[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5694-H5699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  2015
                     THE 30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy of Connecticut). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Meek) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be here on the 
floor tonight. It is like old times, Mr. Ryan and Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz. And we have the gas pump there, and it is just, you, know a 
wonderful feeling.
  Mr. Speaker, just to see you in the Chair there inspired me as an 
American to continue to be a part of this great democracy of ours. Our 
good friends from the Clerk's office and the Capitol Police and all the 
folks that make it possible for us to be here tonight, we are just 
forever appreciative.
  As you know, in the 109th and 108th Congress, this was the trio here. 
Ms. Wasserman Schultz brought quite a bit of class to our operation. 
She came in the 109th Congress, and, Mr. Ryan, we started to wear 
better ties and study more so that we could keep up with an educated 
policymaker.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I started wearing pink ties, because we had the 
whole goddess thing going on.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan started wearing his pink ties, which my 
daughter always says, real men wear pink. That is actually salmon, but 
we won't talk about it.
  Mr. Speaker, in all seriousness, we have an awful lot of business 
that will be taking place in the next 24 hours. We are approaching 
Memorial Day, and there have been a lot of reports about the Iraq 
emergency supplemental. There has been a lot of discussion about 
lobbying reform. There has been a lot of discussion about the 
reauthorization of the agriculture bill. But I can tell you one thing, 
Mr. Speaker: Unlike previous Congresses, the work is being done here by 
those of us that are under the dome, doing what the people of America 
sent us up here to do.
  As we talk about the war, I think it is important to know that the 
issues in Iraq and Afghanistan are very, very serious to all of us 
here, to all of us in Washington, D.C., and Americans throughout the 
country, and especially the family members of those serving in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. We always give this report. As of 10 a.m. this morning, 
the death toll in Iraq as it relates to the men and women in uniform is 
3,424; wounded in action and returning to duty is 14,073; and wounded 
in action and not returning to duty is 11,476. I think it is very 
important that we pay very close attention to those numbers.
  The days of six supplementals passing off of this floor, half a 
trillion dollars spent and no strings attached to any of those 
appropriation dollars, those days are over. I am very proud of the 
leadership in the House and the Senate in fighting with the White House 
and bringing about the kind of accountability that the American people 
have called for.
  You heard me say here on this floor in the past, Mr. Speaker, that 
there have been bills that in the spirit of the bill, I voted for those 
bills, but as it relates to the substance of those bills, I have had a 
few problems with the lack of accountability. That is paramount now in 
this bill that hopefully will pass the House floor tomorrow. There are 
benchmarks. There are reporting periods that the President has to 
report back to the Congress. In September, we will be coming in for a 
landing and making some real decisions.
  The Iraqi Parliament, as you know, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, they have 
been holding quite a few conversations, as a matter of fact, talking 
about going on vacation for 60 days. The Defense Minister called his 
Ministers together to plan for an immediate U.S. withdrawal of troops, 
because I believe they know with this new Congress in place, the days 
of the Iraqi Government drawing down on the taxpayer dollars, the U.S. 
taxpayer dollars, without accountability, are over; and if they are not 
willing to reform themselves, then we should not be willing to have our 
men and women on the streets of Iraq fighting on behalf of safety and 
patrolling the streets, when the Iraqis are not doing what they are 
supposed to be doing.
  With that, I will yield to one of my good friends. I will yield to 
Ms. Wasserman Schultz, who is a very good friend, and then Mr. Ryan 
comes in after her in my friendship.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. You have just known me longer.
  Thank you, Mr. Meek. It is a pleasure to be here. We have been trying 
to get the three of us back together again. It is a good problem to 
have. We have a lot more on our plate now that the Democrats are in the 
majority. The other good part of our problem is that we have expanded 
the active members of the 30-Something Working Group, with the Speaker 
that is in the chair this evening and a number of other Members, Mr. 
Altmire, and we are really happy about that.
  But I am glad the three of us were able to come back together this 
evening to continue our effort to speak to both our generation and to 
the American people, the rest of the American people, about our 
concerns and the Democratic new direction that we have been successful 
in moving in since November 7th when we were victorious in the election 
and when the American people indicated to this Congress that they 
wanted to move in a new direction.
  We struggled through the last number of years. Gradually, and 
unfortunately a cloud hung over this institution and this Capitol, a 
culture of corruption had developed, Mr. Ryan, and we just could not 
allow it to continue any longer. The American people were fed up with 
it, and that is why tomorrow we are going to be considering lobbying 
reform and ethics reform, so that we can inspire the confidence of the 
American people once again in their leaders, both as individuals, 
because traditionally they have said to pollsters that they support 
their Member of Congress, they like their Member of Congress, but they 
can't stand the institution.
  That is a sad state of affairs. We need to make sure that our 
institution, the one we are proud to serve in, is one that the American 
people can be proud of as well. There has been too much corruption 
here, unfortunately led by individuals formerly in the leadership in 
this institution on the other side of the aisle for far too long, and 
we need to take some significant steps to clean it up, which is why we 
are going to be considering this legislation on the floor tomorrow.
  We also talked about during the campaign and leading up to, and now 
since Nancy Pelosi, our Speaker, took office, that we are going to 
implement the priorities that were important to the American people, 
including the minimum wage. We passed our ``Six in 06'' agenda in the 
first 100 hours that we were in the majority. The minimum wage was part 
of that. The implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations was 
a part of that. Making sure that we could repeal the $14 billion in 
subsidies that we gave away to the oil industry under the Republican 
leadership, that was a part of that package, and a number of other 
provisions.
  Our priorities since taking control of the House of Representatives 
have been a reflection of the priorities of the American people.
  We have been interacting with this President, which in my experience 
the only thing I can analogize it to, Mr. Ryan, is like trying to move 
an iceberg. This is a person who occupies the White House now that 
seems to have no respect for the system of checks and balances, no 
respect for the fact that the Founding Fathers created three branches 
of government that were considered coequal, and that he was not elected 
king of this country. The Founding Fathers very definitely intended for 
us not to have a monarchy, not to establish a monarchy, and he doesn't 
get to just decide what is going to happen, particularly when it comes 
to war and executing the powers of the Presidency. He does have to have 
input from us.
  I can tell you from my perspective, I think from your perspective, 
Mr. Meek, and Mr. Ryan as well, that this is the beginning of the end. 
The actions we have taken, insisting upon him not having a blank check 
and ending the blank check and the open-ended commitments that have 
been there, it is the beginning of the end.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. While we are hitting on the war, I think it is 
important for us to maybe go back and reevaluate

[[Page H5695]]

why the Democrats have the position of redeploy out, wind this thing 
down, and I think it is important for us to go through some of the 
numbers.
  Mr. Meek had already mentioned the number of troops killed. We have 
had another nine that were killed in the last couple of days, and our 
hearts and prayers go out to all the families that have been affected 
by this and who have lost soldiers over there. The most heartbreaking 
thing we have to do is go to these funerals and see a 20-year old kid 
who has been married for a year with a 7-month-old son or daughter.
  It is heartbreaking when we don't even know what winning is. Ask the 
President. What is winning this war? What does that mean now? We can't 
really get an answer from the President.
  But a couple of things, why we think the President and his policies 
have made this situation worse. The number of insurgents in Iraq in 
2003 was 5,000. The number of insurgents in Iraq in March of 2007 is 
70,000, all Sunni, mostly Sunni. What I love now is the President is 
starting to say, Mr. Speaker, ``bin Laden is now saying we need to 
attack Americans in Iraq. See why we got to stay there?''
  No kidding. Right? No kidding. Bin Laden? Of course. We have 150,000 
soldiers in a war zone. Of course, bin Laden is going to say go hit 
them over there.
  But the problem is that we are creating more terrorists. And if you 
are trying to win the hearts and minds of people, okay, the number of 
civilian casualties in Iraq since the invasion, estimates range from 
54,000 to 76,000. Those are innocent civilians in Iraq. Do you think we 
are going to be able to go over there and win their hearts and minds if 
we are killing innocent civilians with the bombs we are dropping? This 
needs to be won diplomatically. When it needs to be won diplomatically, 
it becomes very difficult when you have 50,000 to 75,000 civilian 
casualties.
  One more thing, and then I will wrap my portion up here. The average 
daily number of daily attacks by insurgents in July of 2003 was 16 
daily attacks in 2003. The number of daily attacks by insurgents 
between November of 2006 and February of 2007, 149. From 16 to 149. We 
are aggravating the situation. We are making it worse, and the surge is 
making it worse.
  I yield back to my friend.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you. What we are doing, you are 
absolutely right, Mr. Ryan, is creating an incubator for al Qaeda. That 
is exactly what has occurred. In fact, if you recall, we heard a few 
years ago a lot of back and forth from the President about whether he 
did or didn't say that the reason that we actually went into Iraq was 
because of the connection, supposed connection, between Saddam Hussein 
and al Qaeda. Then I know Tony Snow, the White House Communications 
Director, has said no, we never did say there was any connection 
between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Now, yesterday and this morning at 
the Coast Guard Academy graduation, now, finally, how many years into 
it, he can hang his hat on there being a connection between al Qaeda 
and our involvement in Iraq.
  Why? Because he created that situation there. Because we created an 
incubator and a hotbed that is an environment for that. Of course, if 
you have a culture like that, and I mean the culture in which bacteria 
will grow, just like a petri dish, if you create a petri dish like that 
and culture it, of course you are going to see the bacteria grow. If 
you create an environment in which bacteria can grow, it is going to 
explode like wildfire.
  No wonder. It boggles my mind why he believes that what he is saying 
is not transparent to the American people. It certainly is transparent 
and evident in the polling numbers, because he has literally an 
approval rating in terms of the way he has handled this war that is 
below 30 percent now.
  You would think that politically we would delight in that as 
Democrats. But it actually makes me sad, because how can a President be 
effective on any other issues when he clearly won't even be able to get 
the American people to listen to what he is saying because they are so 
soured on the direction that he has taken this country? That makes it 
very difficult for us to even reach out in a bipartisan way and attempt 
to work with him, because he has no credibility at all. He has his own 
party Members who are finding it very difficult to do anything in terms 
of their agenda domestically, and we don't see any outreach. He has 
created an impossible situation, Mr. Meek.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If I could just say, as we have increased the 
number, the incubation that a lot of our friends on the other side have 
supported, where more and more not only insurgents, but as Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz has said, more and more al Qaeda, more and more 
terrorists; so if you have a situation where you only have, for the 
sake of the example, 100 al Qaeda, and then we have the war, and now we 
have 1,000 al Qaeda, and then the President says well, we need to fight 
them over there or they are going to come over here, we have 900 more 
coming gunning for the United States because of the inability to 
actually execute this war.

                              {time}  2030

  To say we are making progress, and we have some amazing ability to 
find some of this information out, the number of hours per day of 
electricity in Baghdad prior to the war was between 16 and 24 hours a 
day. Now in May of 2007, the number of hours per day average 5.6 hours 
per day. That is feeding the problem that we are having over there.
  Production of barrels per day prior to the war, 2.5 million. 
Production of barrels per day in May 2007, 2.16 million, so almost 
400,000 less than prewar production.
  Unemployment rate in Iraq went from 20 up to 40 percent in December 
of 2006. This problem has increased. I know our friends on the other 
side of the aisle continue to try to tell us there are improvements, 
but the statistics tell us otherwise.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Mr. Ryan, you gave one 
great floor speech when you came down and said these are the same 
people who told us we will be greeted as liberators. These are the same 
people who told us oil revenues will be used to pay for the war. These 
are the same people who told us this will be a sweeping mission. These 
are the same people that told us there were weapons of mass 
destruction. These are the same people that told us there was a 
connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. These are the same 
people that went on and on and on. You can go on YouTube and watch it. 
I remembered and watched it, and I thought it was one of your better 
speeches on the floor. I will reserve comment on how many you have 
made, but that is one of the better ones.
  Mr. Ryan, it is very unfortunate that right now we are breeding 
terrorists, people that will dislike the United States of America for 
the rest of their lives. That wasn't our mission in Iraq, and that is 
the reason why, before the election, a majority of Democrats were 
saying, and some Republicans were saying, that we should redeploy our 
troops to the peripheral and not do the street patrols in Iraq.
  How are we losing our troops? Going door to door, kicking in doors, 
riding down the streets. IEDs are blowing up and killing many of our 
men and women. They are not being killed in the training missions. I 
haven't heard one casualty, maybe there has been one, but I haven't 
heard of one casualty of any of our men and women training Iraqi troops 
in how to protect their country and how to protect their own streets.
  Case in point, let me paint this picture because I think it is 
important as we debate this emergency supplemental. When you look at 
the fact that the U.S. troops with the flag on their shoulder kicking 
the door searching for the three that were missing, going door to door, 
those children, that son, that grandfather, that mother will say that 
the United States kicked my door in. How do we get to this point, I am 
innocent and we are laying on the floor at 2 a.m. with semiautomatic 
weapons pointed at my family? Those individuals end up listening to the 
rhetoric of radical terrorist groups that are saying, they are not here 
for you, they are here to terrorize your family.
  That is why we have to get out of the position of this door-to-door 
and street-to-street combat in Iraq when the Iraqis themselves should 
be carrying out that mission. It is so very, very important.
  Like I said, six emergency supplementals, half a trillion dollars of

[[Page H5696]]

blank checks to this administration; no more. That is the reason why we 
are having benchmarks. That is why the White House has to come here and 
report to Congress.
  I heard one of the Republican Members say we are supposed to receive 
reports. Well, that is a revelation. Here we are in charge of the 
Federal purse. We are responsible. We are the board members, if you 
want to put it that way, over the U.S. Treasury, and all of a sudden 
now many of our Republican Members are saying, yes, we are supposed to 
receive reports.
  That should have been happening from the beginning. Maybe then the 
death toll wouldn't be what it is, and maybe we may have more coalition 
partners in this effort if it was run right from the beginning versus 
send us a blank check and don't ask any questions.
  So the President can say what he wants to say. Memorial Day is coming 
up. We have men and women who have laid down and sacrificed. Many of 
them have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Many of the men and women that 
fought with them remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and 
still we are here playing games with the democracy that they allow us 
to celebrate today, under what we may call kingdom politics of the 
President feeling that you shouldn't ask any questions; I trust my 
advisors, and I trust the generals in the field.
  Well, I trust the generals in the field, too. And I have a level of 
trust for the administration, but the track record doesn't support 
don't ask any questions; we don't need any strings attached; you are 
trying to take my power away. We are not trying to take power away, we 
are just trying to make sure that the Federal tax dollar is spent in an 
appropriate way and we save as many American lives as possible.
  Ms. Wasserman Schultz, no one, Democrat or Republican, should 
apologize for what is going on right now in Washington, DC. I think 
many of our friends who believe we should be out of Iraq tomorrow, we 
should send every plane we can possibly send, take our troops out, 
redeploy our troops and just leave it as is, there is a process in 
doing that. We are going through that process right now. A lot of it is 
very painful.
  Some say, why are you giving the President another opportunity to 
continue this war and continue to fight this war? Haven't you learned 
over the last 5 years that the strategy they are using is a combat 
strategy, not a diplomatic strategy, not making sure there are 
benchmarks on the Iraqi Government, and they had that opportunity.
  I encourage, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, when we do get a bill on the 
floor, we do have a number of Republicans voting on behalf of this next 
supplemental, and a number of Democrats voting on behalf of the 
supplemental. And those that feel the war should end tomorrow should 
understand that this is a major accomplishment in the effort in taking 
away what the President has had for the last 5 years: a blank check, do 
as you want to do, Donald Rumsfeld and all of them.
  As Mr. Ryan says, as I close on this point, the real issue here is 
the truth will surface. Some of it has already surfaced, and a lot of 
it will continue to surface as we learn more about what the Congress 
was not told and as we learn more about what we were told incorrectly. 
And as Americans reflect back on this time, they will see some of the 
worst misinformation and secrecy at a time of war and a time of 
economic strain on this country.
  We have borrowed more from foreign nations than we have ever borrowed 
in the history of the Republic; and still, we have Members standing 
here asking what is wrong. Well, the reason we are in the majority on 
this side of the aisle, we are very busy leading on behalf of the 
American people, is a perfect example of what is wrong.
  The American people know what is going on. I am not talking about a 
bunch of proud Democrats. I am talking about Independents and 
Republicans and those who have never voted before in their life, they 
decided to get involved and vote. If this was just about politics, we 
would just go home or be in our offices doing the things we need to do 
for tomorrow, and let the Democratic majority get bigger and bigger 
because we would lead the Republicans to doing and saying what they 
have been doing all along.
  But this is bigger than politics. This is about our democracy. This 
is about our finances here in the country, and this is about saving 
U.S. lives that are in harm's way right now when we can work out a 
better plan and force the Iraqi Government to take the responsibility 
of their streets, take the responsibility of their patrols, and make 
sure that they meet benchmarks just like every U.S. mayor has to meet 
with Federal dollars, just like every U.S. Governor has to meet when 
they are spending Federal dollars. Just like every U.S. agency should 
be accountable to the taxpayer dollars, the Iraqi Government and those 
in the Iraqi Government should be just as accountable and greater with 
the U.S. taxpayer dollars.
  I don't want to get all emotional, like Mr. Ryan said, but I can't 
help but do it when I think about Memorial Day coming up and when I 
think about the veterans' benefits that we have in the emergency 
supplemental.
  We have some folks saying we shouldn't have any domestic spending in 
here, and we have troops coming back and still waiting a long time to 
get their service. It was the Democrats that put forth the dollars to 
make sure that Walter Reed was repaired. That is also in this emergency 
supplemental. We will talk a little more about that as we move along.

  I know we are going to talk about gas prices in the time left. Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz, I think we should commend every American for being 
focused on this issue of Iraq and encourage a discourse.
  I was out behind the Chamber today on the balcony, and I noticed a 
person out there on a bullhorn saying, ``Stop the war.'' I wasn't 
bothered by that because the men and women that we are going to 
celebrate on Monday fought for that lady to be out there saying what 
she was saying.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. That is what it is all about.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. That is right. That is what it is all about. And 
this is not a kingdom, this is a democracy, we have to tolerate one 
another now and then, but we have to make sure that we make sound 
decisions on behalf of the Republic.
  Ms. Wasserman Schultz, I yield to you.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you, Mr. Meek.
  I have to tell you, I have thought recently when people come up to 
me, you would think that there are people that would say, Debbie, 
Kendrick, Tim, what does it really matter? We have been spending 
billions of dollars for the last 5 years. We are over there in Iraq. 
Yeah, the American people are opposed to this, and we are in a pretty 
bad situation over there, and there doesn't appear to be any end in 
sight, but how does this affect my life? At the end of the day I am 
eating, my children are eating, they are going to school. Iraq is far 
away, and it is not impacting me whether we continue the war in Iraq or 
don't continue the war in Iraq.
  Gradually day by day, the percentage of people that don't feel that 
way, that get it, that understand what the impact is, not just on the 
perception of America in the world, but what the domestic day-to-day 
impact is, is growing.
  Besides the President's popularity ratings, which are in the toilet, 
we have a situation here where people are realizing, for example, that 
our National Guard is unable to be 100 percent ready to take care of us 
and do the job that we actually created the National Guard to do.
  Mr. Meek, next Friday is June 1, the official start of hurricane 
season, even though we have had activity a few weeks in advance of the 
beginning of hurricane season. And yesterday NOAA came out with their 
prediction on how busy this storm season is likely to be, and their 
prediction is 10 to 14 named storms, and a good chunk to be in the 
category 3, 4 or 5 category.
  We have a National Guard that has equipment that is still over in 
Iraq, and when it does come back, it comes back in such terrible shape, 
it isn't going to be ready to take care of Americans who are in need 
after the aftermath of a natural disaster. That is a direct result of 
our inability to extricate ourselves from Iraq, our inability to hold 
the Iraqi Government accountable, to establish benchmarks, to make

[[Page H5697]]

sure that there is some progress made, and that they don't have an 
open-ended commitment and a blank check even after the Iraqi 
Parliament, Mr. Ryan and Mr. Meek, have indicated that they don't want 
us there anymore.
  There was a resolution that came out of the Iraq Parliament that 
indicated they didn't want us there. There is an incredible frustration 
among the Iraqi people about our being there. There is a worldwide 
concern about our presence there; and, most importantly, the American 
people want us to bring the troops home so that we can refocus the 
attention that we are paying in Iraq on training those troops to stand 
up on their own and for the Iraqi Government to function on their own.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I have a question for Mr. Ryan.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. And, Mr. Meek, I would have segued into the 
issue of our skyrocketing gas prices.

                              {time}  2045

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We will.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Chief cardinal, too, so if she wants to talk about 
gas, I want to talk about gas.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know what they say. They have Democrats and 
Republicans and members of the Appropriations Committee, and I happen 
to be on the floor with two of them. One is a cardinal and one thinks 
that he's actually running the country, but I would say that as we 
continue to talk about this, especially in Armed Services, and Chairman 
Ike Skelton has done an excellent job in the defense authorization 
bill, getting us to a readiness stage where we can deal with the 
issues, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, that you outlined.
  These are very important issues, especially the Gulf Coast States or 
any State that has a, Kansas for instance, it has a natural disaster or 
have a disaster where they need the National Guard to have the 
equipment that they need, it's in that authorization bill, and I want 
to thank not only my colleagues on the committee but also Mr. Skelton 
for all of his hard work on the authorization end.
  But I think it's also important for us to note that our mission, we 
talk about redeployment. We're talking about redeployment and deploying 
a diplomatic corps to work with the Iraqi Government and have a surge 
in diplomacy or an escalation in diplomacy. Why can't we get other 
countries to join us? Well, why would they want to join something that 
is going to create more terrorism or terrorists in their country? 
That's what we're doing, and so I think it's important for everyone to 
understand that.
  And I share that with my constituents when I go out to speak to them. 
We're in here having this meeting here, we're sitting in this living 
room, and someone kicks in the door and come in and do a security 
search; how would you feel? Who would be responsible for that? You 
would be outraged.
  Iraq is not the United States, by far, but I want to share with you 
that many of our men and women are following the duty that we've asked 
them to carry out, and they trust us that we will ask the questions 
that we should ask here in Washington, DC and carry it out.
  I just want you to respond to that because I know that you have some 
words of wisdom, especially on that end, in all seriousness, because 
it's just simple common sense to do the things we should be doing. It 
does not take a rocket scientist, and you don't have to be a four-star 
general to understand that what we're doing is not working. And to say 
let's keep doing it and declassifying information and saying this is 
the reason why I did this, this is the reason why I did that, it still 
does not equate to why we're still doing the same thing and expecting 
different results.
  I will use this analogy before I yield to you. It's almost like going 
to the refrigerator and taking out a carton of milk, taking a smell of 
the milk and saying, wow, it's sour, I will put it back in and maybe 
it'll be fresh tomorrow. It works against logic.
  And what's happening now is that the strategy that the White House 
has works against logic, but unfortunately, it would be okay if it was 
just an individual, but it's dealing with U.S. lives. I know all of us 
want to save lives, but we have to make sure that we do everything we 
can to send a message to the White House, and also man up and woman up 
here in Congress, and be leaders in that direction towards safety and 
accountability and moving the Iraqi issue in a new direction.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. All we really have to do is talk to some of the 
soldiers who are over there and who have come back, which I'm sure most 
of us have. And when they explain what's going on on the ground, it's 
mind-boggling to think in cities of 140, 150, 160, 170,000 we've got 
American troops, for example, on the west side of the city, with 1,000 
Iraqi troops on the west side of the city, and 1,000 on the east side 
and 1,000 Iraqis; 2,000, 4,000 total for the whole city, 2,000 of the 
4,000 being American. How are you going to control a city of 170,000 
people? And a surge of an extra 1,000 or 2,000 is not going to make a 
difference. It's going to make it worse.
  This surge is not the first time we've tried this. This is like the 
fourth time, and every time that we've tried a surge in certain areas 
there has been an increase in the number of daily attacks, not a 
decrease, because it incites the area, and you still don't have enough.
  And we've all said from the beginning, if we went in there with 3- or 
400,000 troops, where we were able, after the statue fell, to secure 
the State, to secure the country of Iraq, that would have been a 
different story, and all the looting was going on and the museums and 
everything, and then Secretary Rumsfeld said, well, they're just 
blowing off steam. At that point, you lost control and it went all 
downhill from there.
  But my point is that you talk to these soldiers who are on the 
ground, and they see that they can't handle this situation the way it 
is and that the only way to do it is through diplomacy, is to try to 
patch up some of these political problems, which gets worsened because 
of the innocent civilians that are dying in Iraq, which makes them not 
like us.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Like happens to you sometimes, my blood is 
starting to boil because all that it takes, I'm sitting here listening 
to this back and forth that we're going through here and example after 
example about the reasons for the American people's outrage, for our 
outrage, for our persistence in trying to move this iceberg and get 
some progress and end the blank check and establish some 
accountability.
  You know, it's very simple. All the President has to do is be a 
diplomat himself and agree to come to the table and compromise and 
negotiate and end the my-way-or-the-highway politics. He is not king. 
Yes, he was elected President, but he was elected to one branch of the 
government, which, the way our government is set up, is designed to 
work coequally with this branch of government.
  He has disdained the legislative branch, and this is the 
representative body of the United States of America. The people who 
elect us elect us to be their voice. They elect one person, an 
executive, and they elect 435 of us so we can have a collective 
diversity of opinion and that the result in terms of the outcome of 
policy is a combination of that diversity. And he has no respect for 
it, and that's why his numbers are where they are. That's why the 
support for this President, the bottom has dropped out of it.
  And that's why over the next several months we will push this iceberg 
with all our might, and I can feel it, that their ability to continue 
unabated with the disdain and disregard that this administration has 
shown for the American people and our opinion, it will come to an end 
and it's going to come to an end in a fashion that we will help bring 
about the change that the American people ask for. And that is the only 
way that this is going to happen, if we continue to fight, we continue 
to push hard, we make sure that we go out to our communities like we 
will all do next week.
  I know I'm having a town hall meeting next Wednesday in my district 
to talk specifically about the war in Iraq and how people feel about 
it, get their feedback, talk about the other issues that are important 
to them, because people are tired. They're tired of the war. They're 
sick of the deaths. They're sick of the death toll, and they want us to 
be able to talk about how we're going to expand health care.
  We have the SCHIP program that we need to reauthorize later this 
year. We

[[Page H5698]]

have 9 million kids that we need to find the money to cover. We have to 
make sure we can reduce the cost of health care for small businesses. 
We have a deficit that has ballooned out of control, that we're trying 
to get a handle on, no thanks to our friends on the other side of the 
aisle.
  We have a lot to do, a long to-do list, and it would be great if the 
President would just recognize that we all need to work together and 
end his disrespect for the American people and for the democratic 
process because it's gone on for far too long. And we have a lot at 
stake here.
  And I just have reached my level of frustration. I know my 
constituents have, and that's why I'm proud of our caucus because we 
have hung together. We have stuck together and pushed and pushed and 
pushed each other so that we can get behind a policy that not all of us 
are 100 percent behind. Everybody didn't get their way with the 
legislation that we put forward with benchmarks and timelines. But you 
know what? That's what this representative body that we were elected to 
is all about. It's about compromise and it's about standing up for the 
people who don't have a voice. They elected us to be their voice and I 
have been very proud to be a Member of this institution, really proud 
of our Democratic leadership.

  And I'm just hopeful that we can get beyond this war and start 
talking about things like the $3.22 a gallon that our constituents are 
paying, on average, for their gas as we approach the summer season as 
well.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. In a very practical way, we're pushing. I mean, I 
think this Congress has done everything that it can do, but if we're 
not getting any help from our Republican friends, a couple have shown 
great courage to try to end this thing, but not getting the support 
where we can override the President's veto.
  Now, this is the stark reality that is frustrating for all of us, the 
Speaker I know for sure, and all of us, is that we're trying to end 
this war. The first bill we passed had a hard deadline. The second bill 
we passed had a goal to get out. The President still vetoed that, Mr. 
Speaker, and we're trying the best we can within this institution to 
move this iceberg, as you say.
  But the President consistently vetoes these bills that we're trying 
to pass. And so now we're to the point where we've got to figure out 
what's the best we can do, and it looks like the best we can do is try 
to get him to at least have these benchmarks that are in there, report 
back in September, July and September, with some of this, and get our 
veterans the support and the funding they need.
  Nobody likes that. I don't like it. I don't even know if I'm going to 
vote for it, to be quite honest. I'm so frustrated with the President 
at this point, but we've got decisions to make as to can we take a step 
in the right direction even though it's not as far as we want to go.
  But I think this is a call, Mr. Speaker, for the citizens of this 
country to step out and step up, not the ones that we see wearing the 
pink, not the ones that we see with the bull horn, but if we're going 
to end this war, it's going to be average people who support our 
philosophy but have yet to say anything, and not in your district or my 
district but in districts where their representatives come down here 
and support the President.
  You can't sit on the sidelines on this one, not as a politician, but 
as a citizen you've got to come out here and help us do this, and I 
think there needs to be a direct call to a action.
  Just to let you know, Mr. Speaker, we are sending a letter to the U.S 
Conference of Catholic Bishops from me and several other Members, 
asking them to reengage the war issue; that this is the issue of our 
day and that they need to be more active and they need to get involved 
in their local parishes and demand that their citizens get off the pews 
and start participating and getting legislators to move off the dime. 
We've got to do this by September, or in the fall while we're beginning 
the process for 2008. Or we're going to continue to be here and 
legislators are going to continue to get away with voting to support 
the President when 71 percent of the American people don't think he's 
handling this job properly.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I think you are right. I think also, as the 
summer begins and then wears on and we have an opportunity in the 
summertime to go home and spend some time in our districts and interact 
with our constituents, that the issues that pile up, at we're going to 
have a difficult time dealing with, because we are still mired in this 
hopeless war in Iraq, are going to continue to fray the patience of the 
American people, and I think our friends on the other side of the aisle 
will hear from their constituents.
  I keep wanting to move a little bit and talk about gas prices, and 
I'm chomping at the bit to do that because you've heard me talk about 
this before. I'm one of those minivan moms. I drive my kids around in 
my minivan to soccer games and to school. And last summer when we were 
frustrated with the rise in gas prices, I remember exploding on the 
floor here talking about how it cost over $55 to fill up my gas tank. 
And then, of course, conveniently, right before the election, the 
prices came down again. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact 
that an election was imminent, and I'm sure the oil industry didn't do 
anything deliberate to ensure that that would happen.
  But amazingly it is now May and those gas prices have not just crept 
but leapt back up, and I want to just share with you the timeline that 
has existed since this administration took over in the executive 
branch.
  We are now paying more than double for gas than when President Bush 
first took office. This chart will illustrate that the average price 
per gallon on January 22, 2001, at the beginning of the Bush 
administration, was $1.47, and then as of May 21, 2007, just a couple 
days ago, the average price per gallon today is $3.22.
  Now, what that means is that amounts to real money. When you're 
talking about it costing 20 or so dollars to fill up your tank or $25 
to fill up your tank, that's a manageable amount of money.

                              {time}  2100

  But when you get to $50, $50, Mr. Murphy, is an amount that I think 
about. I mean, when I am faced with paying a bill that's $50, that's 
real money to me. To me, that gives me pause. I have to make a 
decision, normally, about other things unrelated to things that I 
absolutely have to have like gas, about whether or not I am going to 
actually spend $50. Do I have the money? What else will I not be able 
to buy if I spend $50 on this item?
  Gas is not like that. Gas is something that's not optional. You have 
to drive your kids to school. You have to make sure you can get your 
car to the grocery store. If you don't go to the grocery store because 
you don't have gas, your family doesn't eat. If your kid is sick and 
you can't fill the gas tank, then you can't take them to the doctor, 
and they get sicker. How are you going to get them to the emergency 
room if they get so sick that you need that kind of health care? Those 
are real problems that Americans face when gas prices reach that point.
  What we are doing in the Democratic Caucus and as we continue to 
fight to move this country in a new direction is we are working on an 
energy package that we will bring to the floor by July 4, an energy 
independence package that will ensure that we can crack down on price 
gouging, like the legislation that we passed off this floor yesterday, 
that we can really start to respond to the oil cartel and make sure 
that they are pursued for the antitrust violations that they engage in, 
and that we really invest in alternative energy.
  The President's remarks during the State of the Union last year were 
just words. When he referenced his desire to see America end our 
addiction to foreign oil, nice words, but no action to speak of. 
Nothing that I can see in any policy is reflective of the words that we 
heard in this Chamber during that State of the Union. We, on the other 
hand, are going to make a difference.
  Mr. Murphy.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you for letting me come down here 
for just a couple of seconds and add my voice to the chorus here.
  You are absolutely right. When you are talking about something as 
essential as gas for people driving to and from work bringing their 
kids back and forth to school, it's not an optional expenditure. Now, 
in Connecticut we love to say there is another choice, people

[[Page H5699]]

could get on some train or get on some bus, but they don't exist. They 
don't exist because unfortunately in some parts of this country we have 
neglected our mass transit infrastructure, and we have forced people to 
rely on their vehicles to get themselves around.
  I just saw a statistic today that said in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 
the heart of my district, that one in six people in public housing are 
spending 66 percent of their income on rent, 66 percent of their income 
on rent. There is not much left for food. There is not much left for 
medicine. We know they have to pay more for medicine because less of 
them have health care. There is certainly not a lot left for 
transportation costs. This is hitting at the heart of the American 
middle class, at the heart of the American working class.
  In just a second we will show a chart that would suggest that the 
reason for these increased prices at the pump is certainly not that the 
oil companies are crying poverty, certainly not because the bottom 
lines of American oil companies and national oil companies are hurting. 
It is hard to understand with the record profits, year after year. The 
last 3 or 4 years, every year, comes new record profits for these oil 
companies. How on Earth can we continue to see these prices go up?
  I just want to say one more thing that was touched on. We have to 
talk about what national independence means, dependence on oil means 
for national security as well, over 170,000 barrels of oil from Saudi 
Arabia in 2006 and other OPEC countries. If you want to talk about why 
we can't bring a country like Saudi Arabia to the table, have a 
conversation about why they are creating a society in which their most 
marginalized members feel that their only resort is to extremism and 
violence; if you want to find out why we can't hold some of these 
Middle Eastern countries accountable for the societies that they are 
creating and the terrorism they are helping fuel, it's because we rely 
on their oil. It's because in the end we can't make them angry, because 
if we do, they are going to cut off the food that our cars eat.
  Now, energy independence is about lowering gas prices. Antitrust 
legislation, price-gouging legislation, is about getting to the heart 
of the problem for middle-class consumers and drivers, the prices at 
the pump. But ultimately we have to figure out how to walk away from 
some of these quagmires we are in with countries that provide oil to 
us. We have got to understand that energy independence is about doing 
the right thing for middle-class families, to minivan moms.
  It is also about doing the right thing for national security. It's 
also making sure that my future kids and grandkids are going to grow up 
in a society that's safe. That's why it's a triple whammy. Energy 
independence is about lowering energy prices, it's about cleaning up 
our environment, and it's also about national security. That's why I 
had to drag Mr. Ryan up to the rostrum to allow me get down here and 
say my 2 cents on this.
  This is what the Democratic majority is going to deliver. It's going 
to go from a time when we could complain about gas prices and not see 
much action at all from Congress to a time now where we are still going 
to complain about it, but we are actually going to have a group of 
people here in the House and Senate and step up to the plate and do 
something about it.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We are wrapping up in a few minutes, but I 
have got this gas tank replica here, which is pretty ancient-looking. 
It's actually decrepit itself. I bring it with me to the floor because 
it is the only explanation that I can find as to why our good friends 
on the other side of the aisle and this President seem totally 
unresponsive in trying to address this problem and work with us.
  My only explanation is that perhaps they don't pump their own gas, or 
perhaps the last time they actually filled their own tank, and saw that 
ticker, and realized how much it cost to fill up a tank is when gas 
pumps look like this. That's my only explanation, given this is the 30-
something Working Group. Maybe it has been since the 1950s that they 
filled their own tank, unlike the people that we represent, who are 
trying, struggling to fill their tank every day.
  We are going to continue to back up our words with action. I look 
forward to working with my colleagues in the 30-something Working Group 
under the leadership of our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Very good. As we close, I know that we have our 
Web site that we need to give out. Well, we don't have time, but let me 
just do this. Mr. Murphy talked about this.
  These are another record year for oil company profits, in 2007, 
record profits, $30.2 billion they have been able to achieve, and $6.5 
billion in 2002; and 2007, $30.2 billion. I think those are pretty good 
years for oil companies. It seems to happen, and I am not a Member of 
Congress with a conspiracy theory, but, with the Bush administration 
and the White House, looked like oil companies have done better than 
many Americans have done.
  As I talk to my friends and those that have F-10 pickup trucks, what 
have you, it's costing upwards of $80 just for a small business to run 
that truck, which is going to end up costing the U.S. taxpayers even 
more when they go for goods and services. We do have our Web site, and 
we will give that real quick, and we will close.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We encourage you, any of the Members, anyone 
listening, to sign onto our Web site. The charts that we have been 
describing tonight are up on that Web site. You can reach us, e-mail 
us, at [email protected], and you can also reach our Web 
site by signing on to www.speaker.gov and look for the 30-something 
link, and you can find all the things that we are working on in the 30-
something Working Group.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you very much. I want to thank you and Mr. 
Ryan.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for your time here on floor. It's 
always an honor for us to address the House of Representatives.

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