[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.
____________________