the kids of the 8,000 kids that go to Youngstown City
Schools live in poverty. I do not even know why I asked him because it
does not really make sense to ask this question, I asked how many
qualify for the free and reduced lunch. He said we do not even pass out
the form anymore because so many kids qualify, it is more expensive to
administer the program by passing things out and trying to figure out
who we can give it to than it is to just give it to everybody in the
school. Can you imagine that?
What we are saying here is that these budget deficits and these tax
cuts and these cuts to education and this not funding the No Child Left
Behind and not funding Medicaid, which provides health care for those
kids, by not funding those programs, these kids do not have a chance.
We will have certain kids that pop up and they go against the odds to
be successful, but these kids do not have the opportunity that every
single American should have.
What the Democrats are saying is that we want an opportunity because
you know why? I will sit here for 10 hours. I have 12 years of Catholic
school in me. I could make every moral argument for doing that that is
necessary in the book and in the good book, how many times Christ
talked about helping the poor and poverty. We could make all those
arguments, but let us set them aside.
How are we going to compete with 1.3 billion Chinese workers, 1
billion workers that live in the country of India, the massive
advancements that are going on in Ireland and Israel and some of these
other countries? How are we going to compete if we have a school
district and 90 percent of the kids live in poverty? We need those kids
to be on the field with all of us competing in a global economy, as
mathematicians, scientists, chemists, engineers, computer programmers,
entrepreneurs, artists and musicians. We need them on the field. We do
not need them in a cycle of poverty.
If this Republican leadership, if they do not have any new ideas,
then give us control. Give us the keys to the car because that kid
should have access to broadband. That kid should have three square
meals a day. That kid should have art programs after school and should
have the opportunity to play in an intramural league after school.
That is how we are going to move the country forward. We are stagnant
right now because we are not investing in kids, and Katrina took the
veil off this. We all drive around, go through the suburbs and try to
do our thing, go around these outer belts and try to stay away from
that. Katrina took the veil off that, and I think that that is not only
a moral issue, it is an economic issue that needs to be addressed.
We have plan after plan after plan after plan to fix that. The
Democrats have ideas, and we just need the opportunity to implement
them.
I did not mean to get all worked up, but I tell you, when I think of
8,000 kids in my district and there is more because I also represent a
lot of other school districts, living in poverty and not having the
kind of opportunity that they should have because they are born on this
soil here. It gets frustrating.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. If you are not passionate, if you did not have a
special place in your heart and your mind, then something would be
really wrong. You are one of the Members of Congress that knew and
appreciate what it meant when someone or a constituent of yours went to
go vote for representation. That is what they voted for. They voted for
someone that was willing to stand up for them, even if they get strange
looks by certain Members the next day or right after we leave the
floor.
That is what this thing is about. That is the reason why we serve.
That is why we make sacrifices, to be here on this floor after everyone
else has gone home and flipping cable channels saying, well, you know,
today I have done my part.
We still have an America out there that is suffering, and I am not
talking necessarily about poor people. I am talking about folks that
work every day. I am talking about small businesses trying to figure
out how they are going to control their health insurance costs. I am
talking about victims of natural disasters in our Nation. I am talking
about families of troops, men and women in harm's way, that are
concerned about their loved ones and the lack of vision and leadership
and direction that we are not providing and sending the signals to
other governments and taking the training wheels off of them and saying
now, listen, there has to be an end or a strategy to bringing our men
and women home and saving the U.S. taxpayer money. That can be
accomplished and protect America at the same time.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we speak truth to power
when we talk about those kinds of things because you cannot let
statements just float saying that we just stay as long as we have to
stay. What does that mean? Stay the course, what does that mean? It is
not giving the very men and women that have sand in their teeth as we
are speaking here on this floor a piece of mind on our vision as a
Congress and as a White House. I think that is important.
The reason why you were speaking so passionately, I just want to
reflect on tax cuts. As we start talking about them, I can tell you
right now I was in the State legislator, Mr. Speaker. I voted for a
number of tax cuts. Yes, I did, for people that worked every day, for
small businesses that were trying to make a way out of no way, helping
them achieve the American dream, even for some large businesses that
wanted to create more jobs. I did it. I did even a hearing in this
House as it relates to tax cuts for middle class families, and so did a
number of colleagues on this side even had proposals that would help
small businesses more than the majority proposals would help small
businesses or recommended helping small businesses.
[[Page H151]]
I think it is important for us to look at when we talk about tax cuts
and urge the Congress to make the tax cuts permanent, okay, well, let
us break that down. Let us put that in English. That is another theme.
That is a slogan. That is an old Burger King theme, have it your way.
There are a couple of other themes that are out there: Stop by, we
leave the lights on. Those are themes. Those are slogans. That is a
marketing campaign. That is not governance. Let us just share this for
a moment.
Let me just translate for the President. What he is talking about,
and the majority of the House of Representatives is talking about, the
extension of capital gains and dividend tax breaks were provided to the
top 1 percent tax cuts up to $14,361 in 2010. Meanwhile, using the same
timeline, middle class, low-income families would only get $41. I can
tell you, either everyone in America has to be part of the top 1
percent to enjoy the majority's vision on the Republican side or else.
That is it. Either you pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Green Party and Reform Party
members, or you get the $41. That is just where it is. You get what
kind of tax cut? $41. It almost costs $41 to prepare your taxes. So the
tax guy takes that right off the top. You do not even see that. It is
just enough to prepare your taxes and report to this government.
I think it is important that we break this thing down for the
American people, that they understand exactly what is going on and that
we let the majority side, as we did with the K Street project, as we
talked about the Republican culture of corruption and cronyism and
incompetence, I cannot say it enough because there is no better
vindication than being right.
I tell you, some people wait years. Some folks say, well, maybe 10
years from now they will realize what this Republican majority has
embraced as doing business in Washington, D.C., but there is a higher
power that will reveal to his people what is going on in this
government that has he ordained. You say you have 12 years of Catholic
school. I have got about forty-some years of Mount Table Missionary
Baptist Church in me, and I have been in the neighborhood where when
folks pray hard, they pray hard. I have been in street revivals. I have
seen evangelists on television. I have seen them under a tent, but the
bottom line is whether it be Christian or a Jewish person or a Muslim,
I am going to tell you right now, regardless of what one's faith is,
right is right and wrong is wrong.
I would tell you, if we make things permanent and totally lock in
middle America, poor people in this country into what the President is
talking about, we better all try to be part of the 1 percent because if
you are not, you are going to get shortchanged. Not only are you going
to get shortchanged, your child is not going to have the education
dollars that they need to even prepare themselves to be a part of the 1
percent. That is where it comes down to.
Members need to understand that the American people are going to have
to make a choice, and they will make a choice in the coming months. You
said it and I will say it again. We are ready, prepared, we have our
chin strap buckled, Super Bowl coming up, to lead, not next year but
right now. If the majority side wants to have a paradigm shift and say
that we want a bipartisan working group on making sure that we do
things the way we are supposed to do it here, then, fine, we can get to
work now.
{time} 2045
But as long as the Republican majority feels that they need to hold
us down, Mr. Ryan: oh, we got to keep those Democratic ideas down; oh,
we have to procedurally not allow them to bring ideas to the floor; oh,
we need to gavel them down in committee when they try to present these
ideas because we don't want our Members to vote for them because they
may be judged by their constituents, I can tell you, and I am so glad I
thought of this, Mr. Ryan, and I know you have the next hour, but let
me just say this real quickly.
A perfect example: vindication within our lifetime is wonderful,
within our political lifetime of the 109th Congress. Social Security.
The President last night said, Well, you know, we have to work on
Social Security. Well, the Congress stopped the President and the
majority side from the privatization of Social Security last year.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Democrats.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Democrats. Democrats. And Mr. Ryan, in the 30-
somethings we like to tell the truth, so a few Republicans, just a few
in this House, stopped the Republican majority. And guess what? And
everyday-working Americans, Mr. Ryan. The millions of Americans that
wrote their Members of Congress.
But on the Democratic side we had hundreds of town hall meetings
informing Americans about what this Congress was going to do to them on
behalf of special interests. The only guarantee was special interests
were going to get their money off the top and their benefits were going
to go down.
But, guess what? Now the President is saying that because it takes a
little blood and fire in this thing, oh, maybe we can put together
another, and another, I think it is the fourth or fifth so-called
bipartisan commission to look at Social Security.
I'm going to tell you, Mr. Ryan, the only way we fight, the only way
we win as Americans against special interests, coupled with the
majority side, is by fire and through commitment and the American
spirit.
I must say that I am very excited about the fact that we have
energized Members on this side of the aisle that are not willing to
take it. Now, I'm saying some people might say take it any more, but we
never took it. We are making sure we bring the fight to the majority
side. If they want to work against the will of everyday American
people, we are going to give the American people the voice. Even if
they are Republicans, even if they are Independents, even if they are
part of the Reform Party, they are Americans. We have been federalized
to represent them, and they will receive their representation.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that, my good friend from Florida. We
are about to wrap up, and I think what we are saying is, we want a
chance. We want an opportunity to lead this country. As we close here,
Mr. Meek, I just want to say that our caucus had an election today.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I have already mentioned it.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Have you?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. But go ahead.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, I just wanted to personally congratulate John
Larson of Connecticut, who is our new vice-chair of the Democratic
Caucus. We had a great race. It is sometimes difficult within the
caucus. Jan Schakowsky from Illinois and Joe Crowley from New York both
ran great races, both great members of our caucus. But this was
something that really got everybody's juices flowing and ready for the
next year.
I want to give our e-mail address out. 30-
[email protected], so the Members can give us a holler, if
they want to. That is 30, the number, [email protected].
Send us your e-mails and let us know what you think. You can go to the
leader's Web site and find out about our innovation agenda; you can
find out about what the Democratic plan is to lead this country in the
next few years and in the next few decades. It is exciting stuff, it
really is, and I am proud to be a part of it. I want to thank Leader
Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and Mr. Clyburn as well.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, Mr. Ryan, for joining us. We are
going to spare the great staff here in the Chamber. It was a long night
last night. We are going to call it a night with this hour. We will not
take our second hour. We want to once again thank the Democratic
leadership for allowing us to have this hour, Mr. Speaker.
____________________