[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 20 (Thursday, February 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H371-H377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 
60 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the opportunity once 
again to come to the floor of the House of Representatives as the 30-
Something Working Group. Myself along with Kendrick Meek, Mr. Meek from 
Florida, and also Ms. Wasserman Schultz from Florida, we have been 
coming here now, Mr. Speaker, for a couple of years talking about the 
condition of the United States, our fiscal situation, Mr. Speaker, our 
investment situation or lack of investment in the United States of 
America, and also what we believe is the Democratic Caucus and Leader 
Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and the issues that we are trying to put 
forward.
  It has been a very interesting week here for the Democratic Caucus, 
Mr. Speaker. We had a wonderful guest, George Lucas, the famous writer, 
director, producer of the great Star Wars movies; and he was here to 
talk about the innovation agenda that the Democratic party is beginning 
to put forward. And we have, Mr. Speaker, an innovation agenda to keep 
America competitive in the 21st century.
  As we look at what has been happening here in the United States, this 
kind of breaks down into two or three separate categories. One, if we 
want to be a strong country, we have got to start here at home; and we 
got to start making the investments here in the United States. Research 
and development, education, health care, alternative energy 
technologies must start here; and we must begin to grow our economy 
here, Mr. Speaker, if we are going to be of any good to anyone else 
here in the world.
  Unfortunately, our friends across the aisle on the Republican side 
have failed miserably in their attempt to try to balance the budget 
here in the United States of America. We have, as citizens of this 
country, regardless of what political party you belong to, we have as a 
country an $8.2 trillion national debt, $8.2 trillion dollars. Each 
citizen in this country owes $27,000 to our national debt. If a baby is 
born today, that baby owes $27,000 to the United States government to 
help us pay our debt. If you are a senior citizen, you owe $27,000 to 
the United States Government. And if we keep going down the path that 
we have been on, and here it is, $8.2 trillion as of Valentine's Day, 
2006, and your share of the national debt is $27,500.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a real situation in the United States of 
America. So not only do we owe this, not only does each person owe 
that, what do we do? So if we are running a $400 billion annual deficit 
or $300 billion, what do we do to fund business in the United States of 
America? We have got to go out and borrow the money. And this President 
in the first 4 years of his term borrowed more money from foreign 
interests than every single administration prior to his in the last 224 
years. This President borrowed $1.05 trillion from foreign interests in 
4 years, more than every other president before him.
  Is that making America stronger, Mr. Speaker? I do not think it is. I 
think it weakens our country. And here it is. This President in a 
Republican House and a Republican Senate has borrowed $1.05 trillion 
from 2001 to 2005. And all of these Presidents did not borrow as much 
from foreign interests as this one has.
  And that puts us, Mr. Speaker, that puts us at a position of weakness 
because guess who we are borrowing the money from to pay the bills. We 
borrow some from U.S. interests, but this is a chart that outlines who 
else we are borrowing this money from. $682 billion we have borrowed 
from Japan; $249 billion we have borrowed from China; $67.8 billion 
from OPEC.

                              {time}  1500

  Are you kidding me? We are borrowing money from OPEC to help fund and 
plug the hole in our annual deficits here? Meanwhile, they are making 
money hand over fist. This is a very dangerous situation that we are 
in, Mr. Speaker, because here is the end result. Here is where the 
rubber meets the road.
  As we all take out loans to pay for our homes or our cars or our 
kids' education, unfortunately you cannot just borrow the money at zero 
percent interest. You have got to pay interest on the money you borrow. 
So the interest on $8.2 trillion is a lot of money. So what does that 
mean for our annual payments that we have to make just on the interest?
  This chart is the 2007 budget in billions of dollars. This big red 
bar that gets up to $230 billion is what we are going to pay in the 
2007 budget projected on interest on the debt, just the

[[Page H372]]

interest. We are not paying it down. We are just paying the interest on 
it, and this nice lavender bar that barely gets up over $50 billion is 
what we are going to spend on education and then homeland security and 
then veterans.
  The irresponsible policies of this administration put our fiscal 
house in disorder because we are spending so much money on just paying 
the interest on the money we owe the Chinese and the Japanese and the 
OPEC countries. That is a great deal for those countries, great deal 
for them, but what about us?
  A stronger America starts here at home. So until we fix this problem, 
there is no issue we can go on addressing because it straps our hands 
behind our back, Mr. Speaker, because we want to make investments in 
education, research and development, Pell grants to lower the cost of 
college tuition, put research money into figuring out an alternative 
energy source so we are not dependent on some of these OPEC countries.
  But check this out: this is the interest on the debt that I just 
showed. This is what we could spend every day in this country if we did 
not have to pay all this interest on the debt. We could invest $1 
million a day into every congressional district.
  I represent a district in northeast Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio; Akron, 
Ohio; Niles, Ohio; Warren, Ohio; Portage County. Kent State University 
is in my district. This is an older area in the northeast of the great 
State of Ohio, the great Buckeye State. $365 million I could have to go 
back to this area and invest in the schools, Head Start, all kinds of 
other different things just from my district; and every other Member in 
here, Mr. Speaker, would get $365 million, a tremendous difference. 
Give it to the Chinese banks, the Chinese Government; give it to the 
Japanese banks, the Japanese Government; give it to OPEC or give it to 
the kids who are trying to go to school in Youngstown, Ohio, of which 
80 percent live in poverty that go to Youngstown city schools. I know 
what I would like to choose.
  Some other things here. We could provide health care to 79,925 more 
veterans if we would not have to pay the interest on the debt like in 
the late 1990s when we made the very difficult decision here, and I am 
glad the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is joining us for this 
point.
  A very difficult decision in 1993 when President Clinton got into 
office. We were running budget deficit after budget deficit every year, 
and our Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, with a Democratic 
President, balanced the budget in 1993 without one Republican vote. I 
am not saying some Republicans would not vote for it now, but at that 
time, when the heat was on, without one Republican vote, and it led to 
balanced budgets, surpluses as far as the eye could see, investments 
into education, Hope scholarship, the whole nine yards and the greatest 
economic expansion in the history of this country.
  More important, the private sector, because interest rates were low, 
the private sector was able to go out and create over 20 million new 
jobs. We cannot create jobs here in government. That is not our duty. 
That is not our responsibility. This is the chart, Reagan, Reagan, 
Reagan, Bush, Bush, Bush, all in the red; and Clinton in the late 
1990s, after the 1993 budget was implemented, we started having 
surpluses in the late 1990s, projected out as far as the eye could see 
because of fiscal discipline.
  That is what our job is here, balance the budget, keep interest rates 
low, invest in the education and research, like this country has always 
done, and the private sector will join and take over.
  Some other things. If we did not have to pay the interest on the 
debt, we could enroll 60,000 kids into Head Start. You want to talk 
about being compassionate, you want to talk about if you practice the 
Christian faith, being a Christian, I think somewhere that means making 
sure we can invest into those poor districts, those poor children, and 
I am so glad that Mr. Meek is joining us because we started out here, 
and that ``we'' being me, talking about the impact of the budget 
deficit and the fiscal situation that we are in right now and the 
damage that it is causing to the American economy and the lack of 
investment because we are paying the interest on the debt to many of 
these countries overseas.
  So thank you very much for joining us. I know you were busy in a 
Homeland Security Committee hearing, and I appreciate you coming up to 
support the 30-somethings.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, anytime we get the opportunity to 
share with the Members of this House and the American people what the 
truth is all about, and sometimes the truth hurts, as we share with 
America and also the majority our positive message for change and 
putting this country on the right track, because we know that working 
together with the American people that we are going to put this country 
on the right track.
  I mentioned once before, just as late as last night, on some of the 
last hours of our Innovation Agenda that we have, the Innovation Agenda 
that we would like to carry out, Mr. Speaker, but the bottom line is 
the difference between the Republican message on innovation and 
investment in our young people and our message is the fact that the 
Republican majority has everything at their fingertips to bring about 
true innovation here in the United States. They have control of the 
House of Representatives, have control of the U.S. Senate, have control 
of the executive branch. We are stopping the Republican majority from 
moving forward. We have made some very strong statements, and I 
encourage the Members to go to housedemocrats.gov, and you can download 
our agenda for innovation.

  The real issue is that we want to create an educated, skilled 
workforce for the future; and the bottom line is that we want to make 
sure that we can move forward in the math and sciences and engineering. 
We cannot get there by just saying it, Mr. Speaker. We have to put the 
investment in.
  But guess what, guess what, the President's budget does not speak to 
what he said here in the Chamber during the State of the Union, that he 
is committed to innovation. If you are committed to innovation, you do 
not cut off the very lifeblood that young people need to be able to 
pursue an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree. You do not say 
that we are going to slash student assistance. We are no longer going 
to assist you in a way of being able to achieve the American Dream in 
educating yourself.
  I think it is also important that we have made a commitment on this 
side of the aisle to guarantee access to broadband in every home.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. In 5 years.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. In 5 years. We do not want some neighborhoods to 
have access to broadband and other neighborhoods, they do not have 
access. If we are going to move together as a people and society, 
people in rural America, folks in urban America, individuals that are 
living from paycheck to paycheck, we have got to level the playing 
field.
  This thing of two Americas is not going to get us past other 
countries in this world that are competing against us. U.S. companies, 
what I want you to do before we leave this hour, if you would, just 
read off the comments of the CEOs again. You know, someone might have 
heard it once before, but they need to hear it again.
  American technology companies are saying, please, please come 
together in a bipartisan way, please move in the direction of 
innovation so we can be competitive; but we cannot complain, Mr. 
Speaker, when they have to go overseas and hire individuals from other 
countries to fill jobs that can be provided to Americans right here. So 
that is the difference between us and the majority.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let me share a statistic that is Americans' ranking 
with broadband penetration as of January of 2005. Korea has almost a 25 
percent penetration; China, 20 percent; Iceland, 15 percent; the U.S., 
11 percent. This is one area where we are falling behind in a big way.
  Another area that you touched upon, this is the number of engineers, 
people with engineering degrees this year: China, 600,000; India, 
350,000; U.S., 70,000. We cannot compete in a brutal, brutal global 
economy if we are not making the kinds of investments that are going to 
increase this number. Now, I understand that the Chinese and India, 
they have more people than we do, all the more reason that we need 
every single citizen in our country on the field with the opportunity 
to play

[[Page H373]]

and to help make investments in the United States and create wealth in 
the United States.
  That is what this Innovation Agenda does, broadband penetration, next 
5 years in every household as Mr. Meek said, increasing the number of 
engineers and scientists by 100,000 in the next 4 years. That is in the 
Democratic Innovation Agenda, and let me just share with who assisted 
the Leader Pelosi and the Democratic Caucus with putting this together.
  John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems, Incorporated, said 
that, ``The Innovation Agenda focuses on the right issues for building 
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 . . . I look forward to 
working with both sides . . . to implement these laudable goals.''
  That is not Tim Ryan; that is not Kendrick Meek; that is not Nancy 
Pelosi. That is the CEO of Cisco saying get our act together and make 
the proper investments that need to be made.
  Also, the Federal Government affairs person at Microsoft says that 
``we ask Congress to give these issues serious consideration and 
support.'' And he says, ``At Microsoft, 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.''
  This is not just one party. These are CEOs, probably even 
Republicans; and if you go to our Web site, we have all of the quotes 
from a lot of people, from the American Corn Growers Association, 
TechNet.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We need the corn growers, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We need corn, I love corn; but these are folks that 
are not just aligned with us philosophically. This is a very pragmatic 
approach to how to keep America competitive, and I think our plan is 
much better than the plan or lack of plan that the other side has. They 
have been in charge of this House since 1994 and have not been able to 
make strides in this area, and the numbers bear that out. These are 
facts. This is not something that we have made up.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. The reality of the situation is the fact that 
the Republican side will come to this floor, if not within minutes, in 
another couple of hours or when we come back off of the break that we 
are taking for a week to go back to our districts and work and what 
have you, they will come and say, oh, we have an innovation agenda. 
They will come and say, we want to cut the budget, we want to cut the 
deficit in half, and we believe in the things that the President 
believes in, we believe in veterans affairs, we believe that veterans 
should have health care, we believe that American families should have 
health care. They will say all of these great things; but guess what, 
the evidence does not reflect the action that they have taken.
  The President comes here and says that he believes in innovation, he 
believes in investing in America's future, and in so many words, he 
believes in the good old American spirit of saying that we will be 
first, that we will leap forward, that we will lead the world in the 
areas of education and in sciences and engineering, all of those 
things.

                              {time}  1515

  All of those things, but his budget doesn't reflect that, Mr. Ryan. 
One may say, well, why do you have to identify the negative part of 
this argument? I have to identify it, Mr. Ryan, because it is the 
reality of the legislative process, because the President sets the tone 
on what the budget will look like.
  You have our Republican majority here, and we have these partisan 
votes all the time. They vote in the spirit of the President's budget. 
Now, one says trust us with the money, Mr. Ryan. Every time we come to 
the floor, I have to identify what is going on as it relates to trust 
us with the money.
  Here is our friend, Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Snow. He is a good 
guy. He is a good guy.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Good guy.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. But I want to make sure we understand that he 
has a responsibility to make sure that this government doesn't run out 
of money. He is paying attention to what is going on, Mr. Speaker. By 
him paying attention, all he can do is react to the bad policies that 
come out of this Chamber, right here. He didn't do it by himself. He 
doesn't have the checkbook to write checks that he is not authorized to 
write.
  He is almost what you might call, Mr. Ryan, the accountant for the 
United States of America, the individual that makes sure we get a 
warning when we are heading down the wrong track. Here is a letter to 
Senator McConnell by Secretary Snow, dated the 29th of last year. This 
is almost on New Year's Eve, Members. This is like on New Year's Eve. 
This is during the high holy time. This is during the time that folks 
are with family and all and the Congress is out of session.
  But the last act of the Secretary, probably in 2005, was to write 
this letter, to write this letter so that hopefully maybe one day 
someone will pick it up and say, oh, wow.
  In this letter he is saying that we project that the debt limit, 
which is currently at $8.1 trillion, will be reached by mid-February, 
2006, which is now, ladies and gentlemen.
  At that time, unless the debt limit is raised, or the Department of 
Treasury authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to 
continue financing government operations. It is not that we are not 
going to be able to keep the snack room open over at the Department of 
the Treasury. We will not be able, Mr. Speaker, to continue government 
operations.
  What is government operations? Government operations is making sure 
that we have enough dollars to be able to fulfill what the American 
people want us to fulfill, make sure that we have adequate education 
dollars, and make sure that we can run the government and that we have 
agencies that are performing services for the people, make sure that 
the troops have what they need that are in harm's way right now, all of 
these very, very important things, to make sure that the veteran 
hospitals are open, to make sure that children with free and reduced 
lunch are able to get what they need. They are saying unless the debt 
ceiling is raised, we will not be able to do any of that.
  Now, Mr. Snow, I can tell you, who is appointed by the President of 
these United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, is not a member 
of the Democratic Caucus. As a matter of fact, he can be an 
independent, because he is just an accountant for the United States of 
America, Mr. Speaker. The bottom line is, it is not his fault, but he 
wrote that letter 2 days before the end of 2005. While the rest of us 
are thinking about New Year's resolutions, he is back here in reality, 
because the Congress left here trying to pass a budget.
  He knows that he is going to have to write another letter. There are 
five other letters that have been written like this by this Republican 
majority because of their actions. Now, this is letter number six, Mr. 
Ryan?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think so.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is letter number six, letter number seven, 
letter number eight is coming. The reason we have to do it is because 
we have to pay on the debt, and it is irresponsible policy by saying 
that we want to make tax cuts permanent for billionaires.
  Meanwhile, Mr. Ryan, we cannot carry out an innovation agenda, we 
can't carry out a true health care agenda. The President comes here and 
says, hey, let's talk about health care. Okay, let's talk about health 
care. No, it is not really a discussion. I just want to expand a 
program that only those that have disposable income to put on the side 
for a rainy day for when they get sick, but the folks that are living 
from paycheck to paycheck, I want to tell you something, many of those 
individuals are making good money. Many of those individuals are trying 
to pay for college loans and tuition, many of them are trying to do 
that. Many of them have sick family members. They don't have $1,000 or 
$2,000 to put to one side for the rainy day fund for when they get 
sick. That is not a health care policy. That is a health care policy 
for a couple of folks that can afford to do it.

  I think it is important that we engage, Mr. Ryan, as we do, we come 
to this floor in this 30-something Working

[[Page H374]]

Group, we engage the majority, not in the political sense, but in the 
sense of saying that the American people deserve better. In the same 
breath, Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we identify, not only 
to the Members but to the American people, the only way we will be able 
to get on track to be able to deal with the issue of health care, to 
deal with the issue of innovation, to be able to make sure that we do 
away with the culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence and 
do away with the corruption tax that the American people are paying 
because of the incompetence and the cronyism and the corruption that is 
going on right now in Washington D.C.
  This is not my report. This is you pick up the paper, you turn on the 
television. It is going on, Mr. Ryan. We talked about the K Street 
Project. Folks are saying, well, that is not news. We know it exists. 
We have Members on the majority side boasting about the K Street 
Project: Yes, we created it. What's the problem?
  Now, after a certain lobbyist here in this town gets indicted, does 
he go to trial? No. Was there a jury pool call? No. He said, guess 
what, I am guilty, and I am willing to help.
  Then all of a sudden, 3 days later, oh, well, the K Street Project, 
we are doing away with that, as though it was right in the first place. 
I use that example, Mr. Ryan, so that the Members and the American 
people understand that what we are talking about now is not fiction; it 
is fact.
  I said that last night, Mr. Speaker, and I am going to say it every 
time we come to the floor. We are not promoting fiction. We are 
promoting facts. That is where we are right now. Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We talked about raising the debt limit. If you go 
back and review what happened during the Clinton administration, two 
times President Clinton had to raise the debt ceiling. Twice. Those 
were early on. They passed the balanced budget in 1993 without one 
Republican vote. Democratic House, Democratic Senate, Democratic White 
House, balanced the budget, helped the private sector create and 
provided the environment for the private sector to create over 20 
million new jobs.
  We need to provide that environment again for the private sector to 
go out and do its work. We are not going to create the jobs here. We 
cannot create any jobs. It is not our job to create jobs.
  Our job is to create an environment in which people can go out and 
seize the opportunity that we helped create. So Clinton did it twice. 
This President has done it five times already, and he has only been in 
office 5 years. President Clinton was in office 8 years.
  Democrats know how to balance budgets and make proper investments. If 
you look at the execution of government, from this President, this 
Republican House, the Republican Senate. Katrina, a disaster, the way 
FEMA reacted, an absolute disaster. The way the American people in that 
region were treated and are still being treated, and the money that is 
being wasted, because there are 11,000 trailers sitting in Hope, 
Arkansas, that cost $300 million that are now sinking in the mud that 
no one is living in.
  I mean, give me a break. You look at the war in Iraq. We just find 
out in the last few days, $9 billion. Nobody knows where it is. Where 
is it? I don't know. Somebody find it. We don't know where it is. What 
would you do with it? I don't have it. I gave it to him. What did you 
do with it? He got it. It is like watching a Three Stooges episode. $9 
billion of public money wasted.
  Halliburton, overcharging for food and all kinds of other stuff. 
Halliburton has already been fined $2 million for wasting the 
taxpayers' money. Fraud. Come on. All we are saying here is there is a 
way to execute government, and we know how to do it. You could know 
better than anybody else, Mr. Meek, living in south Florida, with how 
FEMA operates and how they don't always follow the proper procedure. We 
can compare that to FEMA as it was executed under President Clinton.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. As you know, I am the ranking member on the 
Management, Integration and Oversight Subcommittee in Homeland 
Security.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I know that.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I will tell you the reason why I was a little 
delayed here, Mr. Ryan, is we had two individuals, one from General 
Services and another from the Department of Homeland Security. We are 
about to move into what we call this American Shield Initiative, which 
is along our borders using technology to protect America from illegal 
immigration.
  We set out with an initial program, Mr. Speaker, similar to the one 
that is about to start now. In that program, there was a quarter of a 
billion dollars wasted because of incompetence. A quarter of a billion 
dollars. Now, let me tell you, a quarter of a billion dollars, Mr. 
Ryan, it is not even in some sort of program that was at some 
university and someone was to work on some sort of research project and 
it went south. This is protecting the borders of the United States of 
America, a quarter of a billion dollars. The four individuals that were 
involved, Mr. Speaker, only received a demotion. A demotion.
  Mr. Speaker, let me tell you, I used to be a State trooper. If you 
have a trooper that damaged equipment, let us just say $1 million, they 
are gone, period, dot. It is not anything to where you say, oh, well, 
Tom, I know it was rough and all, and you made a mistake. Guess what, 
it's just a quarter of a billion dollars, just the taxpayers' money. 
Don't worry about it. Forget about it.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. They will get over it.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. They will get over it.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, we have to disabuse ourselves of that 
kind of attitude here in Washington D.C.
  Let me tell you something. My constituents who can either be 
Republican, Democratic, Independent, or Green Party, would be highly 
disappointed, highly disappointed if we were in charge and this were 
going on. But we are not in charge. We are asking to be in charge of 
this Chamber.
  What is happening right now, Mr. Speaker, and what is being printed 
in the press right now, Mr. Speaker, and what is being said in the 
Halls of Congress right now, Mr. Speaker, is unprecedented in the 
history of this Congress.
  When we speak into the Congressional Record, Mr. Ryan, here on this 
30-something, I sleep well. I sleep well because I know that, 
hopefully, historians will look at this time and say, you know 
something, the minority side was saying that we could do better, and 
that we can do better, and that we will do better. We have the history 
on our side to the majority side. On the Democratic side, we have the 
history of balancing the budget. Do you? No.
  We have the history of investing in education and making sure that 
children have what they need to learn and teachers have what they need 
to teach.
  On your side? No. We have the history of putting together things as 
it relates to a bipartisan agenda on innovation and education, Leave No 
Child Behind, working with the Republican side, passing that piece of 
legislation, being there at the bill signing. Then when it came down to 
funding that bipartisan piece of legislation, it was the Democrats 
standing there all alone while on the Republican side we had desert 
tumbleweeds flying through saying, well, you know, we just don't have 
the money to do that. Meanwhile, on the other side, we have got to give 
this tax break to the top bracket of Americans who are millionaires. As 
a matter of fact, not only do we want to give it to them, we want to 
make it permanent.
  Mr. Ryan, we start talking about the commitment to making sure that 
we carry on our constitutional responsibilities. Mr. Speaker, I think 
it is very clear that we are prepared, and that we are ready. The 
President came here talking about innovation. He must have been walking 
down the hall and picked up a copy of the Democratic plan and said, oh, 
maybe we need to talk about this.
  We have CEOs who are Independents and Republicans and are Democrats, 
who are now talking that they are supporting a Democratic initiative.
  No, what they are supporting is an American initiative that we are 
committed to.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. An initiative endorsed by the CEO of Cisco Systems; 
the managing director of government affairs at Microsoft; and a laundry 
list,

[[Page H375]]

American Corn Growers; CEO of AEA; I mean, come on, Information 
Technology Industry Council, vice president. This is not a Democratic-
supported agenda. This was the Democrat's ideas, but this is supported 
by Democrats and Republicans because it is the right thing to do for 
the country.

                              {time}  1530

  Increase the research and development tax credit. Double the funding 
to the National Science Foundation. These are things that, these are 
smart business decisions. We are in the business of government. If you 
were in a business, you would not run yourself into debt and run annual 
deficits as far as the eye can see. You would not stop funding 
education or pull back or not make that kind of investment. You would 
not cut funding to research and development. That is your lifeline, 
that is how you keep yourself competitive, and that is all we want to 
do and try to give every kid an opportunity to get up in there.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, you showed this chart a little 
earlier, but you cannot show it enough.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I do not think you can.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I just want to make sure, Mr. Ryan, that the 
American people understand what is happening in the present. We do not 
even have to go as far back as what happened 4 or 5 years ago or what 
happened 2 years ago. We just have to talk about what is happening 
right now.
  Once again, this President could not do it by himself, Mr. Speaker, 
needed the partisan vote in this Chamber on the Republican side to 
accomplish $1.05 trillion in borrowing from foreign nations. Knocking 
on the door of China, saying can you help us, because we are fiscally 
irresponsible.
  That is what the debt ceiling letter comes from, Mr. Speaker. We did 
not write this letter. Democrats did not set this letter into motion. 
It was the Republican policies in this Republican House that set this 
policy into motion raising the debt ceiling, not paying as we go. This 
is not the responsibility of the minority on the Democratic side. It is 
the majority.
  I want to make sure, because we need to break this thing down in 1, 
2, 3, A, B, C, so that no one can go back home and tell their 
constituents, well, you know, you have got a point there, but I did not 
quite catch that, and I did not know that we have borrowed $1.05 
trillion more than 42 Presidents before this President, 42 other 
administrators before this President, $1.05 trillion that other 
Presidents and administrations and Congresses have borrowed from 
foreign nations in 224 years.
  Folks say, well, you all act like you are alarmed by this. We are 
alarmed, Mr. Speaker. The American people should be alarmed, 
Republicans and Democrats. It is almost like saying, Mr. Speaker, if 
you had your daughter or son that you gave a credit card to and they 
went out and they just charged that credit card up, as a matter of 
fact, they charged it to the point that it is at the limit. Let us say 
they had a $2,500 limit on it. What the Republican Congress is doing 
now, Mr. Speaker, is that they are going, even though they are maxed 
out, they are calling the credit card company that happens to be China, 
that happens to be Saudi Arabia, that happens to be other countries of 
interest, as it relates to the defense of this country, saying we have 
maxed out right now. We need your help to pay our bills.
  And then at the same time, Mr. Speaker, as I continue to go to C 
here, through the ABCs, they are saying this on one side, but, on the 
other side, they are saying, hey, make the tax cuts permanent. Make 
them permanent for the most well-financed Americans, for the top tier 
of the individuals that are making 2 and $3 million a year. On this 
side of the debate, Mr. Speaker, they are saying it is okay to give not 
only royalties but other benefits and tax breaks to the oil industry 
while they are making record profits. They are saying that it is okay.
  But then here in the middle are the American people; and the American 
people are having to suck it up, Mr. Ryan. The American people who want 
to educate themselves, parents who want to see their children educated. 
If you have a prepaid college program, you better revisit that program, 
because it will not assist your child or your son or your daughter in 
paying for their college because we will just yank the carpet out from 
under young people. And the Republican majority did.
  We voted against it. The Democrats voted against it. So if we are 
going to have a paradigm shift, and I am hoping that we put the 
pressure on the Republican majority, that we are here to play. We mean 
business. We are very serious about having the opportunity to give this 
country what it deserves, and that means representation, representation 
for them and not the special interests.
  Mr. Speaker, I speak all of the time about I do not have a picture of 
the special interests in my office, saying I really dislike the special 
interests. I really dislike individuals that are paid lobbyists. I 
really dislike them. No, no. It is not them. It is the individuals that 
allow the raw needs of those special interests to make it into 
statutory language. It is those individuals that appropriate in those 
areas where it gets into the appropriations act and into the budget 
just the way they wrote it, without saying, you know, I know you have a 
concern, I know you have an issue and you have needs, but we have to 
make sure that the American people are represented in this budget. We 
have to make sure that the American people are represented in this 
bill. We have to make sure that the future of this country as it 
relates to innovation plays a major role in what we do here, and that 
is where we are lacking, Mr. Speaker.
  So, you know, Mr. Ryan, as we go on, and many Members will return 
back to their districts and speak to individuals that live there. We 
challenge those Americans to challenge your Member of Congress. It is 
almost too late for us to wait until Election Day for you to speak the 
way you want to speak. But you have the opportunity. I tell you, give 
the Republican majority the benefit of the doubt that they are going to 
take a paradigm shift. But I am going to let you know right now, the 
evidence does not speak to a paradigm shift or a change in thinking or 
their ways.
  So I say, Mr. Ryan, that, yes, we do have a couple of friends over 
here on this side of the aisle that believe what we believe. And it 
will be those individuals, those very few, Mr. Speaker, that will join 
in with a Democratic leadership if the American people see fit to have 
it so that will allow us to move in a bipartisan way. And it will not 
be like it is now, and it will not be business as usual, and it will 
not be, well, I don't care if you do not like it.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We cannot afford business as usual.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We cannot afford business as usual.
  So Mr. Ryan, I think it is important as we are in, you know, the 
closing minutes of our time here of sharing with, I know it is, you 
know, 15, 20 minutes it is closing for us because we like to share the 
information.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Fourth quarter.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We are in the fourth quarter right now. We like 
to share the information, and we like to give it to folks the way it 
is. There is no icing on this, Mr. Speaker. Because there is no icing 
when a child is denied an opportunity to enroll in a free lunch.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. No gravy.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. There is no icing on the cake when it comes down 
to a family that is trying to figure out how they are going to pay a 
copayment or they need to keep running down to the drugstore to get 
children's Motrin or Tylenol. There is no icing on the reality of 
individuals having to wait at an HMO or at a clinic, that they are on a 
waiting list to be seen by a doctor. There is no icing on the reality 
of the American experience right now.

  So I think it is important for children, if it is from, you know, 
from a double-wide to the west side, wherever they may live, who do not 
have the opportunity to broadband access so that they can be just as 
advanced as the next community or as the next family. That is what we 
are talking about. It is not a liberal agenda. It is a sound agenda to 
put this country back on the right track, and it is serious business, 
and anyone that feels that it is not serious business, we challenge 
them to say otherwise.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I agree with you 100 percent, Mr. Meek; and I 
appreciate your passion. The $9 billion, you talked about some of the 
irresponsible domestic fiscal problems, challenges that we

[[Page H376]]

have here in the United States. They are unbelievable, the magnitude 
that they are at right now and the magnitude that our friends on the 
other side let it get so far out of hand. But not only here at home do 
they have problems governing and balancing budgets and trying to put 
our fiscal house in order here. $9 billion lost in Iraq. Okay?
  Third party validator. This is not Tim Ryan from Ohio. This is not 
Kendrick Meek from Florida. This is not Nancy Pelosi saying this. This 
is the Inspector General that said nearly $9 billion of money spent on 
Iraq reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and 
bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday. And 
the IG says the same thing. Unable to account for the funds. $8.8 
billion was reported to have been spent on salaries, operating and 
capital expenditures and reconstruction projects between October of 
2003 and 2004. The CPA, Coalition Provisional Authorities, have left 
auditors with no guarantee the money was properly used. Severe 
inefficiencies and poor management. What is going on over there? 
Haliburton is inflating their numbers to increase their profits at the 
expense of the United States taxpayer.
  Back home with Katrina, we have----
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, it is okay. I am talking about, Mr. 
Ryan, for the majority. It is okay. No, it is fine.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. No, I understand what you are saying.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Oh, people make mistakes of wide application, 
you know.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And you may like this one because this totally 
reaffirms what you just said. It affirms it, but then it even reaffirms 
it. At the House Budget Committee hearing this morning, the committee 
hearing was on discretionary spending.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Just this morning, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Just this morning, today, Thursday. One of the 
things OMB and the White House are emphasizing this year is this great 
new agency rating system that they have put together with ratings from 
effective to ineffective. Okay? And they looked at FEMA and the 
administration's self-performance, so this is the fox watching the hen 
house here. Mitigation programs were rated moderately effective. 
Disaster recovery, adequate. Disaster response, adequate.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Is that like a C, Mr. Ryan? Is that like a C 
minus?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I do not know what it is.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is not a B or an A, am I correct?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If anybody in America that watched what was going 
on during Katrina thinks that FEMA's response was adequate, then we 
have a total communication problem here, and we maybe need to come up 
with a couple new words, because the performance there was not 
adequate. Brownie's performance was not adequate. The Secretary of 
Homeland Security's performance was not adequate. Appointing an 
attorney to an equestrian society is not adequate. That is inadequate, 
and this country deserves better.
  Government, you cannot, and this is the problem, what I really 
disagree with our friends on the other side. I do not believe that 
government is the answer. We cannot create jobs, and I do not believe 
that. The private sector creates jobs. We create a good environment.
  Our friends on the other side for the past 12 to 20 years have just 
been saying government is the problem. Well, you know what? Government 
was the problem there because you do not have any respect for what is 
going on. Who else is going to come in in a disaster, other than FEMA? 
That is our responsibility. Who else is going to help with broadband 
access all over the country? The government.
  Now, we do not want the government in everything; and I, quite 
frankly, think the government is too involved in too much right now. 
But there are targeted areas where the government can be effective. One 
of those is emergency response, and we are getting inadequate 
performance from this administration.
  Another one is when you go to war. Who is going to go to war? Two 
private businesses? McDonalds against Burger King in the great grudge 
match? No. Countries go to war. Governments go to war. And $9 billion 
just unaccounted for, inadequate, ineffective, inefficient, waste of 
the taxpayers' money and, quite frankly, a disgrace, Mr. Meek. And this 
is why I think that we need some wholesale changes.
  One final point before I yield to my friend.
  Part of the problem is, we have a one-party government here. 
Republicans control the House, Republicans control the Senate, 
Republicans control the White House. Somebody should be getting kicked 
around if you cannot find $9 billion that was supposed to be spent on a 
war in Iraq and it is not and no one can find it. Where are the 
oversight hearings from our friends on the other side? We are in the 
minority. We do not have subpoena power.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, there were hundreds of hearings for 
far less under the Clinton administration. Hundreds.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You know what? If this was a sexual escapade there 
would be hearings all over the place. But this is about $9 billion in 
taxpayers' dollars that is gone, and no hearings. No one is getting 
there.
  In fact, here comes the report. I don't even know what I just did 
with it. Here comes the report, the article about the $9 billion. Paul 
Bremer says and the Pentagon disputes the Inspector General's report. 
Not, we better find out what happened because we do not want it to 
happen again and we are the guardians of the public tax dollars. We 
have got to make sure what happened never happens again.

                              {time}  1545

  That is not what we get from this outfit. We get: It was not us. It 
wasn't me. I don't know. What did you say? I cannot hear you. And these 
guys say, Inspector General, watchdog groups, $9 billion unaccounted 
for. The Pentagon says, We disagree.
  Well, then, where is it? Show it to us.
  We are not wiretapping you.
  How do I know? How do I know? Because you told them? You are the same 
group that told me that the war was only going to cost the American 
taxpayer $50 billion and now we are up to $400 billion, and you said we 
would be greeted as liberators, and that never happened. And you said 
we would use the oil for reconstruction. That never happened, Mr. 
Speaker. Why should we believe anything that is coming out of this 
administration or the Republican Congress right now? It cannot be 
trusted.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, here is the bottom line: history 
does not speak straight talk to the American people about what is 
happening here under the Capitol dome. But I feel obligated to report 
it. I think it is important that in the last budget reconciliation bill 
that we had that passed this floor and the Senate that the Republican 
leadership did know 5 days before it came to the House for a vote, in 
the final conference report, that it was an inaccurate report and it 
was an identical bill between the House and the Senate.
  It is so interesting that one of the issues, one of the areas where 
the language was wrong was regarding direct loan payments to parents of 
post-secondary students in one section. One of the other sections dealt 
with bankruptcy fees. We did not know it. The majority knew it and the 
White House knew it and they still signed it. And it is 
unconstitutional, but they are saying that that is okay.
  I think, also, it is important to identify, Mr. Ryan, when we start 
talking about individuals being able to receive good information, I 
asked the Members, I challenged the Members to go on 
democraticleader.house.gov, pull up the statement that was put out on 
February 15, which was just yesterday, on Wednesday, talking about the 
partisan committee, Mr. Speaker, that was put together to look into 
Katrina, and basically you know what they are saying? No 
recommendations for changes or corrections, but they are saying what 
did we get out of the Department of Homeland Security? We did not get 
the answers that we deserve. What did we learn from the process that we 
are not prepared to take on a natural disaster?
  All right. Let us talk about natural disaster versus terrorist 
attacks. A natural disaster is something that we see is coming in many 
cases, outside of an earthquake or what have you, but in

[[Page H377]]

many cases we see it coming, nine times out of ten, whether it be a 
great rain, flood, what have you. What happens, as I am speaking here 
on the floor hypothetically, God forbid, if a terrorist attack takes 
place? How do we respond to it? We are not prepared, and we have to be 
prepared.
  Mr. Ryan, I want to thank you for coming down and starting this hour. 
I look forward to working with you, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and others 
on the 30-something Working Group as we try to improve this government.
  But I will tell you right now and I will share it with the Members 
and the American people that we must have a paradigm shift in this 
Chamber if you want the accountability that you deserve.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that.
  Mr. Speaker, as we wind down here, just to sum this all up, I think 
we have addressed an issue tonight. We found a theme, Mr. Meek, about 
incompetence. And it is not personal. Democrats at one point many, many 
years ago maybe did not do right by the American people, who knows. But 
I am saying this is not personal. But there is a real trend going on 
here with Katrina, with the war, and this administration and the 
Republican House and the Republican Senate's inability to execute the 
responsibilities of government.
  We are running huge annual budget deficits to the tune of $400 
billion next year. They are going to raise the debt limit for the fifth 
or sixth time in the Bush administration to over $8.2 trillion. The 
fiscal house is a mess. We are borrowing money from China, Japan, and 
OPEC countries. Inability and an incompetence when it comes to 
governing in the United States of America.
  And then we talk about corruption, and there is personal corruption 
and then there is stuff that affects the people, Mr. Meek, and what is 
happening here is with the Medicare prescription drug plan, for 
example.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Corruption tax.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. There is a corruption tax that is being levied on 
the American people because you pay for the end result. The American 
people pay, Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day. When a Medicare 
negotiator, the head of the Medicare program, is negotiating the 
Medicare prescription drug program that costs $700 billion and at the 
same time is negotiating his lobbying job that he is going to go to 
when he is done working for the Federal Government and the Medicare 
prescription drug plan is a mess. When the oil industry gets $12 
billion in corporate welfare and they have the highest profits they 
have ever had, setting records, and who pays at the end of the day? The 
American consumer. And we cannot get enough money to people who are 
trying to get heating oil and lower gas costs.
  So from the budget to the execution of Katrina and the war, failing 
to balance the budget, borrowing money from China and Japan, giving 
away corporate welfare to the oil industry and the health care industry 
at the cost to the American taxpayers, two of the most profitable 
industries in the world, and at the same time when members of this 
administration are not only negotiating that bill but are negotiating 
personal contracts for themselves, there is something wrong here and we 
need to fix it.
  And the Democrats have a plan because if it were not for their 
behavior, we would be able to implement our Innovation Agenda that 
would go on and create millions of jobs in this country. We would 
incentivize research and development with our R&D tax credit that we 
have in here. We would be able to double the funding for the National 
Science Foundation for more research and development that the private 
sector could come in and benefit from. We could do all these things, 
but we need to ask the American people politely but forcefully we want 
a chance to govern this country because we have the ideas and 
commitment to make this happen.
  Mr. Speaker, other Members of this House can get a hold of our 
information and our charts that we have used today at 
www.housedemocrats.gov/30something.
  Mr. Meek, do you have any closing remarks?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. No. Mr. Ryan, I just want to make sure that the 
Members know that they can get all the charts and information that we 
shared today off of that Web site starting tomorrow, sir. Thank you.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Wonderful.

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