[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15243-15248]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1815
                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is recognized 
for 60 minutes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to address the House 
here on this Thursday evening. As you know, the 30-something Working 
Group comes to the floor daily to not only share with Members of the 
House, but also with the American people, issues that are facing our 
Nation and things and ideas that we have on this side of the aisle that 
can assist us in moving this country to a new direction.
  Here in the House, as you know, we have been sharing, not only with 
the Members, but also with the American people a plan for a new 
direction for America, and a new direction that will be helping a 
number of Americans in their everyday lives, making sure that we have 
affordable health care, as it relates to fixing the issue on 
prescription drugs and as it relates to costs, also dealing with issues 
such as the minimum wage, making sure that American workers are able to 
receive an increase, just like we have received an increase here in the 
House of Representatives over a period of a number of years, year after 
year. We will talk about that a little further.
  As you know, we have a plan here in the House, where we have been not 
only calling for a vote, but asking the Republicans to join us here and 
increase the minimum wage.
  We want to increase it to $7.25 an hour. It is now $5.15. There are 
millions of Americans that are still, since 1977, not able to see an 
increase in minimum wage.
  Also cracking down on price gouging, we have talked about that, we 
have tried to pass legislation on that. The Republican majority has 
blocked us from being able to do that.
  The simple fact is, Mr. Speaker, the majority actually wins here in 
this House. Right now, that is the Republican majority, and it is 
important that folks understand that that is the case, and that we have 
the will and the desire to lead in that area and making sure that 
American people are able to receive an increase in the minimum wage.
  Another issue, in putting America in a new direction, is making sure 
that we cut costs as it relates to student loans, cut interest rates in 
half and make sure that it is affordable for families. So many families 
are going to be sending their children off to college this fall. Some 
will not, because they can't afford it.
  Student loans have gone up. Student aid has gone down. It is 
important that we look at that as it relates to building the next 
generation of leaders and making sure that we have an educated America, 
to make sure that parents and grandparents are able to see their 
children or grandchildren do better than what we have done 
academically, because of affordability, and also access.
  Also making sure, ensuring that retirees can retire in dignity, 
protecting Social Security, making sure that it is not privatized, 
making sure that it is here for future generations is our goal. We want 
to make sure we are able to do that and being able to place America in 
a new direction.
  Also, something that the Republican majority has failed to do is pay 
as we go, making sure that whatever we invest in that we show how we 
are going to pay for it. I think it is very, very important.
  Mr. Ryan and I here this evening will point out a number of these 
issues that are not being addressed. But we have already made a 
commitment to the American people in housedemocrats.gov, in our 
commitment of putting America in a new direction, making sure that we 
meet the needs of everyday working Americans.
  So with that, Mr. Ryan, if I can, I would be more than happy to yield 
to you, sir. It is once again a pleasure to be on the floor with you, 
to be able to hold a flag with the 30-something Working Group, to make 
sure that we share with the American people things that we are working 
on, will try to work on and will, if given the opportunity to, do so.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman. I always enjoy our afternoon 
sessions here much better than the late night sessions that we normally 
have.
  But you made a point earlier that I think we need to expound upon, 
that is, the issue of debt and balancing the budget. You mentioned 
PAYGO.
  One of the fundamental issues we need to get our hands around, as the 
country blesses us with the majority in the fall, is that we have got 
to figure out what we are going to do with this tremendous debt that we 
have.
  We have, as a country, borrowed more, and you have a great poster up 
there, we have borrowed more from foreign interests in the last 5 years 
than every President prior to George W. Bush has in the last 224 or 225 
years. That's a lot of money that we owe Japan, China, OPEC countries.
  We don't have the money to be giving the tax cuts that we have, war 
spending, military spending. We don't have that money so we go out and 
borrow it. It is very important that we will do as a Congress, and the 
first few days that we are here as a Democratic majority, is 
reimplement the PAYGO rules that were in place. Pay-as-you-go.
  That basically means that as we pass a budget that we will not spend 
any money that we have to go and borrow. You either find the money from 
another program, or you go and raise the money somewhere else. But you 
don't just spend money on a program and have to go to China in order to 
ask them to loan you money in order to

[[Page 15244]]

fund it. That is a fundamental difference that the Democratic Party 
adheres to as opposed to our friends on the other side.
  With all due respect, their rhetoric is right on, balanced budgets, 
rein in government, smaller government. The rhetoric is all there is. 
If you look at the actions over the past 5 years, when you are 
borrowing so much money from China and Japan, you have got to pay 
interest on it just like your car or your home.
  So this chart highlights for us the difference between the Democratic 
priorities and making sure you have money that you can spend, or not 
spend, as opposed to going out and borrowing it. This is the chart that 
highlights all of this.
  The big red bar on the left is what we just pay on interest, on the 
debt, just interest. This isn't paying down the principal at all. This 
is just for interest, 230 or $235 billion will be spent in 2007 just 
paying down the interest on the money that we have borrowed.
  It pales in comparison to the President's budget for 2007 in 
education, homeland security, and veterans. So we need to ask 
ourselves, what do we believe in as a country? Do we believe this is 
the right way to go? Do we believe that this is how we want to 
administer government, or do we believe we need to put back in the 
PAYGO rules, put them in place, make sure that this Congress, 
regardless of who is in charge, or who is in the White House, cannot go 
out and spend money that we don't have?
  Now, what is frustrating for those of us in the 30-something Working 
Group is that we are going to spend a good part of the next decade 
trying to repair some of the major structural damage that this 
administration and this Republican Congress have caused. That is the 
botto line. It is not trying to embellish what the problem is, but this 
is it.
  When President Clinton was in, and the Democrats passed our budget in 
1993, without one Republican vote, that balanced budget led to 
surpluses and created over 20 million jobs.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I have a chart just like your chart. We have two 
of them.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. See, last night, you tried to one-up me with the 
chart, and now tonight you are copying my charts.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, you know, Mr. Ryan, I think the point 
needs to be made in such a way and I think the point needs to be made, 
and I asked for another chart to be made, so that you can have a chart 
and I can have a chart. We can talk about what is happening here.
  In all seriousness, I think it is important that when you look at the 
interest, you can almost, as it relates to the blue, invest in 
education three times what we are paying on the debt.
  When you look at homeland security, you got folks as well up here on 
the other side of the aisle talking about we have got to protect 
America. You have another chart. I wish you could pull that other chart 
out, because folks need to understand what we are talking about, 
because that is what we do here in the 30-something Working Group. We 
have third-party validators. That is the chart right there. I don't 
have one of those.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I will get you one.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. But you look at that, and then when you look at 
veterans, and this second chart is so that we can take it. We can leave 
that chart on the floor. Because when we start talking about a 
Republican majority making history in all the wrong ways, this chart 
needs to go with us throughout this Capitol.
  Do you know what we need to do? We need to put this chart and that 
chart, just like this one, outside of our office. That is what we are 
going to do. All next week, this chart and your chart that looks just 
like it, we will get an easel and put it outside of our office.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Then when we come down here, we will just take the 
chart from our office and carry it down here.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Bingo. Veterans, I have a lot of veterans in my 
district. I am going to tell you right now, Mr. Ryan, they are hurting. 
They are hurting because they are having to wait several weeks to see 
the ophthalmologist or podiatrist or whatever the case may be, because 
there is a back-up at the veterans administration. In rural America, 
which I don't represent, I represent a very urban area, Dade and 
Broward counties, two of the most populated counties in Florida, that 
veterans clinic is only open two and three times a month.
  Veterans have to wait to go in and get what we told them we would 
give them, because they put their life on the line, some of their 
friends laid their lives down for us to salute one flag here today. But 
better yet, the Republican majority is still going out, putting it on a 
credit card, putting this country in debt that we have never seen 
before.
  But even better, yesterday, they talk about, well, we have done this 
in homeland security. I think you have the facts there, but because 
this chart was so revealing, I want to make sure, and we will make sure 
that we have this out next week, which I think will be our last week in 
session before we break for August, have this out so Members can see 
it. We definitely want the American people to know what is going on.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. What this really illustrates is our plan, as we 
have it here before I get into the homeland security, our plan is, as 
we begin to rein in the spending from the Republican Congress, cut out 
the corporate welfare, with the Medicare part D, all the major 
subsidies that are going to all the big pharmaceuticals and health care 
industries, what we want to do is we begin to move towards balancing 
the budget, reducing this payment here in the red, and then we have 
money to invest in lowering college tuition costs, making sure health 
care is affordable for all of our citizens, making sure we raise the 
minimum wage. All of these things are going to fit into our long-term 
economic plan that the Democratic Party has.
  We just need to control the levers of government here to make sure 
that happens. This is exactly how we are going to go about it.
  One of the other things that we will invest in, my good friend, and I 
think it is important to make this point, just in the first few days 
when we get in, think about it, raise the minimum wage and reduce the 
loans, the interest on the college loans, by half.
  So for the parent loans and the student loans, in the first day or 
two that we are here, we will cut the interest rates on those loans in 
half. You will save thousands of dollars over the life of your loan, 
about $5,000 for the average loan. We will raise the minimum wage, and 
that is for a single mom who works for minimum wage, who lives in 
poverty right now. That is unacceptable in the United States of 
America.
  Another thing that we will invest in that this administration and the 
Republican-led Congress have failed to address is the issue of border 
security. These are facts that we are going to show you here. When you 
compare, because I think again the rhetoric on the other side is right 
where it needs to be, but the reality is something drastically 
different. If you look at here, Clinton, and these are all comparing 
President Clinton and what he was doing under his term, two terms, and 
what happened under President Bush and trying to compare, the average 
number of new Border Patrol agents added, per year, under the Clinton 
administration, the average was 642 Border Patrol agents per year.
  Under the Bush administration, 411 per year. It is one thing to say 
you are for protecting this country from illegal immigration, and it is 
another thing to do it. Under President Clinton, we were able do it 
under his leadership.
  Fines for immigration enforcement, through the INS, in 1999, under 
President Clinton, 417; 2004, three. Three. Completed immigration fraud 
cases, 1995, under President Clinton, 6,455; in 2003, 1,389, 78 percent 
fewer. Democrats understand how to administer government and what needs 
to be done. Under the leadership of President Clinton, we were able to 
achieve success.
  I wish we could keep going in the right direction.

[[Page 15245]]



                              {time}  1830

  But, unfortunately, under the Republican Congress, under the 
Republican House and Senate, under President Bush, this Congress has 
consistently taken the country in the wrong direction, and I think it 
is frustrating for a lot of people because I think the rhetoric is 
there.
  The numbers for 2004 have come in, and a lot of our friends on the 
other side want to tell us how great the economy is doing. I invite all 
to come back to my district where we have thousands of Delphi workers 
and thousands of General Motors workers and steelworkers and people who 
are not doing so well, and an increase in the minimum wage would affect 
them.
  But the numbers have come in from 2004; and in 2004, the top 1 
percent, their real income grew by 17 percent for the top 1 percent. 
Same people that get the corporate welfare, same people that get the 
tax cut, real income grew by 17 percent. The bottom 99 grew by 1\1/2\ 
percent.
  Is there economic growth? Yeah. The problem is it is not affecting 
everybody. The problem is it is just 1 or 2 percent of the people. Even 
upper-income people, upper-middle-class people did not benefit from 
real wage growth like they should have.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is so lopsided and so one-sided. Of course, 
Mr. Speaker, Members of Congress would come to the floor and say, oh, 
the economy is doing great, what are you talking about? I do not know 
what these folks are whining about that are making $5.15 an hour; I do 
not know what their problem is. Why are they talking about an increase 
in the minimum wage? Matter of fact, what is the minimum wage?
  Well, let me just say this, they would not know because the 
Republican majority has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. Zero 
since 1997. The cost of whole milk has gone up 24 percent. Bread has 
gone up 25 percent. A 4-year public college education has gone up 77 
percent. Health care costs have gone up 97 percent, and of course, 
regular gas, and this is just regular gas, has gone up 136 percent.
  We have Republican leaders that are here saying in so many words not 
over my dead body am I going to raise the minimum wage. Of course, what 
are you talking about? The economy is doing great. If you let the 
Republican majority tell you that, you know what? In 1998 Members of 
Congress received $3,100 in a raise. In 1998, no minimum wage increase. 
In 2000, $4,600 raise for Members of Congress; in 2000, minimum-wage 
workers, zero. 2001, $3,800 increase, just got one the year before, 
Members of Congress; 2001, zero for minimum-wage workers. 2002, $4,900 
increase, we just had an increase, but you know this is not good 
enough. $4,900 increase; 2002, of course, zero. 2003, Members of 
Congress, $4,700, who believe it is kind of good when you can press the 
button and give yourself a raise, but then you turn around, no increase 
for minimum-wage workers. They need to suck it up.
  We are okay. $3,400 increase, thanks to the Republican majority; 2004 
minimum wage, no increase, thanks to the Republican majority. Members 
of Congress, $4,000, hey, it is a wonderful thing; minimum-wage workers 
wish they can go to work and say, hey, guess what I want, a $4,000, I 
know you just gave me one last year, I want another one this year; 
2005, zero for minimum-wage workers. 2006, $3,100 proposed for Members 
of Congress, and if it is like previous years, this is what it will be; 
2006, zero as we stand here today.
  So as people start talking about, well, you know, the economy is 
doing great on the Republican side. Oh, do you not know this is great. 
The indicators of the indicators say it is going to be a great year for 
Members of Congress and for the top 1\1/2\ percent or 1 percent of 
those individuals that are millionaires. For these big-time oil 
executives that are with the $398 million retirement package, it is 
going to be great for them.
  It is going to be great for the oil industry after they had that 
meeting over in the White House complex thanks to the rubber-stamp 
Congress. They made the energy policy there, rubber-stamp Congress 
approved it, and look at these profits for big oil companies: $34 
billion profits in 2002; 2003, $59 billion; in 2004, $84 billion; and 
in 2005, $113 billion.
  Now, I am not on the floor as a Democratic Member of Congress 
complaining about things not going my way. Well, guess what. It is not 
about my way. It is about the American way, and no one tells you, no 
one says when you pull up to the gas pump, hey, you over there, let me 
see your party affiliation. Are you a Democrat or a Republican or 
Independent or do you vote at all? No, they tell you that gas is $3.24.
  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, these oil companies are making hand 
over fist in record profits since the oil industry has even been 
established, ever. I mean, since it has been around.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Since there has been oil.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Since there has been oil, since the dinosaurs 
went down and made oil. Okay, this is just where it is.
  These guys, they are making more money than ever before, but guess 
what, the American people are paying for it, and the rubber-stamp 
Congress, on top of them making profits, are giving the taxpayers' 
money away and telling the minimum-wage workers to suck it up.
  You want a minimum wage? We have got leaders in Republican conference 
that are saying minimum wage, please. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, 
they have been getting a raise. We have all been getting a raise, year 
after year after year after year after year after year after year.
  Minimum-wage workers punch in and punch out every day. We ask 
individuals to go to work. They have gone to work. They are trying to 
raise their families. No one is coming to them and saying, hey, we are 
going to give you a $3,100 raise, we are going to give you a $4,700 
raise, we are going to give you a $4,100 raise, we are going to give 
you a $3,900 raise, we are going to give you a $3,100 raise, and we are 
going to give you a $3,600 raise, and next year you are going to get 
another raise and the year after that you are going to get another 
raise. These folks are making $5.15 an hour and we are saying suck it 
up.
  Well, on this side of the aisle, we have said we are not going to 
vote for an increase in the Members of Congress pay until the American 
people get a raise; and in our new direction for America, Mr. Speaker, 
we are calling for $7.25 an hour. If we have the opportunity, this will 
not be a Special Order floor speech talking about what we are going to 
do, like this is some prize fight and someone says once the fight 
happens, I am going to win.
  We are making it a promise that one of the first actions that we take 
if we are in the majority when it comes after the November elections, 
and we get here in January, the minimum wage as it relates to this 
House will be raised to $7.25 to help everyday American workers and not 
just help ourselves.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And the bottom line with the minimum wage is that 
the increase in the minimum wage is good for the economy. In 1997, when 
it was raised, there were 11 million new jobs that were created after 
the increase in the minimum wage, 11 million new jobs. States that have 
a higher minimum wage than the Federal minimum wage have an increase in 
business start-ups, an increase in sales, retail sales, because it is a 
different philosophy. It puts the money in the pockets of the consumers 
and allows them to go out and spend the money, and that stimulates the 
economy.
  We have implemented the neoconservative agenda, and it has not 
benefited 99 percent of the American people, whether it is foreign 
policy, the war in Iran, the disengagement in the Middle East, what is 
going on all over the world or on the domestic side, with Katrina and 
the prescription drug bill and the stagnant wages and the increase in 
energy costs, all of these things.
  We have now witnessed what it looks like when the neoconservative 
agenda is implemented, and just look around. If you want to know what 
happens, just look around. You see it.
  What we are trying to say is an increase in the minimum wage, cutting

[[Page 15246]]

student loans in half, implementing the 9/11 recommendations, shoring 
up our border security, these are things that we are going to do; and 
we have a long history in our party of doing it, and we will continue 
to do it when we take over.
  But it is important to recognize that the statistics are there 
regarding the minimum wage. We could sit here and make moral arguments 
all night long because it is, it is the morally right thing to do; but 
at the same time it is good for the economy and it is good for people 
all over the country, and I think the more we recognize that, the 
better off we are going to be.
  I want to make one more point. When you talk about this 7 million 
people who make minimum wage and the underclass and the people all over 
our country who are living in poverty, and the minimum wage would keep 
you in poverty if you work 40 hours a week and you are a working mom, 
we only have 300 million people in this country. We are competing with 
billions of people around the world, 1.3 billion in China, 1 billion 
people in India. We only have 300 million.
  So we have got to go to great lengths to make sure that all 300 
million that are physically and mentally and emotionally capable so 
they can be on the field playing for us.
  This is what an increase in the minimum wage does. That is what 
cutting interest rates on student loans in half, that is what that 
does. That is when you look at the Democratic Party's Innovation 
Agenda, creating incentives for venture capital and research and all of 
these things that we are doing, broadband access for all Americans in 
the next 5 years, when you look at what we want to do with alternative 
energy sources, my God, we cannot just reject science outright.
  Let us turn it up. You know, let us get America focused on an 
alternative energy plan, and we can do that and that is doable; but we 
need the leadership here in Congress and the resources. Instead of 
going to the top 1 percent to give them a tax cut, we should be 
focusing on what is the next generation of alternative energy going to 
be.
  Let us implement the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. Let us 
secure our ports. We can do all these things; and at the same time as 
we are doing this, we have to talk about what Mr. Tanner came down here 
a couple of weeks ago to talk about with us, Dennis Cardoza from 
California, his piece of legislation, that says we are going to audit, 
we are going to audit the Federal Government, and we are going to make 
sure that there is no fat, no waste, no abuse, no misspent funds, no 
misappropriated funds, no misallocated funds, and frankly, like in 
Iraq, there are funds missing, $9 billion. Nobody knows where it is.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. In Iraq missing? We are missing money here.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I know.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. There are agencies, Mr. Speaker, in the 
millions, oh, we do not know what happened to $24 million. They just 
write it off like it is nothing. I mean, you do not even have to go as 
far as Iraq. Right here in Washington, D.C., because the rubber-stamp 
Congress will not call these individuals in. People are in committee 
talking about, I do not know where it went; it came to us.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You know what Mr. Tanner's bill says, it is our 
bill, it says that if you are the Secretary of the Department and you 
cannot pass these audits, then after a couple of years, you have got to 
come back before the United States Senate and you have got to get 
confirmed again because you are not doing your job.
  We are trying to run a government that is based, it looks like it is 
1950, but society has moved forward. Society has decentralized, and the 
Republican Congress, they are like dinosaurs that just do not recognize 
the changes that have come in the world and have not done the due 
diligence necessary to reform government.
  I mean, you can say, well, here is the Democrats making this up 
again. We do not have to make anything up. Look how FEMA worked with 
Katrina. Look at how after the military portion of the war in Iraq, 
look at how we have done after that, not only losing money but not 
achieving the objective, not really having an objective, to having a 
big problem there, too.

                              {time}  1845

  As Newt Gingrich said last week on Meet the Press, with all that is 
going on around the world, our bureaucracies do not have the 
capabilities of handling all these situations. State Department, 
Pentagon, Department of Defense, all of these. Come on. We need to 
reform this government and we don't have time to wait.
  Because if there is going to be a terrorist attack in the United 
States of America, it is not going to be like Katrina where we have 5 
days where we could watch it on the Weather Channel and know it is 
coming. This government needs reformed and it needs reformed 
immediately and that means getting to the bottom of things. That means 
getting all the facts necessary. That means calling hearings.
  What that also means, Mr. Meek, is that some people are going to get 
embarrassed. Maybe people just need to come before Congress and say, 
``Mr. Meek, under this system, no one could do this job.'' Maybe that 
is the case. I will give you the benefit of the doubt. You appointed 
equestrian attorneys and all this other stuff to key positions. Yes, 
there has been a lot of cronyism here, let's not make any mistake about 
it. And it cost lives and money during Katrina, bottom line. But at the 
same time, maybe there are good people, hardworking Americans, that 
want to serve their government that are trapped in a bureaucracy that 
was designed in the 1930s or 1940s or 1950s and has stayed there and 
they can't work within this bureaucracy.
  Have the decency and the guts to try to reform it.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Somebody needs to be embarrassed? Somebody needs 
to be fired.
  Embarrassed? Oh, please. They are just following the lead of the 
Republican majority. If I was an agency department head or secretary or 
someone confirmed by the Senate, I mean, when I look at my chart here, 
when I look at $1.05 trillion in borrowing from foreign nations, 
dethroning 42 Presidents, 224 years of history where they only borrowed 
$1.01 trillion, how in the world could I rein in a department head 
where I have endorsed this, in the trillions of dollars, $1.05 trillion 
in 4 years alone. It is almost like me calling my children into the 
room and to say: You're doing the wrong thing. You're eating at 11 
o'clock at night. You're going to get heavy. You're going to get sick.
  They say: Well, Dad, look at you. You have eight gallons of ice cream 
sitting right in front of you. How can you talk to me about not eating 
at 11 o'clock at night and eating too much sugar?
  How in the world can the Republican Congress go to these department 
heads who can't find $24 million that are missing in their agency and 
they have borrowed, here in this Congress, $1.05 trillion, record 
breaking, from foreign nations.
  I am not going to even spend time taking the stuff off because I wish 
I had time to deal with it but I don't. The bottom line is these are 
the countries that own a part of the American apple pie because of the 
mismanagement of the Republican majority. That is the bottom line. You 
see the countries. I don't need to call them out. They are buying our 
debt. If you came to me and said, my good friend, can I borrow $50 from 
you? I consider us good friends, but if I loaned you $50, our 
relationship is now changed. Even if you pay me back, which I think you 
will, within 5 or 6 days, our relationship has changed because you have 
asked to borrow some of the money that I work hard for, that I can 
spend on issues dealing with my family.
  These countries have bought our debt. The relationship has changed, 
thanks to the Republican majority and the White House. $1.01 trillion, 
224 years, Mr. Speaker, of the country's history, 4 years under the 
Bush administration and the rubber-stamp Congress. You dethrone 224 
years of history, of borrowing from foreign nations. We borrow a record 
number and

[[Page 15247]]

these are the nations: Japan, China, the U.K., the Caribbean, Taiwan, 
OPEC nations. Who are the OPEC nations? Let's just go down the list 
because there are so many but they own $67.8 billion of our debt: Iran, 
Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE. 
I can go on. Ecuador. I can go on and on and on. Meanwhile, folks come 
to the floor and get all swollen and saying, we need to watch these 
foreigners and what they're doing and how they're doing it.
  The bottom line is the foreigners have bought our debt, thanks to 
you. It is upsetting. It is upsetting to the point that we have 
veterans that are out there allowing us to salute one flag, laid their 
life down, watched their friends die, and we are sitting here giving 
tax cuts to billionaires and misappropriating dollars and not providing 
the oversight. So how in the world a Member of Congress can sit up 
here, especially on the majority side and talk about reining someone in 
because they have misappropriated dollars and they don't know where 
they are. This rubber-stamp Republican majority has given the White 
House everything they want. And what do we have to show for it?
  Let's look at the Middle East. Let's look at something as far as the 
eye can see that folks start talking about an exit strategy. How in the 
world can you even come up with a strategy when you have done it alone 
and have given the White House everything they wanted? The Congress, 
well-documented, misled. You got the White House saying, well, you 
know, we were misled, too. The President has said, well, as it relates 
to trying to take the training wheels off the Iraqi government, saying 
that they have to provide their own security, that's for a future 
President to deal with. He has already punted and said, That's for a 
future President to deal with.
  Congress, of course, rubber-stamp Republican Congress, yes, sir, 
Benny Hill salute, yes, sir. Whatever you want. So shall it be written, 
so shall it be done, Mr. President.
  That is not the case in a democracy. Bill Clinton did not celebrate 
that relationship. Even Bush I did not celebrate that relationship. It 
goes to show you when democracy breaks down and governance breaks down 
and you have this rubber-stamp, rally-rally-rally Congress, that we're 
going to support you no matter how bad your policies are, we're going 
to rubber-stamp everything that you do, how in the world can they rein 
someone in and have oversight and say, oh, so you don't know where $24 
million that we've given you of the taxpayers' dollars are and how they 
were spent? Or wasted? You can't answer that? You're fired.
  The bottom line is we are going to subpoena you and the rest of the 
folks that work in that agency until we find out where the $24 million 
has gone. The real issue is this. The American people, Democrat, 
Republican, Independent, someone that is not voting now and is now 
taking interest in what is happening up here in Washington, D.C. has to 
have a problem of what's going on.
  I am just going to say that the facts are what they are. Some nights 
I come to the floor, I say, it's not even fair. It's just too much 
stuff. It's too much to talk about. It's too much to even shed light 
on. We come to the floor and we share the same information many times 
because it is so historical. It is historical in a way to where that 
never, never before in the history of this country has it ever been 
this way.
  I know it took me 10 minutes to answer your question that you put out 
there, but I had to put it out there.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate you cutting your answer short.
  I agree with you wholeheartedly. If we don't recognize and understand 
from A to Z what needs to be done in reforming the Government to make 
sure that we can respond to the needs of our constituents, we are in 
the service industry down here. We administer programs and we regulate 
commerce and we take care of foreign policy and we build a military, 
raise a military, raise an army. We have that obligation. I commend you 
for your passion and your support and your ideas which do not go 
unnoticed. But it is so important for us to recognize when we get down 
here, the few decisions that we will make immediately will have an 
immediate impact on the lives of every American. By auditing the 
Government and by going back to make sure that we can figure out how 
Government needs to look and run and be administered and executed in 
the 21st century based on an economy that is based on knowledge and 
information and science, not necessarily industry and huge steel 
companies and huge auto companies and big bureaucracies were needed to 
combat and administer and lift people up. I think to a certain extent 
we need to maintain those principles, but at the same time Government 
needs to change.
  There are so many programs that have really been frustrating, Mr. 
Speaker, that we have seen funding reined in on, the programs that will 
ultimately lead to economic development: the manufacturing extension 
program, the Small Business Administration 7(a) loan program. These are 
the kind of things that local economic development folks can use. We 
need to focus on how we export goods out of this country. We have been 
playing a lot of defense and I think the resentment that you feel in 
places like Ohio and Indiana and Pennsylvania and the old industrial 
Midwest is not that there is change, but the country has the 
wherewithal to pass free trade agreements and begin to compete in a 
global economy; but at the same time, we haven't done anything at home 
to make sure that we have adequate skilled workers that will be able to 
be employed or create wealth in this new society and which we can 
export and create wealth with business incubators, with job retraining.
  Why is it so difficult for us to get some of these workers from the 
auto industry or the steel industry or wherever it may be into the 
health care industry? We have a nursing shortage on one hand. We have 
job reductions in many other industries. What is the problem? We need 3 
million health care workers in the next decade or so. We need a million 
new nurses in the next decade or so. Government needs to be nimble 
enough and flexible enough where we could make sure that we address 
these issues. Not because we want to do it for the sake of the 
Government but because we want to do it because it is going to be good 
for the overall economy. It is going to be good. The more nurses, the 
more doctors, the healthier we are going to be. The more general sense 
we have about wellness and community health clinics and putting clinics 
in our schools and wellness programs and intramural programs and after-
school programs, these ultimately lead to healthier, more educated, 
more productive citizens which means increased value, more wealth 
creation and ultimately a strong America so that we can deal with all 
of these complex problems in the world, not from a position of 
weakness.
  I think what you showed with your map, with all the different 
countries and the debt that is owed and the net interest that we are 
paying on the debt, we are now in a position of weakness. We need help 
with North Korea and we go to our bank, China, and ask them for help. 
You can't negotiate from a position of weakness. That is what we are 
doing right now. So we don't get any help with North Korea. We need 
help with Iran and some of these other countries. Everyone who is 
loaning us money says, go take a hike. And we hear the utter disrespect 
that Vladimir Putin showed, not our President but our country, because 
our President is representing all of us, all 300 million, when he goes 
to the G-8 summit. And to have Vladimir Putin basically say, no thanks, 
we don't want the kind of democracy that you're trying to push in Iraq, 
that is disrespecting the United States of America. When you look at 
how people are viewing us around the world, it becomes very, very 
difficult to try to promote the kind of values that we all believe in 
and try to maintain our strength here at home.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. In closing, we really have to look at what is 
happening right now. I know we are doing all that we can do. We have 
filed legislation. We were able to stop the privatization of Social 
Security by having

[[Page 15248]]

over 500 town hall meetings throughout the country. The President 
burned all kinds of Federal jet fuel flying around the country trying 
to convince people that they need to privatize their Social Security. 
That was very, very unfortunate. Taxpayers' money was spent. Still the 
plan was abandoned.
  We also pushed very hard to make sure that we pay as we go here on 
the floor. We are still fighting on that as it relates to our Federal 
spending. You talk about the tax and spend and whatever the case may 
be. I can tell you that Republicans can't look in the mirror here in 
the House, the majority can't look in the mirror and say that they are 
the example of fiscal responsibility because I think the history of 
this country will show and this 109th Congress, and even the Congress 
before that, that there has been more spending now than any other time 
in the history of this country, especially when you look at what 
happened during the Lyndon Johnson years versus the Bush years. Because 
right now you are seeing with the rubber-stamp Congress and President 
Bush that the Lyndon Johnson administration and the Congress at that 
time has been dethroned as it relates to spending.

                              {time}  1900

  So I think it is very important that we look at that. I think it is 
also important to look at our plan, America going in a new direction, 
going into a new direction, making sure that they have representation 
here in this House. And this is for every American, not just Democrats, 
not just Republicans, not just Independent, not just individuals that 
have decided to participate in the political process, making sure that 
we help working families every day and the individuals that are retired 
and our veterans and all of the folks that we should be fighting for in 
a very fierce way.
  I think it is important that if you folks really want to look at 
making sure these oil companies no longer price gouge Americans, making 
sure that we have affordable health care and prescription drug care, 
making sure that working families are able to make a livable wage, that 
is something that we are working very hard on.
  We are going to start with the minimum wage, moving that to $7.25 
from $5.15, making sure that the Congress doesn't give themselves 
another raise. And the Democratic leader and the Democratic whip and 
myself and a number of members of our caucus have said, no increase for 
Members of Congress until the American people get an increase.
  And also, what Mr. Ryan talked about a little earlier, Mr. Speaker, 
cutting the student loan interest rate in half so that it can be 
affordable for folks to go to college to be able to make a stronger 
workforce for us. Also, as it relates to tax breaks for those that are 
paying for college.
  I already hit the issue on preventing the administration and those 
here in Congress from privatizing Social Security. And I think it is 
also important for us to note that all of this is on our Web site with 
our energy plan, our real security plan as it relates to protecting 
America, and our plan on investing in the Midwest versus in the Middle 
East, of E85 and other alternative fuels.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I will give the Web site. In closing, I would just 
like to say that when you look at the history of the country, being an 
American really is an adventure. We have seen, from the inception of 
this country, that there have been tremendous challenges. But 
tremendous leaders and heroes abound in the country, all over, in the 
public sector, in the private sector, in education, in science, in 
medicine. We have seen and produced some of the greatest individuals in 
the history of the world, and being an American is an adventure.
  The most frustrating part, I believe, in the last several years, and 
we have said this before on this floor, is that after 9/11, with all of 
the political capital that the President had, with the whole country 
watching him, the best, greatest most demanding challenge he could come 
up with was for the American people to go out and go shopping. You 
know, that, I think, illustrates the kind of leadership we do not need 
in all of these changing times.
  And so our leadership that we provide from Article I, section 1 of 
the United States Constitution, which creates this House of 
Representatives, I am excited about the possibilities, come January, 
that we will have, when we are running this government, at least from 
the House side and hopefully from the Senate side too.
  But like you said, we want to use all of the talents, all the 
creativity, all of the ability and intellect that this country can 
muster to make sure we are pushing it forward. As you said, with 
alternative energies and investments in education and getting creative 
with how we are going to create wealth in the 21st century, through 
business incubators and some of these small business programs that we 
have that can go and help and retool small businesses that don't have 
the wherewithal to pay $1 million for consultants to come in.
  We have a public program that allows businesses to retool themselves 
for 80 or $90,000. And I have had people in my office who have 
experienced this program. It led to tremendous job growth here in the 
United States.
  So there are things that we can do. And I think it is an exciting 
time for all of us. And I very much look forward to us doing this in 
January. www.housedemocrats.gov/30something.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, it was a pleasure being on the floor 
with you this evening. As you know, we want to thank the Democratic 
leader for allowing us to have this time.
  We also would say that it was a pleasure addressing the House

                          ____________________