[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 15, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H324-H330]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Conaway). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to come and address 
the U.S. House of Representatives. I want to thank Democratic Leader 
Nancy Pelosi and our Democratic Whip, Mr. Steny Hoyer, and also our 
chairman, Mr. James Clyburn, and I think it is also Mr. Larson who is 
our vice chair, and the rest of the ranking members and other members 
of the Democratic Caucus.
  Mr. Speaker, an hour ago we were talking about the issues of fiscal 
responsibility. We were talking about trying to make sure that the 
American taxpayer gets what they deserve out of this government, this 
government that they have elected to come to Washington, D.C., to 
represent them, to make sure that they get the biggest bang for their 
tax dollar.
  I think it is important to point out, Mr. Speaker, that we are having 
some real financial issues right now. Some may say on the majority 
side, and I do respect the members on the majority side, and I know 
that there are a few members on the majority side that feel the way we 
feel here on the minority side, on the Democratic side of the aisle, 
that we have to get our fiscal house in order. And we are not there 
yet. I can say here boldly and honestly that we are not there.
  There are a number of third-party validators that are talking about 
the fiscal irresponsibility on the majority side and by this President 
that has put this country in financial jeopardy. You have individuals 
saying we want to cut the deficit in half, but, meanwhile, back at the 
ranch, they want to borrow from countries like China. They want to 
borrow from countries like Saudi Arabia and give those countries a 
piece of the American pie, Mr. Speaker.
  I think it is important that in the last hour, when we talked about 
innovation, we talked about putting America first. We talked about not 
cutting student loans to everyday Americans. We talked about assisting 
that next generation and the generations that we expect to be able to 
stand up and make this and continue to make this country free and put 
us ahead as it relates to inventions, as it relates to innovation.
  We are talking about on this side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, that we 
embrace and we appreciate our troops and our veterans. But, meanwhile, 
in the President's budget, it talks about cuts in veterans affairs. It 
talks about higher co-payments for veterans.
  I must say, Mr. Speaker, I am a Democrat, but guess what? I represent 
Republicans, Independents, green party, and Democrats back in my 
district; and they feel the way that I do.
  I have not had one constituent say, Congressman, I want you to go to 
Washington, D.C., and make sure that you borrow as much money as 
possible so that I can pay it back with interest. Congressman, I want 
you to go to Washington, D.C., and be irresponsible with my tax dollars 
and make sure that we do not have accountability as it relates to unbid 
contracts. Congressman, I want you to look the other way when it comes 
down to making sure that you have the proper oversight so that we do 
not have this culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence that we 
are seeing on the majority side and in the White House right now.
  I think it is very, very important, Mr. Speaker, the perception that 
the American people and the reality that they are seeing right now. 
This is not the Kendrick Meek or the 30-Something or the Tim Ryan 
report. This is what is being printed every day in the papers.
  It is not that the Congress is taking a bold step to make sure that 
the children of America have what they need; making sure that we have 
the kinds of innovation that the President spoke about, Mr. Speaker; 
making sure that the veterans do not have to pay a higher co-payment 
for health insurance that we promised them as a country.
  We salute one flag right now, Mr. Speaker, not because of 
coincidence. Because individuals have died for that opportunity. We 
have individuals that have served and served in many theaters to make 
sure that we can salute one flag, and the bottom line is we should not 
turn our backs on those individuals.
  What Mr. Ryan and I are going to talk about in this 30-Something hour 
is the tax on corruption, the corruption tax that the American people 
have to pay and the American children have to pay, and men and women 
that have worn a uniform have to pay.
  Guess what? It is not just Democrats. It is not just Republicans. It 
is not just independents. It is the American people. It is not just the 
folks that vote. It is not just the folks that do not vote. It is not 
the folks who are seeking status that have green cards in this country 
that are legally here. It is happening right now.
  Mr. Speaker and Mr. Ryan, I just want to say before I yield, I feel 
good about the fact that we were talking about the K Street Project 2 
years ago. Night after night, week after week, we talked about it. We 
were honest and upfront with the American people that something was 
fundamentally wrong when you have a K Street Project, talk about it, 
put a press release out about it, about how we have this relationship 
with the special interests.
  What about a relationship with the American people, Mr. Speaker? So 
now we have a lobbyist here in this town that has admitted to guilt, 
Mr. Ryan, that has said, I have broken the law. We do not have to have 
a trial because the evidence is so strong. We do not have to have a 
jury pool. We do not have to have people come in and waste 6 months of 
their lives on a jury pool and a jury selection. I will admit to guilt.
  Days after this particular lobbyist said, I am guilty, I am willing 
to help the government in seeking out those Members that were part of 
this.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Would the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I am closing in a minute, Mr. Ryan, because we 
have been talking about this. I admit to guilt, and I am willing to 
help the government. All of a sudden, all of a sudden, Mr. Speaker, the 
Republican majority says, you know, we are done. The K Street Project 
is no longer in existence. As a matter of fact, this little thing that 
we call K Street, what are you talking about? I do not know what you 
are talking about. We are just going to rip it up. It is not anything 
that we really care about. We are going to do away with that.
  It is almost like, as I would say, Mr. Ryan, and as I will yield to 
you, the

[[Page H325]]

game warden cannot be the lead poacher. I will say that to you right 
now. I think it is important that we be upfront with the American 
people because they are paying a hard, strong corruption tax, Mr. Ryan.

                              {time}  2230

  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You are exactly right, and it is that. It is the 
cost of the American people of the kind of corruption that is inherent 
in this system today as the Republicans run the House and the Senate 
and the White House.
  Let me just say this so we are clear. After record profits had been 
earned by the oil industry, they received in the energy bill $12 
billion in corporate welfare, but nothing is done by this Congress to 
address lowering gas prices or home heating oil.
  Now, Halliburton, the former company of Vice President Cheney, got 
billions of dollars in no-bid contracts, and they have since been fined 
$2 million for over charging the government and are suspected of 
costing the government $1.4 billion. Halliburton has been fined for 
basically stealing the taxpayers' money.
  The oil industry is getting $12 billion in subsidies, and nothing is 
being done to lower Mom and Dad or Grandma or Grandpa's gas cost, and 
the top Medicare administrator, Tom Scully, negotiated to get a 
lobbying job at the same time he was negotiating the Medicare 
prescription drug bill, which helped companies more than it helped 
senior citizens. You say corruption tax, and that is what I mean. Tit-
for-tat, taxpayer pays for it. Corporate welfare to the oil industries, 
nothing to lower gas prices, citizens pay that corruption tax.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. This is reality. It is not something that you 
are making up. This is reality for individuals that may be hard core 
supporters of the majority; that is fine. I am a supporter of the 
American people. We are not here on behalf of party. We are here on 
behalf of the American people.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. There have been a few Members who I consider very 
good friends on the other side of the aisle who have over the past few 
weeks and few months have really come out and said we have got to get 
rid of the corporate welfare, we do have to make these changes, we do 
have to get rid of the things that are going on with the oil industry.
  The problem is, is they are just a handful of those people, and the 
rest are putting the kibosh on the minority of the minority of the 
minority of the Republican party, just like they are doing to the 
Democrats.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. These will be the very Members that if the 
American people allow us to lead, that what you are talking about, 
would be a bad chapter in American history. Well, we can put this 
country on the right track that will partner with us in a bipartisan 
spirit, and all it takes, and you know and I know, is a majority vote 
to make anything happen in this House.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely. Let us just look at one thing we have 
been talking about here.
  One of the major costs of the kind of institutional corruption that 
is going on right now is what is going on with the interest on the 
debt. The Nation's debt is now over $8 trillion with a T, and the 
interest in the 2007 President's budget, the interest alone is almost 
two-hundred-and-twenty-some billion dollars out of this budget. Now, 
when you look and you compare what we have to pay in interest on the 
debt compared to what we are paying for education or homeland security 
or veterans, it is totally and utterly disproportionate to the kind of 
investments we need to be making, because this money, and on the chart 
here, we are borrowing this money from the Japanese government. We are 
borrowing the money from the Chinese Government. We are borrowing the 
money from OPEC countries.
  We are ceding our country away to these other foreign interests, and 
at the same time, we are asking Japan and China to borrow money because 
we do not have enough because we are giving out corporate subsidies to 
the oil companies and corporate welfare to the pharmaceutical 
companies. While we are doing that, we have to go and borrow the money 
from the Chinese government, and then we have to borrow it from the 
OPEC countries, and as we showed before earlier, an hour or so ago, the 
Chinese Government is taking this money, they are lending it to us, 
collecting the interest and investing that money in the training of 
engineers to the tune of 600,000 engineers that they are going to train 
next year while we are training 70.
  That really is the bottom line, that these kind of decisions are 
leading and costing. They are leading to enormous problems for our 
country, and they are costing us a lot of money. They are really 
beginning, I think, to push the burden down on to the next generation. 
We cannot continue to sustain the kind of deficits that we are running. 
The next year or 2007 year's budget deficit is projected at over $400 
billion, $400 billion, and that is unacceptable while we are giving the 
oil industry $12 billion and $16 billion to the energy industry, and we 
are giving to the tune of $50, $60, $70 billion to the health care 
industry in subsidies.
  It is a coincidence, or maybe it is not, that the oil industry's 
profits are going through the roof. So it begs the question, why are we 
subsidizing them? The energy companies, profits going up, subsidizing 
them, too. Pharmaceutical companies, profits through the roof, 
subsidize them, too. This is pay-to-play in Washington, D.C., and all 
the while, it is happening at the expense of average people. All this 
is happening at the cost of the American people.
  There is a corruption tax. There is a K Street tax to average people 
who are trying to do business, trying to make ends meet in middle 
America and all across the country, and they are having a very 
difficult time of it. They are paying the cost of K Street and the cost 
of the corruption that is going on.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. With interest I must add, and I will tell you 
that it is very, very unfortunate when we tell children who want free 
and reduced lunch that we cannot do what they need us to do.
  I think also what is wrong is when we tell veterans that they have to 
pay higher copayments because we do not have the money to be able to 
assist them in their health care.
  I think another thing that is wrong, when we tell individuals that 
pay taxes every day, that we cannot assist them as it relates to 
innovation and finding other opportunities to be able to find 
alternative fuel to fuel their vehicles or home.
  I think it is also a travesty when we have no-bid contracts. Time 
after time again, reports are released here in Washington, D.C., on how 
we failed the American people domestically and how we failed the 
American people as it relates to their U.S. tax dollars overseas as its 
relates to the war. There are billions of dollars that are unaccounted 
for and that cannot be attached to what its purpose was supposed to be 
in Iraq.
  This is not fiction. This is fact, and tomorrow night and I want to 
say this to the staff and make sure that the rest of the 30 Somethings 
hear, we want to talk a little bit about what happened to the other $9 
billion U.S. tax dollars in Iraq. We both serve on the Committee on 
Armed Services and I think it is important that the American people 
know. It is unacceptable, unacceptable for us to do or for the 
Republican majority to do what they have done as it relates to a lack 
of oversight.
  I think it is important that we talk a little bit more about 
innovation and our plans to move America forward, but I want to make 
sure that the American people and the Republican side know, the Members 
on the other side of the aisle know, here is our plan right here. This 
is a summary of our plan. It is on the Web site, housedemocrats.gov, 
very simple. It is not a secret. It has been there for a long time. The 
only reason why it is there in the Web site, and the only reason why we 
have it in legislative bills, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that we cannot 
move innovation.

  Let us talk about innovation for a minute because I want to make sure 
we do not fake anyone out and have folks confused. Innovation means we 
are committed to making sure this generation and future generations are 
ready to lead in the way that the past generation has done and this 
present generation are trying to do right now.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I say something? There has been this whole 
discussion over the last 10 or 15 years, and

[[Page H326]]

it started with President Reagan's government, you know, government is 
the problem. I think it is fair to just on balance say that we 
understand government cannot solve all the problems nor should it, and 
we understand the private sector can solve a lot of these problems, but 
there are areas where the two need to work together. That is what we 
are talking about with The Innovation Agenda.
  A lot of the recommendations that we have here are coming from CEOs, 
Republicans, who are saying this is what we do, and if you look at the 
history of the country, railroads, the space program, the interstate 
highway, National Institutes of Health research and development that 
has been going on for years and years, National Science Foundation, 
they are critical. Universities are government. They are publicly 
funded, publicly subsidized, and they are doing all kinds of research 
for all kinds of really good causes.
  So we have a responsibility here, and our responsibility is to take 
the public's tax dollars here that they give us and spend it wisely and 
spend it in a way that there is accountability.
  Now, $9 billion lost in Iraq is not accountability. Borrowing from 
the Chinese and the OPEC countries and the Japanese governments to fund 
our deficits, that is not accountability. That is reckless fiscal 
policy, and it prevents us from investing in the kind of innovation 
that we want to invest into. That is the cost to the country of this 
nonsense that is going on down here, $400 billion deficits, and we are 
spending $16 billion in corporate welfare to subsidize the oil 
industry? $400 billion projected deficit for 2007, and we give it in a 
giveaway to the pharmaceutical companies? That is irresponsible fiscal 
policy because we do not have the money to give them in the first 
place.
  I will stand up here if we had the money and make the argument that 
we still should not give it to them, but we are borrowing money that we 
do not have to give to people that do not need it. That would be like 
giving Bill Gates a tax cut. We have given Bill Gates a tax cut, too. 
We are giving people money that we do not have and they do not need it, 
and it is coming at the expense of things and investment in technology, 
and innovation is a part of this.
  I just want to read a couple of quotes because the 30 Somethings are 
all about the third party validator. There may be some people who say, 
well, there goes the Democrats, there goes the 30 Somethings, they are 
the on the floor, they do not have any solution. What are they talking 
about? This is a third party validator about our Innovation Agenda that 
Leader Pelosi came up with.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. This is good, third party validator outside of 
the political process. They do not carry a voting card here in the U.S. 
House. They are not a stakeholder. The only stake that they hold is 
having Americans to be able to fill jobs that they want to provide.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is exactly right. John Chambers, president and 
CEO of Cisco Systems, Incorporated: ``The Innovation Agenda focuses on 
the right issues for building on our Nation's competitiveness, from 
investing in basic R&D, expanding science and math education and 
broadband infrastructure, to creating a globally competitive business 
environment. This agenda thoughtfully addresses how government can best 
play a role in improving our economic competitiveness by focusing on 
innovation. I look forward to working with both sides of the aisle to 
implement these laudable goals.''

                              {time}  2245

  That is the CEO of Cisco Systems.
  And then we have the managing director of Federal Government Affairs 
for Microsoft saying, ``At Microsoft Technology we are committed to 
changing the world through innovative technology; and in order to 
fulfill that commitment we need a pool of well-educated, skilled 
workers. We ask Congress to give these issues serious consideration and 
support.''
  We need a pool of skilled workers, American skilled workers, and we 
need to increase it. Our innovation agenda calls for 100,000 new 
scientists and engineers over the course of the next 4 years and 
putting broadband in every household in the country in the next 5 
years. And we probably could do it quicker, but we have this tremendous 
trade deficit and budget deficit here in the United States that will 
not allow us to do it because of the reckless fiscal policies of the 
Republican Party that run the House, the Senate and the White House.
  Mr. Speaker, this is what we are competing with. China is going to 
produce 600,000 engineers next year; India, 350,000 engineers next 
year; the United States of America, Mr. Speaker, 70,000 engineers next 
year. That is unacceptable.
  And I recognize that they have larger populations than we do, but 
when we have many of our school districts that have 70 or 80 percent of 
the kids living in poverty, we are never going to be able to catch this 
number because we do not have enough players on the field. This is a 
broad approach that the Democratic Party has.
  Our friends on the other side of the aisle, and many of them are very 
dear friends, they have been in charge of this House since 1994, and we 
have the highest budget deficits that we have ever had in the history 
of the country. They have had to pass a debt limit increase five times 
since President Bush has been in office.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And they want to do it again.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And they are going for number six.
  We need to get the fiscal house in order and start making targeted 
investments in education and making sure that we have enough people to 
compete on a global economy. This is brutal competition that we are 
facing. I have an opportunity to spend 2 weeks in China in August, but 
the brutal competition that we must face in order to continue to lead 
the world because we cannot have a tier one military with a tier two 
economy. And you want to maintain your superiority in the world, you 
better have a tier one military, and if you want a tier one military, 
you better have a tier one economy. If you want to have a tier one 
economy, you better make the kind of investments that the Democratic 
Party wants to make in order to start evening out some of these numbers 
so we have job growth in the United States, so we are filling the need 
and filling that pool of well-educated, skilled workers that companies 
need.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ryan knows he had me at hello 
on all of that.
  When he says Mr. Meek, he is really talking to the Republican 
majority. I will say to my colleagues, because I want to be sure that 
they have good and accurate information from third-party validators, 
they can go to www.HouseDemocrats.gov/30something and you can get the 
charts, get what Mr. Ryan is talking about.
  Most of these people that are third-party innovators as relates to 
innovation, they can care less who says that we brought innovation into 
the United States again, that we are investing in innovation. They just 
want it to happen. These individuals are Republicans, Independents and 
Democrats that are begging us to give them the workforce that they 
need. They want to hire the American worker. They want to make sure 
that local communities and States have the kind of economy that they 
need. I think it is important.
  Mr. Speaker, it goes a little deeper. This is not just about one or 
two people and the decisions they are making. I have a real problem, 
and I do not want to change the channel here, but I have a real problem 
with the fact that it is so easy for the Republican majority to abuse 
not only the spirit of the rules in the House of Representatives but 
also when we start dealing with the Constitution of the United States.
  We had a budget reconciliation vote that came up here, I do not know, 
maybe three or four times, not because the Members did not show up to 
vote, it is because the Members did not want to vote on budget 
reconciliation that cut student aid and that will bring about the kind 
of innovation that Mr. Ryan is talking about, that cut free and reduced 
lunch, that directed the Veterans Affairs Committee to make millions of 
dollars in cuts in veterans affairs over a period of years, that did a 
lot of other things, that gave giveaways to the oil industry. They did 
not want to vote on it.
  I remember we were on this floor on the eve of I believe it was 
veterans'

[[Page H327]]

weekend. They did not want to vote on it, leave here and march in a 
parade and someone may holler out, congressman, congresswoman, how can 
you march with the veterans here, waving a flag, talking about I am 
with you all the way; meanwhile, you voted with your colleagues on the 
Republican side that closed our clinic. They just could not do it.
  So now we are in a situation when we talk about respect for the way 
we do business, the President signed the budget reconciliation bill 
that was not identical. Let me go back to Government 101 here. They 
have to be identical pieces of legislation between the House and Senate 
for the President of the United States to sign.
  Mr. Ryan, you remember the old cartoon, I am just a bill, I am on 
Capitol Hill. It talked about going from committee to committee, and 
you pass the House and go to the Senate or you start in the Senate and 
go to the House, and then you go to the President of the United States. 
One bill, same language, identical, side by side.
  You cannot have language in one bill that says one thing and have a 
budget that says something else. Not one line, not one word can be 
different. The President and the administration that we know, and we 
are going to get into this tomorrow night, and like I said, I challenge 
the majority side to try to go in the bathroom and look in the mirror 
and say, ``I can go out there and say this is right.'' We are 110 
percent right on this, just like we were right on the K Street Project. 
We are talking fact here.
  The President signed a bill that many have said is unconstitutional. 
It is not an identical bill. All of us know it. The issue about secrecy 
and misleading the public is becoming an everyday occurrence here in 
Washington, DC.
  I think it is fundamentally wrong for us to salute one flag, believe 
in the bedrock of a Constitution and to allow individuals that are in 
control now to say a couple of words are different and there is more 
money here than there, what is the big deal. I signed it, it is done, 
we are in control, and who is going to question us, Mr. Speaker. They 
say, who is going to call us before the committee and say, excuse me, 
who is going to send subpoenas to the White House and say, did you know 
these bills were not identical? Who is going to call in the leadership 
of the House and Senate and say, how could you do something when you 
knew they were not identical bills? Well, it is not a big deal because 
they are in charge.
  Mr. Speaker, if the American people were to bring about the kind of 
paradigm shift that this country deserves in the next election, my 
goodness, it will take up a lot of time here in Congress to be able to 
fix what is broken.

  Maybe the Republican majority may say we need to start working on a 
bipartisan basis and start working with the Democrats on some of these 
issues. Maybe we can really look at Social Security and make sure that 
it is sound and solid for generations even beyond the 40 years it will 
be solvent, and maybe we need to look at health care and not this 
health savings plan because we already know that does not work. Let us 
look at some of the Democratic alternatives and let us have a 
conference report, let us have a bipartisan conference report that we 
actually invite Democrats to participate in.
  Mr. Speaker, we have legislation right now that the first time that 
the ranking members, and I want to break this down so we all 
understand, the ranking members who are the lead Democrats on the 
committee, see for the first time a bound bill, this wide, this thick, 
coming to the floor and it is their first time seeing it. That is not 
because they decided to sit in their office and eat pecans, but because 
they were not told where negotiations were taking place.
  There are a lot of rooms in this Capitol, and I think it is important 
that we spend a lot of time, not some time, but a lot of time letting 
the American people know that here on the Democratic side of the aisle 
we have history on our side in balancing the budget. We have history on 
our side in making sure that we have a very strong U.S. economy where 
everyone shares in it, everyone makes money. Small businesses are able 
to do what they have to do, and making sure that we have integrity in a 
government that people know when they pay their taxes that those 
dollars are going in the right place. We balanced the budget.
  I challenge the Republican majority to say the same thing. Not that 
we cut it in half or took a quarter of it. That is not what we did. We 
balanced the budget with surpluses as far as the eye could see.
  I challenge the Republican side to come with one proposal and say any 
time in the history of the Republic that they have done that, period 
dot. That is just the bottom line. History speaks to it, the 
Congressional Record speaks to it, and the Congressional Budget Office 
speaks to it.
  It is not the Kendrick Meek Report or the Tim Ryan Report. We are not 
here to entertain the Congress. We are here to make sure that these 
individuals that are in control on the majority side understand that we 
mean serious business about saving this country not on behalf of 
Republicans or Democrats or Independents but on behalf of the American 
people.
  Are we passionate? You are doggone right we are passionate. We are 
passionate for all of the right reasons. We are not here arguing on 
behalf of someone who said let us just talk about things are bad 
because we need to make up some kind of story because we want to be in 
control of the U.S. Congress. This is fact. This is fact.
  I do not care if you have a club of hard-core individuals saying that 
I want to support corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Only the 
recipients of corruption, cronyism and incompetence are the 
cheerleaders for that kind of activity.
  Mr. Ryan, they would not even come up to the 1 percent of Americans 
that have benefited from the bad policies that the majority side has 
put forward. I can tell you right, and the record reflects and it 
reflects in the President's budget of who is on the side and who they 
are standing up for in that budget.
  In that budget, they are cutting veterans affairs. In that budget, 
they are cutting student aid. In that budget, they are giving tax 
giveaways to the individuals that are on K Street, obviously that have 
access to this administration and to the majority.
  So I would say this. The record speaks to what we are sharing with 
the Members. The record speaks to the fact that we on this side, 
without one Republican vote, Mr. Speaker, not one. One would think 
maybe two might have said I am going to vote to balance the budget. A 
big fat zero. My 8-year-old and my 11-year-old can understand what a 
zero is. Not one. For anyone to come to the floor and say the Democrats 
want such and such, let me tell you, we cannot do anything but raise 
the question and put pressure on the majority side to do the right 
thing.
  We said there could be a 9/11 Commission. The Republicans did not 
want it. The American people joined in us.
  We said there should be a national strategy on homeland security and 
we should have a department addressing the issues of homeland security. 
Republicans did not want it. The American people joined with us, and we 
have a Department of Homeland Security.
  We said we need to come to Washington, DC, and deal with body armor 
on behalf of the troops in Iraq. The Republicans said they have their 
armor. Donald Rumsfeld came down from the Department of Defense and 
said we have a strategy, we have a plan. Oil is going to pay for the 
war. All of these things that we now know are incorrect. We said it, 
and then the Republican majority started responding to it.
  I can tell you in this case, as it relates to fiscal responsibility, 
the record does not reflect a past history of this Republican majority 
doing the right thing and balancing the budget.

                              {time}  2300

  We didn't say that we were going to cut the budget in half. We said, 
we'll balance the budget. And we did. We have an innovation agenda, if 
given the opportunity, and we invite our Republican friends that are 
over there, that a few of them think the way we think, move with us in 
moving this agenda together. We are talking about all of the good stuff 
that the American people are asking for, Mr. Ryan. They are asking for 
creating an educated, skilled workforce in the areas of science, math, 
engineering and information technology. They are asking for an 
investment as it relates to Federal research and development 
initiatives in

[[Page H328]]

promoting public-private partnerships. We are saying that we want every 
American to have access to affordable broadband. That is making sure 
that they have access to the Internet, making sure their children have 
access, seniors and every household can afford it. What is the deal 
about saying, some people can afford it, some people can't? We are a 
country. We are not a bunch of individuals. And we are saying that we 
will achieve energy independence in developing emerging technology and 
clean substantive alternatives to strengthen national security and 
protect our environment, not within 20 years, not within 50 years, not 
within 100 years. We are talking about 10 years, Mr. Speaker. It can 
happen.
  We know together, Mr. Ryan, in America, we can do better. We are 
willing to partner with the American people like we have done before. 
But I can tell you right now, Mr. Ryan, this Republican majority, they 
didn't get it 10 years ago, they are not getting it now, and they won't 
get it tomorrow.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. As you were talking about, the Democrats have a 
history of balancing budgets in this Chamber. In 1993, without one 
Republican vote, the Democrats balanced the budget and it was signed 
into law by President Clinton, led to great surpluses, the greatest 
expansion in the history of the country and created over 20 million 
jobs.
  Now, the Democrats have tried, while we have been down here, to try 
to get our friends on the Republican aisle to show some fiscal 
discipline, to show a little bit of fiscal restraint. And we have 
tried. There is a provision here called PAYGO, pay-as-you-go. If you 
spend money, you have got to pay for it. If you cut revenues, you have 
got to pay for it. If you increase spending in a certain program, you 
have got to pay for it. Pay-as-you-go.
  Now, over the last few years, Democrats have tried to reinstate PAYGO 
which led to all these surpluses in the nineties, and then our friends 
on the Republican side got rid of this a few years back. But over the 
last few years, we have tried to put these PAYGO rules in. Let me give 
you three third-party validators, not Tim Ryan, not Kendrick Meek, this 
is in the Congressional Record. March 30, 2004. Republicans voted by a 
vote of 209-209, ties lose, to reject a motion offered by 
Representative Mike Thompson, Democrat from California, to instruct the 
budget conferees to put the pay-as-you-go requirements in the 2006 
budget resolution. That is 2004, vote number 97, if you would like to 
check it out, Mr. Speaker. Also, May 5, 2004, Republicans voted by a 
vote of 208-215 to reject a similar motion by Representative Dennis 
Moore, Democrat from Kansas. That is 2004, vote number 145. And then 
again, November 18, 2004, Republicans voted to block consideration of 
the Charlie Stenholm amendment to the debt limit increase bill which 
would have restored pay-as-you-go requirements. That is 2004, vote 
number 534, basically saying, we need to put a system in place to make 
sure that this Congress doesn't just spend money recklessly like they 
are doing now.
  $9 billion lost in Iraq.
  $16 billion to the energy companies, the oil industry in particular, 
the most profitable industry in the world right now.
  Billions upon billions upon billions of dollars to the pharmaceutical 
industry in corporate welfare. And we are not balancing the budget. We 
are taking the money again and we are borrowing it. We are borrowing 
money we don't have and we are giving it to people who have a lot of 
money.
  This is the interest payments that we are making in the red. This is 
the investments that we are making in education, homeland security and 
veterans.
  Mr. Meek, I know we are beginning to wrap up and work our way out 
here, but I just want to share this with the Speaker and the Members of 
Congress. What else could the government do if we weren't so far in 
debt and had to pay all this interest?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I think that is important, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is an important answer. What else could the 
government do with the interest the country pays every day on the 
publicly held debt? We could invest $1 million a day, Mr. Meek, in 
every single congressional district. Every district. So at the end of 
the year, you would have $365 million to invest into your congressional 
district in South Florida. I know that you have a lot of needs down 
there, as do I in Ohio.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. $1 million a day. Mr. Speaker, we need to let 
that sink in. $1 million a day can be able to assist a small business 
in providing health care for their employees. $1 million on the back 
end of that can prevent individuals from paying high copays, because 
that is what is taking the American people under, this whole health 
care issue.
  $1 million a day will be able to resolve some of the issues of 
overcrowding and the underfunding of No Child Left Behind in my 
district.
  $1 million a day, goodness gracious, maybe we will be able to prevent 
many young Americans from making youthful indiscretions so that they 
don't have to be on the taxpayers' dole and being incarcerated.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And we talk about getting our children prepared to 
become engineers and scientists in part of our innovation agenda. Just 
what we pay every day on the debt could enroll almost 61,000 children 
in Head Start for an entire year. We are getting young kids who are at 
risk into the Head Start program which has shown that there is constant 
improvement and they fare much better than kids who don't get in.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, I know you want to move on and you 
have several other examples on that chart.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I want to talk about how the veterans could be 
helped.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We don't want to hold the veterans off. But what 
I want to just say real quick, Mr. Ryan, $1 million a day would be able 
to solve many issues in the gulf coast right now of individuals who are 
homeless. We are evicting individuals out of temporary housing at this 
point and making them homeless. Not people overseas, not folks in Iraq, 
people that pay taxes every day here in the United States. They are in 
Mississippi. They are in Alabama. They are definitely in Louisiana. 
They are in Texas. They are in places that are a part of this country. 
We are telling them that we can't do it.
  We have individuals that come to the floor, Mr. Ryan, saying we have 
got to wean the American people off the Federal tax dollar. We need to 
wean the special interests and irresponsibility and the corruption tax 
that we are putting on the backs of Americans. We are putting a heavy 
corruption tax on the backs of Americans. I just want to say this out 
loud because I want to make sure, Mr. Speaker, that the Members know. I 
want them to see this ball coming and it is not a softball. It is a 
baseball. We are going to talk about this corruption tax and we are 
going to talk about it and we are going to talk about it and we are 
going to point out to the Members what it is costing the American 
people. We are going to point out to the Members what it is costing 
their constituents. And if we want to continue the kind of corruption 
tax and if we want to continue to have this air and environment of 
corruption, cronyism and incompetence here in Washington, D.C. and it 
is costing the very people that woke up one given Tuesday morning very 
early to vote for representation, then you go home and explain to them 
how you stood idly by and allowed this kind of activity to continue.

  So, Mr. Ryan, I just wanted to say that very quickly, because we are 
talking about spending the taxpayers' dollars in a responsible way. I 
think it is important for us to talk about the present. So I just want 
to put the Members on notice right now. I want to make sure the 
Republican majority can get in a huddle and start talking about how we 
are going to deflect this issue on the corruption tax, because I am 
going to tell you right now, this culture of corruption that is ongoing 
right now in Washington, D.C., and I am not talking about individuals, 
I am talking about the corruption tax based on the policies that have 
passed out of this institution. When it is okay, Mr. Ryan, for the 
President to sign a bill that is not identical, that deals with the 
budget of these United States and then someone says, excuse me, Mr. 
President, you know you just signed a bill that is unconstitutional? 
And the message comes back, well, it's okay, it's

[[Page H329]]

gone now, there's nothing we can do about it, there is something wrong. 
I think that is a crack in the face to democracy, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I agree 100 percent with you, my friend.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Please go to the veterans.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I wanted to finish up. I want to just say thank you 
to you for coming down here every night and making these points in such 
a passionate way.
  The debt and the deficit I think really as you are talking about are 
part of this corruption tax. And I know I wanted to get into this, but 
these are the numbers here. This is what we owe. This is what the 
national debt is. $8.2 trillion. You want to let a number sink in? Try 
to wrap your brain around that sucker. $8.2 trillion. Every Member of 
Congress, every child, every adult, every senior citizen, your share of 
that debt is $27,500. So take your credit card debt, take your house, 
take your car, add it all up and throw another $27,500 on it. Take your 
college loans and throw another $27,500 on it because of the fiscal 
irresponsibility of this Congress and this administration.
  This number has gone up dramatically over the past 5 years. The 
Republican majority has raised the debt limit, allowing the Treasury 
Department to borrow more money, five times. And they are not done. 
Five times, Mr. Meek. And they are not done. Many high-powered Members 
of Congress got this letter from Secretary of Treasury John Snow saying 
that the United States needs the Republican Congress to raise the debt 
ceiling one more time.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. As soon as possible. That is what the letter 
says.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. As soon as possible. This particular letter was 
sent December 29 to Senator McConnell.
  Dear Senator McConnell:
  The administration now projects that the statutory debt limit, 
currently $8.184 trillion, will be reached in mid February of 2006.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. That is right now.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And at that time unless the debt limit is raised or 
the Treasury Department takes authorized extraordinary actions, we will 
be unable to continue to finance government operations.
  Now, that is where we are. Because of that number, my friends, 
because of that number and that number, the government will shut down 
unless we go out and borrow more money. That is irresponsible. I have 
got a friend back home. I won't give his last name. His first name is 
Dave. He is a banker. He consistently addresses this issue as we talk, 
how the country cannot keep going on and on and on borrowing this kind 
of money without putting the burden on the next generation.
  For those people who don't think this matters, your share of your tax 
revenues are going to pay off the interest on this debt. And those 
payments are going to the Chinese government and the OPEC countries, 
Mr. Meek. That is a shame. That is a dirty shame.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, we could do better. We could do better 
if we were in the majority. But we are not. I can tell you that I miss 
our friend, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is usually here who puts it 
best. We are trying, but she knows how to hit the nail right on the 
head.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. A lot of air comes out of the balloon.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. When she speaks because I think it is important 
for people to understand that this thing is bigger than the two of us 
and that it is bigger than the 30-somethings. And that you are 
addressing not only Americans in Ohio but Americans throughout the 
country. $27,500 that is owed by every Americans, not just Democrats, 
not just Republicans, not just Independents, not just Green Party, Mr. 
Speaker, that is every American. So we look forward to Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz coming back and sharing with the American people what they need 
to know.
  Mr. Ryan, I know that we are going to come in for a landing here in 
about 3 to 4 minutes, and you know that we have a meeting to talk about 
some of the information that we just received today that is going on in 
this House of Representatives, Mr. Speaker. There are not enough hours 
in the day.

                              {time}  2315

  Literally, there are not enough hours in the day; and, thanks to the 
majority, we are having to spend these hours in a late night, Mr. 
Speaker, trying to turn the ship and save this country on a fiscal 
standpoint.
  Do not get me wrong. We are not talking about individual decisions. 
We know that people make bad decisions. Individuals make bad decisions, 
and we can survive an individual bad decision. But when we have an 
entire culture of corruption and the corruption tax that is going on 
here in the United States as I speak now, Mr. Speaker, we have got to 
burn the midnight oil. We have got to drink an extra cup of coffee in 
the morning. We have got to go to the gym and take a hot shower so we 
can make this thing happen. And we are going to continue to meet and 
caucus, do the things that we need to do.
  I want to commend our staff to do the same thing. I want to commend 
you, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and the rest of the 30-somethings 
for doing what we do. Because I am going to tell you something. It is 
extra-extraordinary. We have got to be here in the morning just like 
everyone else to get out and do what we need to do on behalf of our 
constituents. We have got to go to more meetings possibly, Mr. Speaker, 
than the majority has to go to because we are in the business of making 
sure that we represent not only our constituents but the American 
people in this time.
  There will be books written about this time right now, about the 
irresponsibility that took place in this country's history, the highest 
deficit in the history of the Republic, more corruption and 
investigations and people of interest right now in the history of this 
country. This is not, oh, well, in 10 years or more people of interest 
or investigations in 20 years. In the history of this country. So this 
calls for special attention.
  So I call upon the Members of this Congress to look in the mirror 
real quick. Do you want to talk about lobbying reform? Well, I can tell 
you this right now, and this just comes from the book of common sense: 
I am pretty sure the lobbyists did not call up Capitol Hill and say, 
hey, listen, we want you to start a K Street project because we want to 
be forced to hire ex-staffers from the Republican Party. That is just 
what we want. Or we want to make sure that we have to give X amount of 
campaign contributions to a particular party. They did not call that 
up.
  So what I am going to say right now, Mr. Speaker, is I think that we 
need to make sure that we do the right thing.
  Mr. Ryan, I just want to say, sir, that I appreciate your candor. I 
appreciate your courage. It would be something very, very wrong for us 
to do if we came to the floor and talked about fiction. This is fact. 
So I look forward to any Member that wants to talk about balancing the 
budget, Mr. Speaker. I am ready, set, go. My chin strap is buckled, and 
my mouthpiece is in. I want to talk about it. I am saying let's get 
down, low man wins. I am ready to do what we have to do. If you want to 
talk about it, I can tell you right now on this side of the aisle, we 
have done it. And until the Republican majority can say that we have 
done it, then there is really no discussion.
  Mr. Ryan held up the letter from Secretary Snow. I held it up an hour 
ago. The man is saying for the sixth time, Mr. Speaker, that we have to 
raise the debt limit. It does not sound like things are in order. It 
does not sound like there is fiscal responsibility. It does not sound 
like there are individuals that are being responsible with taxpayer 
dollars.
  And the bottom line, Mr. Ryan, is the Republican majority is in 
charge. Not Democrats. Republicans are in charge, for the sixth time in 
a row, raising the debt limit. For the sixth time in a row, 
irresponsibility.
  So I look forward, Mr. Ryan, to our meeting after we leave the floor. 
I look forward to hitting the alarm clock in the morning, taking my 
kids to school, and coming to the Capitol. I look forward to our cup of 
coffee in the morning in the cafeteria downstairs talking about what is 
the game plan for today.
  So thank you, sir, for your service to the country; and I want to 
thank Ms. Wasserman Schultz in her absence, too.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Thank you.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. If you would give the Web site out.

[[Page H330]]

  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The Web site is www.housedemocrats.gov/30something. 
We ask the Members to send us something if they have any comments about 
what we have been talking about.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. With that, Mr. Speaker, we thank the Democratic 
leader for allowing us to be here.

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