[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 26354-26361]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Donnelly). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is an honor 
to come to the floor to have the 30-Something Working Group. And as you 
know, we have been coming to the floor now some 4 years strong, 4\1/2\ 
years, bringing to light issues before the Congress and also the 
American people on what's happening under the Capitol dome.
  We have been doing a lot of legislation recently in this 110th 
Congress that I think should definitely be highlighted every time we 
have the opportunity to do so. We have a number of pieces of 
legislation that are in the pipeline right now that are being sent to 
the White House that the President has threatened to veto. These are 
priorities that the American people voted for to move in a new 
direction; need it be in Iraq; need it be domestically; or need it be 
making sure that we run this government in a fiscal way, one that all 
Americans, Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike, would like 
to have.
  Good government is good. And it's important that we encourage not 
only the passage of good pieces of legislation but also make sure that 
we encourage the President to do the right thing, even though he may 
say from time to time that he is not going to do things, that he will 
sign pieces of legislation like the Student Loan Reduction Act, which 
is so very, very important. It cuts student loan rates in half.
  I want to just commend the Members here in this Chamber, especially 
in the majority, that pushed the President to sign that bill. I want to 
thank all of the college kids and students and parents and grandparents 
that are having to help their young people pay back their student loans 
and to being able to cut that interest rate in half.
  I am joined tonight by two of my, and I can say this, bestest friends 
in Congress: Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the chairwoman of the Ethics 
Committee and a colleague that I serve with on the Ways and Means 
Committee; and also my good friend Tim Ryan from Youngstown, Ohio, who 
is a member of the Appropriations Committee that considers himself a 
very important part of what we do here. As you know, Ways and Means, we 
find the ways and means, and he says he has appropriated to make sure 
it all goes to the right place, Mr. Speaker.
  I guess what we usually do, and what I am going to do, without really 
making opening comments because we like to have a discussion, I want to 
allow my two colleagues here to share some of their thoughts with us. 
But before I do that, today, as you know, in the 30-Something Working 
Group, we shed light on what is happening in Iraq. We know that we have 
a number of our men and women that are there in harm's way. We know 
that we have men and women in Afghanistan and also deployed throughout 
the world.
  But as of today, October 3, the total deaths have been 3,808. The 
total number of wounded in action and returning to duty within 72 hours 
has been 15,432. The number wounded in action and not returning to duty 
within 72 hours has been 12,577. The total number of wounded is 27,753.
  I want to make sure, Mr. Speaker, and we want to make sure, the 30-
Something Working Group, that Members know what is going on in the 
Middle East and that we bring this to their attention and read it into 
the Congressional Record so that we can every day move towards a 
position that would take our combat troops out of harm's way and 
replace them with Iraqi troops. We can provide technical support, but I 
think that is very important.
  With that, I yield to my colleague Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I am so happy, Mr. Speaker, to have an 
opportunity to be on the floor with two of my favorite Congress people, 
Tim Ryan and Kendrick Meek. Over the past few years, these two young 
men have

[[Page 26355]]

shown such great leadership in the 30-Something Working Group, and I am 
just proud to be counted among the 30-Something group even though all 
of us know I am not 30-something, though I think I manage well anyway.
  It is just so significant that we have an opportunity to be here this 
evening to talk about an issue that is so very, very important to all 
of America: our children.
  A child. You think about when your baby is born or before your baby 
is born, how important it is to you to contemplate that he or she be of 
good health. More important than it be a boy or a girl, it's important 
that they come here and you start counting, do they have all their 
fingers? Do they have all their toes? Is their heart working? Are their 
eyes open? Can they hear? Can they see? And for some parents, it 
becomes a difficult moment because all those wonderful things that you 
would hope would be the case are not.
  But moving along, regardless, every parent wants their child to have 
access to good health care. And one of the wonderful things about this 
program called SCHIP, State Children's Health Insurance Program, is 
that it will provide health insurance for all of our children. And who 
could not want that?
  Our President. Our President has made a decision that SCHIP is not 
something that he can support. Now, he has made all kinds of excuses as 
to why he can't support it, but the reality is that 72 percent of the 
American public support the State Children's Health Insurance Program. 
And it's not a panacea. It's more than many children have.
  Now, the argument that the President would want to make is that 
children who don't have health insurance can go to the emergency room 
and get health care. Anybody can walk into the emergency room and get 
health care. What kind of sense does that make? One of the most 
expensive ways in which to deliver health care in America is the 
emergency room, and if any of you have been in the emergency room 
recently, I have. When my father was very ill, he was in the emergency 
room. And people were loaded. We sat for hours waiting to get X rays. 
There were not enough doctors, not enough nurses, not enough 
facilities. And the people in the emergency room do a great job. I 
commend them. University Hospitals is where I usually go with my dad or 
some member of my family. But the reality is that is not the place 
where we should be rendering health care.
  I am going to move on because there are other people here to talk, 
but contemplate this: We want our children to be competitive. We want 
our children to be able to compete with children from China, children 
from Russia, children from every country in the world, and we want to 
deny them health care.
  An unhealthy child cannot learn. An unhealthy child causes a dilemma 
or problems for other children in the classroom. All of you that are 
new parents and you take your child to day care and the first thing you 
know is that baby comes home with an ear infection, pink eye. It's 
guaranteed. You even get sick from whatever it is that baby has going 
to day care and brings it home to you.
  We know that the children of America deserve better. We know that the 
children of America deserve health care coverage. And we know that all 
children who are required to compete in this world in America by the 
tests that we are giving them to be No Child Left Behind that health 
care is the most important thing in addition to a great education that 
we can give to them. The most important thing that will give them the 
opportunity to be successful in their childhood, in their middle age, 
and in their lifetime is good health care. The State Children's Health 
Insurance Program is the beginning of that. And it is a shame, it is a 
shame that we would have a President who would get partisan with an 
issue so important to both Democrats and Republicans and veto that 
legislation.

                              {time}  2030

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, Madam Chair, I think it's very, very 
important for us to understand that the President is vetoing the 
legislation because he knows that his Republican colleagues here in the 
House and the Senate have his back, at least a number to stop us from 
overriding his veto. And this is something that, Mr. Speaker, we have 
to put the pressure on those Members. I'm going to put the pressure on 
in a few minutes when I get an opportunity to really share what I feel 
about what the President has done today. It wasn't the perfect bill, 
but it was the bill that was going to provide health care for children.
  Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I agree. And there are so many different aspects 
for us to talk about here, but I think our friend from Cleveland has 
hit the nail right on the head; this is about us competing as a 
country. This is about us only having 300 million people in the United 
States, many of them poor, many of them living in your community, my 
community, Congressman Meek, Congressman Murphy, our communities. And 
what we're saying is, if we want these kids to be able to compete 
against 1.3 billion people in China, 1.2 billion people in India, 
you're not even going to get on a field unless you're healthy. And 
we're saying that this is a modest investment. This is $35 billion over 
5 years. This is 41 days in Iraq. Now, when you think of it that way, 
and this has been the contrast of this whole debate; the President, 
over the past 6 years, has raised the debt limit for our country to go 
out and borrow money five times and increased the debt by over $3 
trillion; $9 billion a week in Iraq; no end in sight; borrowed more 
money than every President before him combined, from China, from Japan, 
from the OPEC countries. And now, all of a sudden, in the early days of 
October he says he is going to, and he does, veto a bill that provides 
children's health care for a few million poor kids. Now, I know when I 
go back to my district and I talk to constituents, they cannot believe 
it.
  And we have our friends on the other side, Mr. Speaker, telling us 
that this is socialism. It wasn't socialism when a Republican Congress 
in the 1990s put this law into action, signed by President Clinton. It 
was a Republican Congress controlled by Newt Gingrich, a Republican 
Congress.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Tell the truth.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Meek. So now, all of a sudden the same program 
that they helped create is now all of a sudden socialism because the 
Democrats control the Congress. And I think it's an absolute shame, 
shameful, that we would have Republican Members of this Congress come 
out here for ideological reasons to try to score some political points 
with their base with the blatant disregard of providing health care for 
all these kids.
  Now, you can argue all you want, but the bottom line, Mr. Murphy, is 
that there are millions of kids who will not get health care because 
the President all of a sudden found the courage. You know, we all went 
to school with people like this, they pick on the little kids. Well, 
the President has this big military budget. He won't shrink that. He's 
got all these tax cuts that the wealthiest people in our country are 
getting. He won't touch that. But he's going to be a big strong guy and 
come in and take it on the backs of these kids. Shameful, Mr. Speaker, 
shameful that he is willing to do this, and that the Republican 
Congress, the Republican Members of the House, a fringe group, enough 
to prevent a veto override, will help this President sustain this veto. 
I find it shameful that we can't take 41 days of spending in Iraq, Mr. 
Murphy, and help provide some health care for these kids.
  And I say this because we all know that these kids need it. I was 
watching Chris Matthews, and Pat Buchanan was on. And Pat Buchanan 
said, I think these people need to pay for it themselves. Well, if they 
could pay for it themselves, we wouldn't be doing this. We would be 
doing something else.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Excuse me, Mr. Ryan. ``These people,'' referring 
to who?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. These kids, these families. And we should get the 
quote for tomorrow, we should get the quote and we should have it out 
here, but these kids, these families should pay

[[Page 26356]]

for it themselves. And they can't. And so we've got to make a decision 
as a country whether we're okay with that, whether we're okay with them 
not having the wherewithal to pay, and then no one is willing to help 
them.
  But we have made the decision, in the Democratic Caucus, and many of 
our friends on the Republican side, excluding the President and a small 
group of fringe Members on their side, that somehow they're going to 
stand on principle here. They sat here for 6 years and didn't squawk 
one time about excessive spending. The President didn't veto one bill 
that came from this House, Republican-controlled, and a Republican-
controlled Senate, but now, all of a sudden. But the American people, 
and I know the people in my district, see right through it, and they 
understand what we're trying to do and how in the long term this will 
be very helpful.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. I thank my friend from Ohio.
  There is delusion that's been happening here for a couple of days, 
and you hit a couple of nails right on the head. But there is this idea 
here; you mentioned what Mr. Buchanan said in the Chris Matthews' show 
that has been perpetuated on the House floor here for the last couple 
of days that they should pay for it themselves, the family, the kids, 
whomever it is, should pay for themselves. You know and I know that the 
reason we're here talking about expanding out access to 4 million new 
kids is because there is less private health care available today for 
more and more families. Families throughout this country who are doing 
the right thing, playing by all the rules, doing everything we've asked 
them to do, go out, get a job, maybe 2, maybe 3 jobs, don't have access 
to health care. Their employers don't offer it because the costs have 
gotten so high that they're crippling small and medium-size employers, 
so they can't get it anymore.
  But here is the illusion, the idea that these kids don't get health 
care is an absolutely false reality. And to think that when a kid gets 
sick, that he doesn't end up on somebody's dime is to delude yourself. 
So what happens, and the President said it himself the other day when 
he said these kids can get health care, they can just go to the 
emergency room. Well, he's right, because we actually do have a system 
of universal health care in this country; it's just the most inhumane, 
inefficient system of universal health care in the world because it 
says to these kids, to a 6- or 7-year-old who comes down with 
pneumonia, who can't get to a doctor for treatment for medicine because 
his parents can't afford it because his parents' employer doesn't cover 
it, he ends up in the emergency room. He ends up getting much less 
efficient, more expensive care in the long run.
  So for all of our fiscally conservative friends on the Republican 
side of the aisle who decry this as some expansion of government-run 
health care, this is cost-efficient health care. Getting these kids 
some preventative health care up front is not just the right thing to 
do, it's not just part of our moral obligation as a Nation to see an 
injured child next to us and reach out and give them a helping hand, 
it's part of our fiscal obligation as stewards of taxpayers' money here 
in the House of Representatives. We have an obligation to construct a 
health care system that actually spends less money rather than more 
money. And that's what this bill is about. It's not just about the 
moral obligation; it is about the fiscal obligation as well, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can you imagine? I mean, this is just what is mind 
boggling. It is 2007, we're a couple of months from 2008, and the 
President of the United States of America says to the poorest kids in 
our country, you can go to the emergency room.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Right.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I mean, are you kidding me; to not have the 
understanding that we would save money if we gave these kids 
antibiotics before they end up in the emergency room 2 weeks later with 
pneumonia, that that doesn't save us tens of thousands of dollars, then 
you have no business vetoing this bill.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Let me just throw a quick statistic to 
you, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Throw it out there.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Do you know how much it costs to ensure a 
child in the SCHIP program?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. How much?
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. $3.50 a day. I'm not a big coffee drinker, 
but I've got to imagine that 1 of those big fancy mocha grande lattes 
probably costs more than it costs to insure a child in this country, 
Mr. Ryan. That's cost efficient. That's being good stewards of the 
taxpayers' dollars.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And the question is, what does it cost if you don't 
pay the $3.50 a day? You're probably paying tens of thousands on the 
other end. And that kid is going to end up in the classroom, Mr. Meek, 
with your son and your daughter and is going to end up getting them 
sick. Then where are we?
  I yield to our friend from Cleveland. I know you had a point to make.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I was just going to say, I am a coffee drinker. 
And that $3.50 is much less----
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And if she doesn't drink her coffee, see how grumpy 
she gets.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Oh, now, cut it out. You're getting personal out 
here now. But the reality is that I am a coffee drinker, and that $3.50 
could go so much further if we were to invest it in the State 
Children's Health Insurance Program.
  And the other dilemma that the President is faced with is, he is 
claiming about States who have been given waivers to provide health 
care to those other than children, but it was his administration that 
granted the waiver. Now, if you're mad about a waiver, then bite your 
own nose, smack your own face, but don't hurt children over the fact 
that they have been given an opportunity to have health care in 
America.
  And the other thing I want to switch to, and I'm jumping around a 
little bit, is there are Republicans, there are strong-minded, good-
thinking, good-hearted, smart Republicans who have voted with us on the 
SCHIP bill. In the Senate, 68 Senators, including 18 Republicans, voted 
for the bill. There are 43 Governors, including 16 Republicans, who 
have voted for it. In the House, 45 Republicans voted with us on this 
SCHIP bill. And the good thing is that they recognize the need that we 
have for child health insurance.
  I don't know if anybody has given these quotes. Senator Grassley, 
``The President's understanding of our bill is wrong. I urge him to 
reconsider his veto message.'' Senator Orrin Hatch, ``We're talking 
about kids who basically don't have coverage. I think the President had 
some pretty bad advice on this.'' Let me say that again. Orrin Hatch 
said, ``I think the President had some pretty bad advice on this 
issue.'' And Susan Collins, ``I cannot believe the President would veto 
a program that benefits low-income children.''
  I yield.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, Mrs. Tubbs Jones.
  Tim, we used to play football once upon a time, and I remember being 
on the sideline as a freshman member of the football team. I used to be 
what they call a ``headhunter.'' I used to break the wedge in kickoff. 
That's the way I got on the bus to be able to travel. And many times I 
would sit on the sideline and say, ``Wow, the coach just let me in. 
I'll sack that quarterback.'' Well, you know, this is one of these 
moments. I'm so glad that I'm a Member of Congress and it's been 
federalized by the people of the 17th Congressional District to come up 
here and represent them and the American people. And I'm proud of the 
fact that we have passed a children's health care bill that covers 
children that are in need, that means families, that means a healthier 
America, that means better test scores, that means lower cost to State 
and local communities from picking up emergency room bills where they 
end up getting the care because they have to provide the care, but 
there's no way to pay for the care, then raise local taxes on the local 
community because of that lack of health care

[[Page 26357]]

insurance for that uninsured child. I'm so glad that I've had the 
experience of walking to a CVS, Wal-Mart, whatever you want to call it, 
into a drugstore, and I'm glad as a Member of Congress I have witnessed 
mothers and fathers trying to figure out how they can stop their child 
from coughing and how can they prevent the sickness that is spreading 
in some communities based on the fact that it is financially 
challenged, need it be urban or rural. I'm glad I'm here to give them 
voice because apparently, Mr. Speaker, there are some Members in this 
Chamber and there are some Members in the other Chamber over in the 
Senate that, in my opinion, are failing to represent that side of 
America. One may say, well, Congressman, I understand, colleague, what 
have you, you're talking about those other folks, you're not talking 
about me. Well, guess what? I'm so glad, Mr. Murphy, that I have health 
care insurance, but I didn't ask my constituents to elect me so that I 
could have health care insurance and they can't. That's not how this 
thing works. And my kids, like Mr. Ryan said, they go to school with 
other kids, and if those kids don't have the necessary insurance to 
have preventive care to head off some of the major issues that they're 
going to face because they're getting drugstore care, the best care 
that their parents can provide for them, they're going to make my child 
sick. So now we're back to the point of fiscal responsibility and we're 
back to the point of doing the right thing and good government and 
where I left off.
  I'm glad Mrs. Tubbs Jones mentioned that this is a bipartisan bill, 
passed this House overwhelmingly, passed the Senate with a very good 
vote. Now the question comes to my Republican colleagues, because the 
President is not going to run for President again, and the thing about 
it is that we have term limits on the Presidency of the United States, 
and that's been carved out long before my presence here in Congress and 
long before my mother's presence here in Congress. But Mr. Ryan pointed 
something out, because I'm putting this back on the Members of the 
House and the Senate and the Congress, because I don't want Members 
going home saying, well, you know, the President, and the President 
this and the President that. My constituents want more than that. It's 
almost like when I walk into my Baptist church, they want to hear more 
as a Christian than 1 day Jesus Christ, he died on Calvary. They need 
to hear more than that. They need to hear more of a story. They need to 
hear more of the reason why we practice that certain religion.
  Putting that aside just for a moment, our constituents have to know 
more about what's going on here in Washington, DC. That parent needs to 
know why. The President is saying socialized medicine. Well, that's 
what he says, that's his Potomac two-step because the average American 
doesn't even know what you're talking about when you say ``socialized 
medicine.'' They understand health care.

                              {time}  2045

  They understand being able to take their child to a doctor and the 
States understand, the 43 or 46 Governors that are supporting the SCHIP 
bill, they understand getting a block grant from the Federal Government 
so they can provide health care for their children.
  I would like to talk a little bit about what Mr. Ryan mentioned. This 
President and the past Republican majority here in this House 
irresponsibly gave tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires and then 
turned around and gave unprecedented subsidies to oil companies of some 
$50 billion, $8 billion in lost waste, fraud and abuse of no-bid 
contracts in Iraq, billions of dollars for schools and roads and 
clinics in Iraq, stood up here teary-eyed saying, ``We need to help the 
Iraqi people.'' Well, I want folks to get teary-eyed about helping 
American children and their families. I want them to get teary-eyed. I 
want them to get emotional.
  When you look at this foreign debt hold, no other time in the history 
of this country have we ever been in the fiscal situation that this 
President has put us in and the Republican, thank God the minority now, 
has put us in in the past, and this is what we owe these foreign 
countries. I am going to move on because I know we have some Members 
here.
  Here is another issue. When you look at the cost of the war and how 
many kids can be enrolled in Healthy Start. I am just going to use the 
per hour number, $13.7 million, 2,000 kids can be enrolled. And then I 
am going to jump up here to the 1-year cost, $120 billion for the 1-
year cost, 16.7 million kids can go into Healthy Start. Now, that is 
just Healthy Start.
  We come to the floor with the facts, not fiction. Here is the 
nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. I just want to make sure 
that all the Members are with me on this. The cost of the Iraq war is 
rising. Again, here are the numbers. Per second. Since I have been here 
talking a few seconds have passed. Per second, $3,816 is being spent 
per second. Do you hear the Members down here talking about wasteful 
spending, anything like that? Meanwhile, we are giving the Iraqi 
Government all kind of chances.
  To further drive my point home, here it is, President Bush, Members 
are familiar with this, doubled the foreign-held debt. It took 42 
Presidents 224 years to build up $1 trillion in foreign debt. All these 
Presidents, this President and his Republican colleagues here in 
Congress have been able to build up more than 42 presidents, 224 years 
of history, $1.19 trillion in debt over the last 6 years, and we have 
turned that around, or are trying to turn that around here.
  Here they are. These are my Republican colleagues and the President 
of the United States. Many in this picture are my friends. But I tell 
you one thing: When we send this and we go to try to override the 
President of the United States of America and standing in the 
schoolhouse door not allowing kids to have health care in this country, 
I want to know, are you going to march down to the White House like you 
did when we put time limits on this war and accountability on this war 
to push the Iraqi Government to where they need to be to get our combat 
troops out of harm's way and to get their troops on the ground?
  The last time, Mr. Speaker, I was on the floor was Monday with Mrs. 
Tubbs Jones. I walked downstairs and I don't know his name. But it was 
one of our people that work here in the Capitol that constantly bring 
the folks over from Walter Reed on what we call the ``twilight tour,'' 
walking around here in the Capitol, Mr. Murphy, and getting a tour of 
the Capitol. I am sorry, his name escapes me at this point. This vet 
was there with involuntary jerking of his right arm. As a matter of 
fact, I am shocked that they were even able to save his arm. It was so 
twisted with cuts and stitches and all those things. But he was happy 
to walk into this Capitol of great democracy. But guess what? He had a 
child, too. So we get all excited about, we are for the troops, and I 
am for the troops, and you are soft and I am hard and all that kind of 
stuff. That is rhetoric. The real bottom line comes down to, what are 
you going to do as a Members of Congress? Not as some sort of speech 
giver or note reader or whatever the case may be. What are you going to 
do as it relates to being a Member of Congress? Are you going to go 
down and stand with the President and say, ``I'm with the President''? 
Or are you going to be with the children of the United States of 
America?
  Mrs. Tubbs Jones and I, we have to see the Federal budget when it 
comes through Ways and Means before it goes to the Budget Committee and 
we met with the Treasury Secretary just today talking about fiscal 
responsibility.
  I think the problem, Mr. Ryan and Mr. Murphy, that the President has 
with this issue is that the American people asked for a new direction 
and accountability. Guess what? This SCHIP bill is paid for. We show 
paid for by saying pay-as-you-go. If you're going to do something, you 
have to show how you're going to pay for it. At least that's what they 
said in my house. The President, how did he rack up $1.19 trillion? He 
didn't worry about paying for it. He just said, let's put it

[[Page 26358]]

on the credit card. Let's put it on the children. Let's put it on other 
folks.
  Children have had enough abuse on the part of the past Republican 
majority and the President. Now we are trying to bring about 
accountability in health care and he doesn't want to sign the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is, I challenge, this is not a WWF kind 
of experience here, but I challenge my colleagues with a straight face 
to come to this floor and say otherwise why we should not have health 
care for children. I want to make sure that Members understand, this is 
why we're elected, to represent the children, not special interests, 
not the oil companies, not somebody who said, ``Well, if we spend this 
on that, I can't get my tax cut.'' It is not all about that. If we 
can't represent the children of the United States of America, we got a 
big problem. I am so glad that Speaker Pelosi, I am so glad that our 
leadership has said, this is what we're going to do, and that we're 
going to try to override the President. The bottom line is the 
Republican Members of this House have to join and be with us, which 
they are on the bill, Mr. Ryan and Mr. Murphy, but we need more of them 
to override the President of the United States on this very bad veto.
  Do we have issues with the SCHIP bill? Is everything in it that 
should be in it? Of course not. But the bottom line is children need 
health care and they need representation.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I just want to make one point and then yield to 
my colleagues. My colleague Kendrick Meek so eloquently put forth the 
debt that we are, as a Nation, in and you think about it from this 
perspective. Every child born in the United States at the time they are 
born are owing, owe part of the U.S. debt. They say it's now somewhere 
between $27,000 and $28,000. If that is a fact, why then can we not 
allocate $3.50 a day to health care coverage for our children? $27,000 
they owe when they are born. They are entitled to $3.50 a day for good 
health care. It is fiscally sound and it makes great sense.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If I may, I think if you have to deficit-spend, if 
you have to borrow money because you need to make an investment, the 
Federal government's decision should be based on the same kind of 
principles that a family would base the decision on. By borrowing this 
money, are you going to yield more value down the line? So a business 
will buy a machine and go into debt so they have the machine, but they 
know long-term if they make enough widgets out of the machine that 
eventually they'll pay it off and they'll actually increase the value 
of the company. Families borrow money, like for school and for college 
because they know that they may have to borrow 20 or $30,000, but your 
son or daughter that has a college degree will be able to pay that back 
and have a higher standard of living throughout the course of their 
life.
  So if we are borrowing money, if we are going to deficit-spend, it 
seems to me it would make sense that we want to invest into our own 
health care or education. But this President has spent and borrowed 
over $3 trillion, as my colleague from Miami has pointed out so 
eloquently. Where is the return? Where is the return on the $700 
billion we have spent in Iraq? Where is the return? Lower oil prices? 
Lower gasoline prices? No. It has only aggravated the problem that we 
have in the global economy now. And when you look at what we have been 
trying and trying and trying to do, not with the help of very many 
Republicans on this particular issue, Ray Lahood, Steve LaTourette and 
a lot of our friends have been very helpful with this issue. But when 
you look overall on what we have been trying to do, we, as Democrats 
since Speaker Pelosi took over, we are trying to make good investments.
  We increased the minimum wage so that average people will have a few 
more bucks in their pocket. We made sure that we invested billions of 
dollars into the Pell grant so that you will have almost $1,000 more in 
a Pell grant in the next 5 years. We invested money that was going to 
the bank so that they could make a profit loaning money to students, 
and we took that money and we gave it to the students and reduced the 
interest rate that is paid for college loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 
percent, so when you go out to get a loan, the average person will save 
$4,400. SCHIP. These are investments into the health of our kids. 
Community health clinics. We put a few hundred million dollars more, 
starting in the CR and then in the 2008 budget so that we can open up 
more health clinics so that poor families who don't have health care 
can at least have a first stop before they go to the emergency room. 
They may go earlier and will start preventing.
  My point is, before I yield to my friend, these are all investments, 
Mr. Meek, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, Mr. Murphy, that are going to save the 
taxpayer money in the long run. They are going to make this country 
more competitive. They will lead to a stronger, more secure America. We 
are entitled here. This body has proven over the last 6 years that 
money is going to get spent. It's either going to the oil companies as 
corporate welfare and subsidies, it's going to the military-industrial 
complex through the war, it's going in tax cuts, primarily to the top 1 
percent. I am not saying that we want to tax people. I think the 
corporate tax needs to be fixed. There are a lot of changes that need 
to be made. But the overall point is, we are making investments that 
are going to yield value to the country and make us stronger and more 
unified and more prosperous as we move into the 21st century.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. It is just about the choices that you 
make. Who do you want to subsidize? Do you want to subsidize the oil 
companies and the big energy companies? Or do you want to subsidize 
people who are investing in renewable energy, in the energy of the next 
decade, the next century? That is a choice we made here in the energy 
bill we passed. Do you want to subsidize the banks who are doing pretty 
well these days? Or do you want to subsidize the students? We made the 
choice here in this Congress to subsidize the students instead. We are 
faced with a simple choice now. Do you want to continue to subsidize 
the military-industrial complex? Do you want to continue putting money 
into a war that is making this country less safe every day rather than 
more safe? More money into a civil, religious conflict between 
sectarian groups in Iraq? Or do you want to do health care for kids who 
have no other resources in which to get that health care.
  My folks back home, to my neighbors, to my family, to the people that 
I get to represent here in my first term in Congress, these are real 
easy choices. Students over banks. Renewable energy over oil companies. 
Kids over a war that is going nowhere but backwards. It seems to me 
that we are getting more and more people on the Republican side to join 
us. We are getting more and more of the public. We have a list here, 
Mr. Ryan, Mr. Meek and Mrs. Tubbs Jones, we have a list 270 pages long 
of every single potential group you can think of, 270 different groups, 
the Consumers Union, Denver Area Labor Federation, the Easter Seals, 
the Forum for Youth Investment, Greater Hartford Legal Aid, you just go 
down the list. Everybody out there gets this, that this is the choice 
you're supposed to make. But what we get here is a lot of rhetoric.

                              {time}  2100

  Because, Mr. Ryan, you said at the beginning, this is more than about 
kids, for folks on the other side of the aisle, this is about ideology. 
They are having a political fight on the floor of the House of 
Representatives, and the kids, the 4 million kids who are going to go 
without health care if this bill doesn't get passed and signed, are the 
victims of that political choice.
  I was in the Government Oversight Committee that I get to serve on 
the other day and we had Blackwater in front of us. We are giving them 
about $1 billion a year to basically form a private military in Iraq. 
The CEO who was before us wouldn't tell us how much he made, but he 
could at least tell us that it was well over $1 million.

[[Page 26359]]

It was about seven times as much as the commanding general in Iraq gets 
to preside over 160,000 troops.
  One of the Republicans came out and said, you know, this is unfair. 
The Democrats are picking on these contractors. All of a sudden the 
Democrats seem to care about the money that we are spending in Iraq.
  Well, you better believe we do. Somebody has to.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We have been caring about this for a long time, 
since this thing started.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Ryan, the only questions that the 
Republicans asked about spending money is when it benefits poor kids. 
That is what seems to happen here. When it is about spending money in 
Iraq, when it is about spending money for private military contractors 
in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are no questions asked. In fact, they 
decry people who ask questions.
  But when it is about lifting up poor children out of poverty, making 
them healthy enough to get up on their two feet and go to school and 
learn, that is when the questions get asked.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I say something that I just find funny? I can't 
wait to hear you. When we walk out of here, Kendrick, it is the same 
thing. My mom will call me and Kendrick's mom will call and we will be 
like on the phone, and my mom will say tonight, I guarantee you, ``I 
just love Stephanie.'' That is what she will say. So I have to make 
sure I am quick here.
  But the bottom line is, we are not saying that we don't want to 
support the military. All of us have. Mr. Meek and I sit on the Armed 
Services Committee. We are supportive. These are the kinds of things 
that we have to support, and we have to make sure we have a strong 
military.
  But to your point, Mr. Murphy, no one, no one thinks wasting money is 
a good thing. So it seems to me that our friends on the other side have 
literally become a caricature of themselves. They think that the 
American public, Mr. Speaker, has somehow forgotten and their brain was 
like a computer that was erased. Like the American people's brain over 
the last 6 years has been completely erased, and they don't remember 
the $3 trillion they borrowed, they don't remember the runup to the 
war, they don't remember Katrina, they don't remember the FEMA fiasco, 
they don't remember the passports.
  These are the guys that know how to run government? They can't even 
distribute passports, and they are going to give us a lecture on how we 
need to run our government.
  Ms. JONES of Ohio. Let's take President Bush's own words. He says, 
``I have strongly supported SCHIP as a Governor. I have done so as 
president. My 2008 budget proposed to increase SCHIP funding by $5 
billion over 5 years.''
  Now, this is Bush math, because it is a 20 percent increase, 
according to him. But reality, according to the nonpartisan 
Congressional Budget Office, the President's budget for SCHIP would 
result in 840,000 children currently enrolled in SCHIP losing their 
coverage. According to CBO, due to rising health care costs, the 
President's increase of $5 billion for SCHIP over 5 years fails to 
cover the cost of simply maintaining the current SCHIP enrollment of 
children of 6 million. Indeed, according to CBO, over the next 5 years, 
the President's budget so underfunds SCHIP that it will result in 
840,000 children losing their SCHIP coverage.
  Even more, the number of uninsured children jumped by 600,000 in 
2006, up to nearly 8.7 million children. Yet President Bush, the Bush 
budget does nothing to reduce the number of up insured children.
  Finally, what I would just say is, it is not just us saying it. 
Listen to what newspapers across the country are saying.
  The Washington Post editorial: ``Children's health check.''
  Austin American Statesman editorial: ``For many kids, the doctor is 
not in.''
  Atlanta Journal editorial: ``Kids lose out to politics.''
  Chicago Tribune editorial: ``A sound children's health bill, SCHIP.''
  New York Times: ``Overcoming a veto and helping children.''
  The Daily News, New York: ``Presidential malpractice.''
  Akron Beacon Journal: ``SCHIP at the brink.''
  USA Today: ``Plan to protect kids on needless veto fight.''
  Charlotte Observer: ``Vote for healthy children.''
  Des Moines Register: ``Don't abandoned kids needing health care.''
  Charleston Gazette: ``Child health. Override the President.
  Houston Chronicle: ``Wrong priorities. Presidential veto of SCHIP 
expansion would place ideology over children's health.''
  The Republican editorial: ``Bush abandoned kids on health 
insurance.''
  And the list just goes on. You don't have to believe me or Mr. Murphy 
or Mr. Ryan or Mr. Meek. The newspapers, who are supposed to be the 
bastion of giving us all that we need to know and independent thinkers 
in the world, are saying that this President is wrong, that the veto is 
wrong, and we need to override the veto.
  I am calling on all my colleagues. My Ohio Republican colleagues, 
they are stepping up and I am very proud of them. But we need more 
across this country to step up and say that we are going to support 
children in this Congress.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mrs. Tubbs Jones, I think it is important 
that you are focusing on the President here, because Republicans do 
support this. We are talking with a fringe element of the Republican 
Party, mainly here in the House of Representatives, who stands up 
against kids getting health care.
  Because you look across the country, a poll came out about a week ago 
that said by a two to one margin, registered Republicans in this 
country support health care for kids. In the Senate, you have 18-plus 
Republicans standing up for kids' health care. Here in the House, 40-
some odd Republicans are standing up for children's health.
  You have a small element of the Republican Party here, enough right 
now to sustain the veto. You have a President who is ideologically 
opposed to kids getting health care. But this really has been a 
bipartisan effort.
  So maybe we risk overgeneralizing a little bit when we talk about 
Republicans on this issue, because we are really talking about a 
segment of this party just big enough to hold this bill up, just big 
enough to make sure these kids don't get health care. Because across-
the-board Republicans are joining Democrats who understand that this is 
the right thing to do.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, Mr. Murphy, I am glad that you are 
part of our majority-making Members that came here and gave house 
Democrats the majority. And the way it went on in the Senate, even 
though there is just one majority Member there that put the quit the 
Senate Democratic majority. But there is still a lot of work to be 
done.
  As I sit here, and Mr. Ryan knows and Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones 
knows, we have been on this floor before in the 108th and 109th 
Congress, and saying if it was about politics, we would just not come 
to the floor. We would allow the Republicans, and I am not 
generalizing, those that are in the position of standing with the 
President, not with the American people, that works politically for 
Democrats. The majority will even get greater, Mr. Speaker, if we just 
sat in our office or we just went to committee meetings and didn't come 
to the floor burning the midnight oil here tonight. But it is not about 
politics. It is about the country, and that is the reason we are here.
  I just wanted to point one thing out. Folks get excited about the 
war. But you saw the $10 billion figure I had on the whole war cost 
for, this is a little clearer here, $10 billion right here per month. 
This whole child health insurance package is $35 billion over 5 years, 
Mr. Speaker. Five years, $35 billion. That is 3\1/2\ months of the cost 
of the war in Iraq. Five years versus 3\1/2\ months.
  The President's action is one thing. The Republican minority allowing 
it to stand is another thing.

[[Page 26360]]

  You see, I want to give the American people some homework, because I 
think it is important. We can't say well, you know, the President, you 
know, they are not going to have another opportunity to stand in 
judgment on some given Tuesday on the President of the United States. 
But they will every 2 years have an opportunity to stand in judgment of 
every Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. I think that is 
something very, very important.
  Also, Mr. Ryan, you know that we have worked very hard on veterans. 
Mr. Murphy, you know we have worked hard. All of us have worked hard. 
We have made the largest increase in VA assistance in the history of 
the republic. Since the VA has been created, it has received more 
health care assistance from this Congress than any other time, any 
other time in history.
  Now, my mother before me who served here in the House said the thing 
about the House, the main thing about being elected, is bringing your 
experiences to the floor. I just wanted to take 2 minutes to tell you 
about an experience.
  I have a 10-year-old and I have a 12-year-old daughter. We take pride 
in at least once a week riding the Mall, what we call here the Mall, 
from the Capitol on down to the Washington Monument on to the World War 
II Memorial, and we take a hard left to go over to the Jefferson 
Memorial on our bicycles, and we come around and we go to the Lincoln 
Memorial.
  I just wanted for a minute for Members to realize what is going on 
down there at the Lincoln Memorial. You have the last outpost of 
Vietnam vets that are there running off a generator for power, standing 
there for the missing in action, raising money, selling patches, and 
things of that nature, who have to renew their lease every 21 days to 
stay there on that Mall. They have been there for years, since the 
Vietnam Memorial was set up.
  I talk to these gentleman, my kids talk to these gentleman 
constantly, because they are our heroes. But they are out there showing 
the medication and the kind of cocktail they have to use to even deal 
with what happened over 20 years ago.
  I think when we start looking at governance here in this house, we 
have got to look at it beyond what the paper is going to print the next 
day. We have to do what is right on behalf of the country. So when we 
look at 5 years, a $35 billion program, versus 3\1/2\ months of 
operations in Iraq, we can't help but think of good governance.
  I want to put the pressure to the point where the Members here 
willing to stand with the President on this very bad decision in the 
face of uninsured children in this country, that they make sure that 
they understand that when folks walk in on some given Tuesday voting 
for representation, need it be Republican, independent, Democrat, what 
have you, yes, your children too, that they didn't walk in grasping the 
hands of the President of the United States to take some sort of 
talking notes from some conservative think tank, and I will let you 
talk about that, to talk about how they are going to deny children 
health care in this country.
  I go back to saying nothing is perfect, but I can tell you one thing, 
it has to be better than what we are facing right now, the program that 
needs to be reauthorized and children have to have health care.
  So I want my Republican colleagues that voted against this 
legislation for all, and as far as I am concerned, and this is my 
individual reason, I know people have reasons, but I think it was 
largely political, when you think about it, in the final analysis, I 
want them to feel the pressure when they step off the plane or the 
train or the car or whatever the case may be, and I don't care if you 
are Republican, independent, thinking about voting one day, 17-years-
old, you are going to get your voter registration card, put the 
pressure on your Member of Congress on this issue.
  I think it is very, very important. The bottom line is, if a Member 
has a problem with what I am saying, you know, it is a beautiful 
country. It is America. Thank God the flag is flying over the Capitol 
right now. I am going to say it. And I think it is important that 
Members understand that this is serious business.
  We are down to children now. This is not about somebody walking 
around with a suit or something on. This is about the children of this 
country. Not Iraq. Mr. Speaker, time after time, Mr. Ryan, you know, 
Ms. Jones, Mr. Murphy, you know, as I yield over to my friends, Members 
come to this floor and pound and shake and throw paper and carry on on 
behalf of the Iraqi children.
  What about the American children? What about them? What about those 
individuals that are catching the school bus in the morning? What about 
that parent catching the early bus taking their kids to school? What 
about the folks that work here in this Capitol that have people that 
live next door to them that don't have health care? What about them? 
Get emotional about them. Pound and shake your fist about that.
  I hope we have the kind of paradigm shift when that vote comes up to 
override the President of the United States, that we have some of our 
colleagues on the Republican side that go see the wizard; get some 
courage, wisdom and heart, and stand up against this President, and 
don't allow those individuals that I see down here that are trying to 
block democracy from happening coming down here from the White House 
saying ``stick with us.'' Stick with who? Stick with the President, or 
the American children?
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Wow. Wow. The only thing that I want to end on, 
and I am going to be very quick to yield for the last time to my 
colleagues Mr. Ryan and Mr. Murphy, was I participated one Saturday 
afternoon in a program at University Hospital in my Congressional 
district called ``healthy children.'' The purpose of the program was to 
help these children who were overweight understand the importance of 
choosing the right foods, the right diet and exercise.
  There are so many unhealthy children in these United States. There 
are so many children who are suffering from type II diabetes, who are 
suffering from all types of conditions that could be dealt with given a 
strong health care opportunity, given an opportunity for their parents 
to have the appropriate guidance.
  We cannot afford to let our children down, because when we have 
children who are unhealthy, who may be overweight, who are suffering 
from diabetes, it also leads to children who have depression, children 
who don't want to be here because somebody is kidding them or their 
self-esteem is low.
  The State Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, will give our 
children the opportunity to have a chance, have a chance to be 
successful in a world where you would think it would be no big deal; 
that it would be no big deal to say to the American public, yes, we are 
going to give you health care, children.

                              {time}  2115

  We owe it to them. We are morally obligated as the grownups in this 
country. I am just so proud of my colleagues that I am here on the 
floor with. I am proud to be part of the 30-Something. I thank them for 
their leadership and their guidance.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of articulate 
folks on the floor tonight. I come back to the idea of the concept of 
morality. We hear a lot about that from the Republican side, from the 
Republican Presidential candidates.
  To me, when it comes down to it, if I really am my brother's keeper, 
if I am really supposed to live a moral life and represent my moral 
obligations as a human being, there is nothing more central to that 
moral obligation than reaching out to a sick child, who through no 
fault of their own can't get access to the care that will allow them to 
stand up on their two feet, straighten their back, take a deep breath, 
and gain the same access to the apparatus of opportunity that all of us 
enjoy who have led much more privileged lives.

[[Page 26361]]

That is the moral obligation that lies at the center of everything that 
we do.
  So I think it is going to be a proud day when we finally get over 
that mountain, when we finally reach that moment when we can extend 
health care to 4 million more children. Maybe there will be a couple 
more fights before we get there, but the reason we are going to spend 2 
weeks in between the President's veto and the moment when we cast the 
vote to override it is because we know when our Republican colleagues 
go back home, they are going to hear cries from their constituents to 
live up to that obligation, to that moral and that fiscal obligation 
and do the right thing by their constituents. I hope that we will have 
a very different result.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I want to make one final point. Those of my friends 
who are in this Chamber, those people who we work with who are in the 
business community, when you look at this from a purely economic 
standpoint, what would a business person do if they were here? Would 
they put a little bit of the money up front and try to prevent all of 
these other problems from happening? Or would they say what the 
President said: We'll get them in the emergency room. What would a 
business person in 2007 do? I would guess that they would want to put 
the money up front.
  Now as we end, because we only have a few minutes left, before I 
yield to my friend from Florida, I'm going to brag. Because on Saturday 
there was a middleweight title fight, and Kelly Pavlik from Youngstown, 
Ohio, is now the middleweight champion of the world, WBO/WBC. He had a 
rough second round. He went down, got back up, and was a little wobbly. 
But about half of the fans in Atlantic City were from Youngstown, from 
the Mahoning Valley and cheered him on. He came back and in the seventh 
round knocked out the champion. And he knocked him out.
  We are all very proud of Kelly Pavlik. He is a great kid, 25 years 
old. Humble, speaks well. Just a great kid. I want to congratulate him 
and his family and his mom.
  I have a great story. When he won a fight a fight or two ago, I 
called his house just to congratulate him. His mom answers and says, 
``Who is this?''
  I said, ``This is Congressman Ryan.''
  And she said, ``Yeah, and I'm Queen Elizabeth. Who is this?''
  He is a great kid, and I want to congratulate him and his mom and dad 
and his grandmother and his little baby daughter and Jack Loew, his 
trainer. Just great people who represent Youngstown, Ohio, and the 
Mahoning Valley very well.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I know it is a proud moment for Ohio. I was 
watching a HBO special leading up to the fight. He has a daughter, and 
his trainer actually does blacktop.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Seals driveways.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is interesting. This guy is an everyday joe 
and trained Kelly from a young tender age as a boxer.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, it is always an honor to come to the floor 
with Mr. Ryan and Mr. Murphy and Chairman Tubbs Jones. We are so glad 
to have a chairperson of a full committee on the floor with us. We're 
not used to that.
  We look forward to continuing to come back to the floor to share with 
not only Members but also the American people. It was an honor 
addressing the House.

                          ____________________