[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18640-18642]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP CONTINUED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 
16 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to share some of 
those minutes with my good friends who are here, and I just want to 
kind of go on the point that Mr. Murphy was making.
  We have a situation now where everything that we've done I think is 
going to help average folks, middle-class folks, lower middle-class 
folks, poor folks, upper middle-class folks. Think about a family who 
in July is going to get an increase in the minimum wage, struggling to 
get by, looking to get a little boost, and they get the boost because 
of a new Democratic Congress and the priorities of the Speaker that 
we're going to implement.
  And then you have a kid in school or you have young kids that need 
health care, and you're going to now be able to access the SCHIP 
program. You're going to be able to go to more community health clinics 
because there's been an increase of hundreds of millions of dollars. 
Some more people are able to be covered.

                              {time}  2345

  Then, if you are in a State like Ohio, where the Governor, Governor 
Strickland, used to be a Member of this body, signed a budget that has 
a zero percent increase in tuition costs this year and next year, that 
used to be 9 percent on average in Ohio.
  Now this same family has an increase in the minimum wage; they have a 
$500 increase in the Pell Grant. They have student loans they are 
taking out that will be cut in half from 6.8 to 3.4 percent. If they 
have young toddlers, they will be covered under SCHIP. This family now 
will be a healthy, educated productive family in the United States of 
America, so that the 300 million people we have in this country can all 
be on the field competing against China for us, competing against 1.3 
billion people in China for the United States, competing against 1.2 
billion people in India for the United States.
  Now, isn't that a good thing? Aren't these good, smart, targeted 
investments? I would say they are, and the benefits that we are going 
to yield from these investments are going to serve us for generations 
to come. We did a study in Ohio years ago; I think the University of 
Akron did the study. For every dollar the State of Ohio invested in 
higher education, they got $2 back in tax money, because those people 
made $40,000 a year instead of $20,000 a year.

[[Page 18641]]

  Now, this is a good investment. These are good investments for us to 
make. Long term, they are going to make us more competitive. When you 
look at what we are doing, what we are trying to do with stem cell 
research, what we are trying to do with alternative energy research, 
this is good stuff.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Just a quick point. During the May break, 
I went back and spent most of the week visiting with manufacturers and 
businesses in northwestern Connecticut. I could imagine what I heard 
was the same thing from what anybody who makes that trip will hear. 
It's all about workforce, workforce, workforce, that our economic 
salvation as a region in the Northeast, but also as a country, is not 
going to necessarily be, in terms of how cheap we can turn out the 
rubber balls, it's going to be about the quality of our product, and 
the quality of our production capacity.
  That's all about training the new generation of workers. I mean, this 
money that we are talking about, it doesn't just go for students who 
are going to a 4-year Ivy League school. This is also money for kids 
that are going to community technology colleges that are being trained 
to be tool- and-die makers, that are being trained to be computer 
technicians at the shops and the manufacturing centers of the next 
decade and the decade beyond.
  If we are going to compete as a Nation, as you say, against China and 
everyone else who is undercutting us, it is going to be because we have 
the best trained and the most productive workforce in the country. 
That's what our manufacturers are screaming for, and that's what you 
address when you talk about putting money into higher education.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are trying to compete with 1.3 billion people in 
China, 1.2 billion people in India. We only have 300 million people in 
the country.
  So it seems to me that these investments that we are making are very 
wise, targeted investments. There is no tax increase. But what we are 
saying is, is it better to make sure that the banks have an increased 
inflated profit margin, or is it better for us as a country, the 
public, to make those investments in the families and basically give 
these families a tax cut? These middle-class families are getting a tax 
cut.
  If you are taking out a loan, and you have two, three, four people in 
your family, you have a couple of kids going to school, both parents 
work, you are making 60 or $70,000 a year, and you are taking out a 
student loan, and last year if you took it out it was 6.8 percent and 
if you take it out this year and it's 3.4 percent, that's a tax cut for 
that family. When you go to file for the Pell Grant next year, and 
there is an increase of 4 or 5 or $600, that is a tax cut for a middle-
class family.
  What we are saying is we have a totally different philosophy from the 
Republican Party. They are cutting taxes in half over the past 6 or 7 
years for the top 1 percent of income earners in the country.
  We are saying, and the American people will make a judgment on this 
in the next election, would they rather have their Congress give a tax 
cut to someone who makes $1 million a year, or would they rather have 
us make the investments in the Pell Grant, in SCHIP, in community 
health clinics, reduce and cutting student loan interest rates in half 
and investing in alternative energy? Because that's what we are saying.
  We would rather make these investments. We haven't raised taxes on 
anybody at all. That's the beauty of this whole thing, is we are just 
shifting our priorities. Instead of $14 billion going to the oil 
companies and corporate welfare, we are investing that money in 
alternative energy research. Instead of having billions of dollars go 
to the banks, we are investing that money into kids and giving them 
more access to college education, raising the minimum wage.
  The American people, and many people are seeing, we all are seeing 
the numbers of Congress right now. We are not good, we understand that. 
But when these budgets hit, and the American people file their taxes 
next year, and they see there has been no increase, but yet they go to 
file for a Pell Grant and they see an increase in that and they see the 
student loan rate has been cut in half for the loan last year they had 
to take out for their kids and they get a boost in the minimum wage, 
and we are hiring thousands of scientists to do research and 
development through the energy bill that we passed last week, or that 
we will pass this week, these are the things that the American people 
will recognize, will understand and will see and these are going to 
yield long-term benefits.
  One final point, the Republican Party has had their opportunity over 
the past 6 years to fully implement their whole agenda. They had a 
Republican House, huge majority, Republican Senate, Republican White 
House. They implemented the extreme neoconservative domestic agenda and 
foreign policy agenda, and the country has never been in worse shape.
  Their philosophy, there is no more debate, what are we going to 
debate? They have had the chance to do it. They have done it. It's 
over. They have implemented it.
  We have got the chart you showed, all the money borrowed from China, 
you know, all the money borrowed from foreign interests, the wages 
stagnant for 30 years, a foreign policy that's an atrocity right now, 
not a friend in the world.
  So they have had a chance, and the American people have been kind 
enough to give us a chance, and they are going to be very proud. I 
understand that they may not all have felt yet what is going to come 
their way, but I believe that early next year, when our budget is 
implemented and they are having a chance to actually experience what we 
have done, they are going to say they are the Democrats again, and we 
are glad they are back in power.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I started off the last hour talking about the 
fact that tomorrow or the next day that Democrats, Republicans would be 
able to show their true colors as it relates to the redeployment of 
troops, something we have already voted on and the President vetoed.
  I think it's important that Members point to H.R. 2956 that will be 
on this floor in the next 48 hours, that will say responsible 
redeployment of troops. Embodied in that bill will be recommendations 
made not only by military advisers and those that are not longer a part 
of this, because as you know in the Pentagon, you say something 
different than what the Secretary under old Secretary Rumsfeld, back in 
the days, when all of those things took place and you made a career 
decision, if you had an idea that makes sense, and said, excuse me, 
sir, I know you think you have all the ideas.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That seems like 10 years ago.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. But it's alive and well. What we are learning 
more than ever now, having hearings on Iraq, people coming forth with 
some of the things that have us in the situation where we are now, 
mounting evidence of failed policy is the justification for this 
redeployment of troops.
  Also, the issue, as it relates to the surge again, the Democratic 
Congress passed a nonbinding resolution saying that we disagree with 
the escalation of troops, that we need an escalation in diplomacy. We 
needed to think smarter.
  We talked about the lack of coalition just a few minutes ago. We used 
to hear about the coalition. It got down to the single digits. It got 
outright embarrassing for the administration, so they stopped talking 
about it.
  The mounting criticism of the failed Iraq policy, not only by Members 
of the military, but also the American people and Members of this 
Congress and some Republicans in the Senate and some Republicans here 
in the House and definitely a number of Democrats and retired general 
after retired general calling for a new direction. So this is what it's 
going to come down to.
  It's going to come down to Members taking out their card that we vote 
with, and they are going to have to take it out. They are going to have 
to find one of these meters or machines

[[Page 18642]]

here, and they are going to have to put it in there. They are going to 
have to vote ``yes'' or ``no.'' Do they want to vote for staying the 
course with the President and all of the slogans that they come up with 
and that they poll, or are they going to vote for a new direction and 
doing exactly what the American people wanted us to do? That's the 
question.
  I look forward to coming back to the floor, not only with Mr. Murphy, 
but also with Mr. Ryan, talking about the issues that we are facing. 
The good thing about being in the majority, and I can tell you from 
someone that has been in the minority before in this House, is that we 
can bring ideas to the floor and actually see them voted on that we 
have not had before.
  Mr. Ryan came up with a very important point, the fact that 
Republicans had a number of years to do what they said that they want 
to do. No one stood in their way. They could have done it. They didn't 
do it. They had the opportunity to do it. We have asked them to be a 
part of that opportunity that we are working on.
  I am glad we had 16 additional minutes so we would have an 
opportunity to get this information out.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. If I was one of those high-priced 
political consultants and a prospective candidate came to me and said, 
listen, this is what I want to be for, this is what I want to be known 
for, I want to stand with the President every turn, make sure we stay 
in Iraq for as long as we can. I think I am also going to be against 
children's health care insurance. I am going to try to defend the 
status quo on our health care system. I think it's about right, I think 
we got it right.
  Also, I think I also want to be against affordable college. I think I 
also want to fight against increases in Pell Grants and Stafford loans 
and all the rest. If I was that political consultant I might sort of 
look at my watch, look at my date book, and, you know, take a pass on 
that one.
  You know why? It's not about Republicans or Democrats. It's what the 
American people are asking for; it's what the American people have been 
crying for. They want a new direction in Iraq. They want help with the 
cost of getting by every day, which certainly includes the cost of 
health care and college affordability. They want a place that is 
listening to them again instead of listening to the White House and the 
banks and everyone else that has had the run of this place for a while.
  It will be another good week here, and I hope sooner rather than 
later some of our friends across the aisle join us in standing up for 
what the American people have been crying for for a real long time.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think that is such a poignant argument to make. 
Our friends on the other side are basically saying we are against the 
minimum wage, we are against increases in the Pell Grants, we are for 
higher interest rates for students to take out loans to go to school, 
we are against stem cell research. We are against research in 
alternative energy. They were for offering amendments to cut the budget 
for all the increases we were making, instead of giving the money to 
the oil companies to put in alternative energy. They were offering 
amendments to cut that.
  When we offered earlier on to strip the oil companies of the $14 
billion in corporate welfare they were getting, our friends voted 
against it, the extremists in their party. So you are exactly right. 
What are you for? What are you for?
  I think we are quite clear as to what we are for on this side: lower 
student interest rates, more money for grants to go to college, higher 
minimum wage, focus on alternative energy, secure the country, 3,000 
more Border Patrol agents in this country, technology to monitor 
biological chemical weapons on our ports, more funds for police and 
fire interoperability through the walkie-talkies, and able to talk and 
communicate with each other.
  I mean, we have got a real agenda here.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I am done. I just want to thank you and Mr. 
Murphy for coming down tonight. I look forward to the next 48 hours, 
what kind of leadership will be shown on the minority side of the ball. 
We need them to be a part of this change in the new direction that we 
are moving in. But as the Democrats, with the slim majority that we do 
have, we are going to give the American people what they want, and that 
is leadership.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate it, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Meek, Mr. Pallone 
who was here earlier, any emails from our colleagues who may be up 
right now, at [email protected]">[email protected] or www.speaker.gov/
30something.

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