[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8473-8479]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THIRTY-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to address the 
House. As you know, the working group, we come to the floor to share 
good information with the Members and make sure that we are all 
informed on what is happening in this new-direction Congress. Also, for 
us to understand our future, we have to go into our past. We try not to 
dwell on that too much, but when there are examples of leadership and 
courage, we want to identify and illuminate the leadership that many, 
that the majority of the Members of the House have already taken.
  Today's vote with passing this budget resolution by the House is a 
perfect example of our priorities as we move through the process. As 
you know, there will come a time when the Senate and the House will get 
together in conference and we will send our budget to the President, 
and hopefully we can all come to common ground on behalf of not only 
domestic priorities, but also international priorities and how we are 
seen in the world.
  This is a Friday for us here in Congress because this is now the 
close of legislative business, and we are going to be off for the next 
2 weeks from Washington, DC. But we will be back in our districts 
working very hard, talking with our constituents.
  Many Members will take this opportunity to share with the members of 
their community and their district the accomplishments that they have 
been able to make in the last 2 weeks, and they have been quite 
historical. I think with the emergency supplemental, even going back to 
that, since that is a week old and something we have already voted in 
the affirmative in a bipartisan way, I think that is a testimonial to 
what this 110th Congress is going to be about and what we continue to 
work very hard in making sure that the American people have a chance to 
see exactly how hard we have been working.
  I think I am going to have to get my chart that talks about the days 
we have worked, the resolutions we have passed, the suspension bills we 
passed compared to previous Congresses. I think it is important when 
people look at their Members of Congress and they say, well, are you 
actually working on my behalf. I am hearing from the 109th Congress 
that there were times that you spent more time out of Washington than 
you spent in Washington. And many of our Members are hungry to see 
their constituents because we have been here the majority of the weeks 
working on a 5-day workweek.

                              {time}  1530

  Out of that 5-day work week, there has been a lot that has been 
accomplished.
  So I am going to talk about not only the resolution, but I am going 
to also talk about the effort of bipartisan votes that have taken place 
here on the floor and on the accomplishments of being here in 
Washington, DC, and having hearings. I think that is important, and I 
think that the American people need to be fully aware.
  We talk about Iraq in the same light that we talk about the work. On 
the

[[Page 8474]]

29th, which is today, the total deaths in Iraq, 3,243. That's as of 10 
a.m. That's 10 a.m. numbers. Wounded, returned back to duty, 13,473. 
That number continues to change, Mr. Speaker. And wounded not returning 
back to duty is 10,841.
  Why do I give those numbers out? I give those numbers out to make 
sure that all of the Members understand that this work is very, very 
serious.
  This number is changing because just today in the Armed Services 
Committee we had a hearing on Guantanamo that has a connection to the 
efforts against terrorism throughout the world. But oversight 
accountability hearings on Iraq are at 104. That is the last documented 
number I know. When we get back from the break, this calendar will be 
updated.
  Also, we had issues of cleaning up Washington, DC, and making sure 
that America is safer; hearings that we've had making sure the American 
dream is possible for everyone. We have had a number, Mr. Speaker, of 
bipartisan votes here on this floor that really meant a lot to 
Americans.
  When we started looking at the issue of minimum wage, when you have 
82 Republicans voting under the ``New Direction Congress'', under a 
Democratic-controlled Congress voting for an increase in minimum wage, 
that means that there has been a will and a desire to do so over the 
years, but they haven't had the opportunity to do it, and it took 
leadership to move in that direction. Also, making college more 
affordable. When you look at votes that have taken place, 124 
Republicans have joined Democrats in voting in the affirmative as a 
unit, and I think that is very, very important.
  When we start looking at the Iraq resolution, we have to look at the 
courage and the insight and the vision of this ``New Direction 
Congress'' in allowing Members of this Congress to vote on something 
that will be beneficial to their constituents but also meets emergency 
needs of the country and Iraq and Afghanistan.
  I think it is very, very important that we understand that when we go 
on break there is going to be a lot said because we won't be here in 
Washington, we won't have the opportunity to come to the floor. Of 
course, the administration will have 2 weeks of an opportunity to speak 
from a podium without a response, an official response, outside of 
Members sending press releases out. But when you look at this 
resolution, it makes sure that, in dealing with the veterans issues, we 
have in place making our commitment as it relates to defending the 
homeland.
  I used to be on the Homeland Security Committee, and we started 
talking about making sure that the levees are in place and that we 
never see another Katrina in our lifetime, not under our watch; and 
holding our commitment to the men and women in the gulf coast. I think 
that is very, very important, and something that we have to continue to 
work on.
  Another piece of legislation we passed within the last 2 weeks is the 
Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, a response not only to the scandal at 
Walter Reed but also to make sure we can ensure the troops and veterans 
that they will receive quality care. This is a bipartisan piece of 
legislation, something that we should be very proud of and the American 
people should be proud of. We will continue to move in that direction 
of being aggressive on these issues.
  When you deal with the issue of U.S. troop readiness, I met with the 
command sergeant major of the Army Reserves just today, Mr. Speaker, in 
my office. He talked about the number of issues that are still not 
being addressed on behalf of reservists. But I can tell you that the 
refreshing part of that conversation was that I could go to the Wounded 
Warriors Assistance Act of 2007 to say that help is on the way. I was 
able to point to the concurrent resolution that we passed, our first 
action in January, that we put $3.6 billion into veterans health care 
so that when he goes out in the field to speak to the soldiers, he can 
say a new day is coming.
  I talked about the budget resolution prior to this budget resolution 
passing here on the floor, the largest increase and investment in 
veterans assistance, health care assistance in the history of the VA. I 
was able to talk to him under those terms and under that flag of 
accountability, oversight and making sure that we are accountable to 
the men and women that serve our country. I can tell you that it was 
received with great appreciation from him.
  I think it is important that as we start looking at the action of 
growing the economy that is in this budget that it is going to be very, 
very helpful to us all, making sure that our economy is moving in the 
right direction and will be here for all levels of economic classes.
  We start looking at children that are being assisted through this 
budget. As we continue to march through this process, as you know, 
there will be a House and Senate conference, there will be Members 
pulling in different directions to make sure that the priorities are 
met, but when it is all said and done, children are being protected. I 
know the Speaker will be having a summit on children that is coming up 
pretty soon that will allow us to even further look into the needs of 
children in the United States of America.
  What does this mean to the economy, Mr. Speaker? It means an awful 
lot. It means if you have healthy children you have fewer days of 
parents having to take off work and take them to the doctor, or to stay 
home to try to, what I call, drugstore medication, going to see what 
they can buy over the counter to help their children rebound from 
whatever health ailment that they may have.
  With this budget that we passed, we are making sure that every child 
in the United States of America has an opportunity at universal health 
care, something that is very, very important. I come from a State where 
over 12 percent of the kids are without health care. I think it is 
very, very important that we focus and stand behind our commitment to 
America's children in making sure that we provide the funding to make 
sure they all have universal health care. It is going to be good for 
our economy, it is going to be more days that children will be in 
school. We will have healthier children, we will have healthier 
families, and we will have a healthier economy in our society. I think 
it is important that we move in that direction.
  When we look at the State Child Health Insurance Plan that we have 
here, we call SCHIP, you look at the investment of what we have just 
made on this vote here on the floor. In 2008 to 2012, you will see in 
the billions of dollars that the President's budget is a $2 billion 
increase up until 2012. But then, if you look over a little further, 
you look at the budget resolution we just passed, and that is with a 
$50 billion increase as we move into 2012.
  So we have already laid out that we have the will and the desire to 
do so and that we are ready to do it; and we will be finding the 
necessary resources to do it without going into deficit spending. That 
is something that we have passed in the pay-as-you-go. If you are going 
to propose it and you are going to pass it, you are going to definitely 
have to show how we are going to pay for it.
  I think it is also important, as we look at the agenda, and we have a 
number of third-party validators that have endorsed this budget. We 
even have committees outside of the budget. But we have a Select 
Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, a panel created to 
inform Congress and the public on energy independence, climate change 
as well as developing policies and initiatives to assure progress made 
to reduce dependency on foreign oil. This is so very, very important, 
Mr. Speaker. Not only do we have this select committee out there, in 
this budget it reflects our values in investing in the Midwest versus 
the Middle East. It is a lot cheaper, believe me.
  And those numbers that I read out at the beginning of how many men 
and women will never come home to their loved ones, how many of our men 
and women that won't be able to return back to battle, I think it's 
important for us to understand that we not only have to conserve but at 
the same time make sure that we put our money

[[Page 8475]]

where our mouths are when it comes down to protecting our Earth, 
because we only have one.
  I think it is also important, Mr. Speaker, just for us to step back 
for a moment and just reflect on what not only happened just a few 
minutes ago but what happened last Friday. I continue to come back to 
that since the President is saying that he wants to veto the emergency 
supplemental. I think it's important that we just look at that just a 
moment.
  I was on the floor last night, and Mr. Ryan was here. We had an 
opportunity to talk about what the President really meant when he said 
that he wanted to veto the emergency supplemental for our men and women 
in uniform. I couldn't help but reflect on the President's history on 
vetoes, and I started looking. I would ask my staff, and then I started 
just kind of doing a personal evaluation. Have I ever heard the 
President say he is going to veto something?
  In 6 years of him being President, since I have been in Congress, now 
going on 5 years, I have never heard the President say I am going to 
veto something. I wonder why.
  Well, we just left the 109th and the 108th Congress, which was better 
known as the ``rubber stamp Congress.'' The President sends it to the 
Hill, it will be followed to the T, and that it will be ``so shall it 
be written, so shall it be done.'' Members will make other Members vote 
for the President's priorities. The majority was on the Republican 
side. And in November, the American people said, I no longer want that 
kind of democracy. I no longer want the President's original thoughts 
to be carried out by the Congress without review.
  We have another chart, and I want to make sure that we get that 
chart, the one that talks about how many bills we've passed. I had it 
here last night. It may be in the back or something, if staff can grab 
it for me. It was from the Clerk's office. It talked about the days 
that we've worked to this point and the bills that we've passed until 
this point, because I think it will be very, very revealing.
  The Congress last session did very little. And when I say very 
little, they had very few hearings on many of the issues that are 
before the Congress. We are taking a lot of time, not only Members of 
Congress but also the staff here in the House of Representatives on 
both sides of the aisle, because the days have been accelerated and the 
fact that we are actually having two or three committee meetings in a 
given day, leave alone subcommittees. And I think it is important, if 
we are going to have an active and functional and informed government, 
that we have to go through the steps and making sure that we are making 
sound decisions. That's okay when you are looking for others to tell 
you what you should be doing.
  This is my new favorite chart, Mr. Speaker, because, as you know, in 
the Working Group, we love third-party validators; and we love to give 
accurate information out. I personally love to give accurate 
information out. I don't ever come to the floor and share with staff or 
a friend, ``How can I go to the floor and give inaccurate information? 
Please help me do that.''
  Some of the debate that took place here on the budget, I was really 
shocked by the fact that some Members would come to the floor and say 
something that we all know is not true. But this is true. This comes 
from the Clerk of the House. This is the Record. Bipartisan office, 
it's the Record. I love everyone in the office, and I appreciate the 
work that they do.
  But this is the 107th Congress, the 108th Congress, the 109th 
Congress, and this is the 110th Congress. This was known as the ``do-
nothing Congress.'' That was what the media called it. And the ``New 
Direction Democratic Congress'', that's what we call it. It has nothing 
to do with the third-party validator.
  When you look at rollcall votes to this date, March, 2005, during 
this month, as we close out this month, there were only 90 roll call 
votes that were taken. As we close out this month, there will be 189 
roll call votes that were taken under this Congress, under this 
working, very functional, very informed Congress. Because the fact is, 
Mr. Speaker, that we have taken the time to go to a committee, to have 
staff research and to have witnesses come to us and share with us where 
we're going wrong and what we're doing right, and that is important.

                              {time}  1545

  We look at suspension bills, another form of bills that we vote on, 
26 in the 109th Republican-controlled Congress, 72 that we voted on 
Democratic-controlled Congress. And then it goes on and on and on. And 
I think it is important even days in session, 26 compared to last year 
under the Republican-controlled Congress, 48 under the Democratic-
controlled Congress.
  Why is this important? We have two wars going on. We have children 
without health care. We have veterans that are waiting 6, 7 months to 
be able to see a specialist at a VA. We have VA clinics that are open 
only once or twice a month.
  Why is this important? This is important because we have small 
businessmen and women in America trying to find a Congress that is 
going to stand on their behalf as it relates to free trade. And I 
believe that trade is good, but not when it is at the cost of U.S. jobs 
and the outcome measures of building our economy are based on 
hypotheticals.
  It is important for us to be here, Members, to understand these 
issues. So as I speak on the importance of what we have done and what 
the President is talking about in vetoing the emergency supplemental 
bill and saying that, oh, well, it is those folks in Congress that are 
holding it up, no, we have done our work. You will have the bill on 
your desk, and I urge you not to veto it on behalf of the people that 
are counting on us to stand for them.
  It is not us and them; it is all of us. We are all Americans. And if 
there are some things in the emergency supplemental that the President 
disagrees with, then that is fine. State those disagreements, but don't 
hold up the necessary resources from the men and women that are in the 
forward area, especially in Afghanistan.
  If this was a political conversation, I would say, Mr. President, 
veto it. You have to lie in that bed; and those that voted against the 
emergency supplemental would have to lie in that bed, too. But I would 
be speaking as some sort of hard-core partisan, which I am not. I am a 
Member of the U.S. Congress, and I think it is important that we look 
at it, Americans look at it the same way. It is not an issue of if you 
are a Republican or an Independent saying, well, the Democrats. No, no. 
The people that will suffer the most by the President saying that he is 
going to veto are going to be the men and women in uniform, the 
veterans that have been waiting on accountability out of this Congress 
and it is at an emergency level.
  Those Americans that have been waiting because of natural disaster, 
they are an emergency state. They are ready for their economy to kick 
in so that they can start providing for their families. It is going to 
be those individuals that are going to suffer. So let's take the 
personalities out of it. You have to be for the emergencies that are 
facing this country.
  Emergency supplemental is very, very important to this country and 
should not be allowed to be used as a political football. So I would 
ask for the President to reconsider his original thoughts vetoing the 
emergency supplemental.
  I think soon that there is going to be a discussion, Mr. Speaker, as 
it relates to the budget resolution we just passed. There will be 
threats and rumors of threats about what the President won't stand for. 
But there has to be a paradigm shift, because the American people have 
made a paradigm shift in November. You had Republicans and Independents 
voting for Democrats because they wanted accountability, they wanted 
oversight, they wanted to move in a new direction, and they wanted to 
make sure that they had a government that was going to balance with the 
present administration. But apparently that message has not gotten to 
the White House yet.

[[Page 8476]]

  And I am so glad that the leader of the Senate and also the Speaker 
of the House sent the President a letter saying, you know, it is not 
personal, let's just calm down and let's work together in making sure 
that the men and women of our Armed Forces and the veterans, I have the 
letter right here. This letter is from Senator Reid and also Speaker 
Pelosi. And it talks about both House and Senate bills contain 
important provisions rejecting the present policy that has been pursued 
for more than 4 years.
  Now, let's just say this very quick. And this is the closing of this 
letter because we can go on from the beginning. But we entered this 
into the Record last night and there is no need to do it today, but I 
think it is important that everyone understand where we are headed and 
where we have been.
  We know the past 4 years that there has been, not one, two escalation 
levels of U.S. troops in Iraq, and we know a third one just took place 
recently, an escalation in troops. And every last escalation has shown 
the same, very little as it relates to making sure that Iraq is a safer 
place to be. And it is still a very dangerous place. The President is 
asking for more time. But usually when you have three strikes, you are 
usually out.
  But as we start looking at this, it is important that the Members pay 
very close attention to this and the American people. And it goes 
furthermore to say that the provisions are based on statements by 
General Petraeus and other senior military leaders that there is no 
military solution in Iraq. No military solution in Iraq. So to say that 
140-plus thousand troops, 200,000 troops, we are going to get to the 
bottom of this; the more, the more the better, that is not necessarily 
what the military commanders have said.
  What did the Iraq Study Group say? They said that we have to find a 
diplomatic solution and that we have to find some sort of redeployment 
plan of U.S. troops. Great Britain has already said that they are 
pulling out. Others of the coalition of the willing, that I must add 
you would assume that Great Britain would be the second largest 
coalition in Iraq right now.
  No, it is actually U.S. contractors that is almost being led by 
Halliburton who said that they are going to move their headquarters 
overseas to Dubai. The U.S. taxpayer dollars are all intertwined in the 
Halliburton Corporation, and there are several investigations on 
Halliburton as it relates to their accountability of making sure that 
they billed the American taxpayers appropriately.
  This goes on to say that their collective judgment leads to the 
conclusion that U.S. forces should not try to contain a civil war, but 
rather a bipartisan majority in the House and Senate believe strongly 
that the U.S. mission should be transitioned to a counterterrorism 
force protection, and training and equipping the Iraqi security forces 
and phased redeployment of U.S. troops should commence.
  That is what this letter is saying, and that is what we must do.
  And I think it is very, very important that this message is loud and 
clear. And I don't think that the will or the desire of the majority of 
the Members of the House and the will and the desire of the majority in 
the Senate will change on this issue, because polls have indicated, not 
only the poll that was taken in January because that was all about Iraq 
and some other issues and accountability and ethics, but the poll that 
was just taken over the weekend of how the American people felt about 
the action of this Congress, they are with us. They are saying, what 
took you so long? Well, the thing that took us so long was not 
necessarily this Congress. It was the rubber-stamp Congress.
  So someone, please, I implore you and beg you, call the White House 
and tell the President, just because you say it, doesn't necessarily 
mean the American people are going to follow you.
  I was watching the President on the television just the other day, 
the press conference after the Senate took its action, and you would 
have assumed that something really bad happened. The President was 
saying, You know, I am going to veto it. He kept saying this, And they 
are holding money. Do you think the American people are going to 
believe for one minute when you have an emergency supplemental with 
accountability measures in it, of following what? The Department of 
Defense deployment rules and regs of men and women when they circulate 
out of theater. You have bureaucrats right now in the Pentagon that as 
soon as enlisted Reservists and in some instances National Guard return 
back home, they are returned back home within 150 days and going back 
into theater for another 12 or 15 months if they are a soldier, 7 to 10 
months if they are a marine. If they are in the Air Force, it may go 
from 3 to 4 to 5, or maybe up to a year, not because someone believes 
that that is the case. And here is the President on the front page 
trying to play the blame game and point fingers. That is not what this 
is about.
  And the reason why I am speaking in a very firm voice on this issue 
is that this is not politics. This is saying, let's work together, 
let's make sure that this is not about a stare-down, who is going to 
flinch first. It is not about flinching, it is not about who tucked 
their tail under their legs and who won. Because we all win when we 
give the men and women what they have to do.
  So this has accountability measures in it saying that troops will not 
be deployed outside of the Department of Defense's own rules and 
regulations. Obviously they have been bending those rules. How do you 
say to a soldier or a marine, an airman or a sailor that we are going 
to bend the rules when it works to the benefit of the Pentagon or the 
administration, but when it comes down to what you are supposed to do 
we are not bending anything? We are going to hold you to the nine of 
what you are supposed to do. That is not American. That is not fair.
  So this Congress has stood up on behalf of those individuals and said 
that we are going to hold not only the Department of Defense's feet to 
the fire, but also the administration's feet to the fire on this issue 
in law in this emergency supplemental. If you are going to spend the 
money, these are the rules you are going to live by.
  It also goes on and talks about the whole issue of readiness, making 
sure that our men and women have what they need when they go into 
theater. Well, some may say, well, Congressman, why are you talking 
about readiness? We are not sending anyone over there unprepared. The 
real issue is there is training that is involved that needs to happen.
  Again, I told you that I met with the sergeant major, the highest 
enlisted man or woman in the Army Reserve just this morning, and he was 
sharing with me the level of training that his men and women in the 
Reserve units have not received because of the fast rotation and the 
lack of emphasis on training and readiness. This is fresh information. 
This is not fresh. We already knew this, but he just validated it even 
more by just coming and saying this is an issue.
  We just passed this budget. So if the President doesn't want to move 
in a new direction in making sure that our men and women have what they 
need and they are trained, that is something that we need to talk to 
him about. We need to talk to him about it. We don't need to say you 
are wrong or do it, we want to watch, we want to see you do it; because 
if you do it, it is going to cost you politically. We are far beyond 
politics right now.
  It goes further into increasing the VA and assisting those men and 
women that are coming back. And it also looks at, states, that kids, 
the children, we reflect in our budget what we want to do. But with 
children, the money will run out for children's health care in certain 
States here in this country if this emergency supplemental doesn't go 
through. And I think it will happen prior to the next budget act when 
the bill is up.
  I know Mr. Ryan came down and he was getting ready to join me, and I 
don't want to move into the segment that he shared with me that he 
wanted to share with you. But as we start continuing to look at the 
present and

[[Page 8477]]

hopefully moving into the future, I want to make sure that the Members 
know exactly why this budget was very, very important. The budget that 
we passed doesn't raise any taxes whatsoever, and I know Mr. Ryan is 
going to talk about that and I am not going to take his thunder.
  But as we start to look at the interest payments on the debt, of what 
has happened in the past and where we have to have the paradigm shift 
and where this budget resolution starts to move the numbers and the 
reality of what has happened in the past, what was the reality in the 
109th and 108th Congress.
  Here is the interest that is paid on the debt right here, in the 
billions. And this is what Congress invested in education. Interest, 
education.

                              {time}  1600

  Next to that investment in veterans in the billions, the very low 
billion, under a hundred billion versus the debt.
  Homeland security. You have a lot of chest beating going on down here 
on the floor about homeland security, protecting the homeland. That is 
one of those things that comes in behind ``I love the troops.'' Protect 
the homeland. Previous Congresses and previous budget chairmen and 
committees did not set their priorities there, but they made good 
speeches.
  Look down here, homeland security, that is the investment that is 
made in homeland security versus paying down the debt. Why is this 
chart important? It is important because our priorities are now 
changing to no deficit spending, pay as we go. That is going to be 
painful.
  Mr. Speaker, I already feel the pain. It is going to be painful. But 
if we are going to make sure that we do what we are supposed to do as 
Members of Congress and we hold to our word as Members of Congress, I 
am talking about all Members of Congress, we will pay. Because the 
foreign debt that this administration and the Republican rubber-stamp 
Congress previous to this Congress put on the backs of this country 
will have other countries looking at us in a different light.
  Mr. Ryan, I probably borrowed $20 from you every now and then.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I wish it was just $20, Mr. Meek.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let's say I was to say hypothetically, Mr. Ryan, 
can I borrow $100?
  Sure, Kendrick.
  And I will pay you on Friday, payday, at the end of the month. And I 
see you 2 weeks after that payday and I come up to you. You are 
thinking, hold it, you owe me money when you see me next. You're not 
thinking about what I want to talk about.
  Where is my chart on foreign debt held? We love charts here. I can 
tell you, on the foreign debt held, there are countries like Japan, 
China, OPEC countries, Mr. Speaker, that we borrow money from. Iran is 
in that number. So how are we going to be viewed on the world stage and 
how do we rebound from that?
  Here is my chart. We keep the chart people in business.
  China, Japan, leading the pack there. The U.K., the Caribbean, OPEC 
countries that include Iraq, Iran, Venezuela. You look at Korea, Hong 
Kong and Germany.
  Again, Mr. Ryan, how do we look these countries in the eyes and say 
we want you to do this a certain way when we owe them money? How do we 
get out of that? We get out of it by passing this budget resolution 
that we passed today.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am trying to pay attention to you, but I'm 
thinking to myself, you do owe me money.
  I'm kidding.
  For the record, Mr. Speaker, that was a joke.
  As we listened to the debate over the past couple of days, we heard a 
lot from our Republican side, this is about the kids and you have to do 
this for the kids. I am thinking to myself as I am listening to the 
debate that it was the Republican Congress since 1994, post-Bill 
Clinton, when it got out of control in the last 6 years with President 
Bush, Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican White House, 
that garnered almost $3 trillion more of debt for our country, as you 
just pointed out.
  Now, if you are concerned about the kids, the first thing you don't 
want to do is leave them in a worse position than even you were in. 
Quite frankly, if we keep going down the same road that the Republican-
led Congress and President steered us down, that is a road of debt and 
deficits and borrowing money from China and Japan and OPEC countries 
and some of our best competitors.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You are making a point, and I just want to 
slingshot that point in.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Slingshot it in.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Here's the issue. The President is now saying, I 
am going to veto the emergency supplemental bill for Iraq and 
Afghanistan and for our veterans. I'm going to veto it.
  That is something he has never said before, Mr. Speaker. All the 
while all of this debt was being built up on the future generations of 
Americans and our children and grandchildren that are children of 
Republicans and Democrats and Independents and those who are thinking 
about voting, the President never once said I am going to veto it.
  As a matter of fact, every bill that was passed in the rubber-stamp 
Congress, the President was saying, I'll sign it. I am going to sign 
that bill. Record spending, I am going to sign that one.
  Mr. President, that bill will run the debt up. We will have to borrow 
money from foreign nations, some that we have issues with. I'm going to 
sign it.
  As a matter of fact, he signed so many bills, can I have another pen? 
I ran out of ink.
  Now to say I am going to veto something that has accountability 
measures in it, the problem is not additional dollars for the emergency 
needs of Americans, the problem is the fact that the Congress has said, 
after 4, now 5 years in Iraq, that we are no longer going to be the 
say-nothing, hear-nothing, do-nothing Congress, that we are going to 
have a say in it, and we are sitting here and federalized by the people 
of the United States of America to make sure that they have a voice and 
we have accountability.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. One of the other critiques we heard last night and 
today about the Democratic budget is: More government spending. They 
want the government to spend the money instead of the individual.
  Well, I'm sorry, I don't know how you expect to fund veterans' health 
care if the government is not going to do it. Who do they want to do 
it? Wal-Mart? Home Depot?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Did you say the Congress or did you say The 
Tonight Show?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Congress.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Okay. I thought you were joking.
  I yield back.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that.
  And $3.6 billion from the resolution, continuation resolution from 
last year, for veterans' spending. That increase is government 
spending. Because we have to fund health care for veterans because it 
was the government that sent the veterans out.
  Now, I am not saying that every dollar the government spends is good, 
but I remember last year under the Republican budget and the year 
before under the Republican budget passed by a Republican House and 
passed by a Republican Senate, signed by a Republican White House, that 
gave $14-15 billion in subsidies to the oil subsidies, that was 
government spending; and our friends on the other side of the aisle 
weren't very critical when public tax dollars were going to corporate 
welfare for the oil companies when they were making the greatest 
profits they have ever made. That is government spending.
  What we are doing, not raising taxes, the same revenues as the 
President's budget had, we are going to reprioritize that money and we 
are going to take that money and spend it on our veterans and invest it 
in education and increase the Pell Grant almost $4,600. We are going to 
take that money and cover

[[Page 8478]]

thousands and thousands and thousands more kids under the SCHIP 
program, the State Children Health Insurance Program. That is the 
difference between these two budgets.
  When the President says he is going to veto this supplemental bill 
that is going to get us out of Iraq, you know what else he is vetoing, 
$1.7 billion increased over the President's recommendation for 
veterans' health care. That is in the supplemental bill that he says he 
is going to veto.
  Also, $1.7 billion above the President's request for defense health 
care for our soldiers. The President says he is going to veto that.
  There is $500 million for post-traumatic stress disorder for soldiers 
coming back. The President says he is going to veto that.
  There is $500 million in there for brain injuries; and we have both 
been to Walter Reed visiting the soldiers with the level of brain 
injuries that we have never seen in combat. So $500 million, the 
President says he is going to veto that.
  Almost a billion dollars in the supplemental for children's health 
insurance, and the President says he is going to veto that. That is 
what the President is saying he is going to veto.
  We hear a lot about government spending, and we hear a lot about the 
kids. You can't send these kids off to war and, in many instances, 
adults off to war, and then when they come back your argument is we 
don't want government to spend money. That doesn't cut it.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, I am glad you are here to make that 
point, because we talked about it earlier.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for us to understand exactly, 
and I can see if it was a different President, Mr. Ryan. I can see if 
the administration has changed from the last Congress to this one. But 
it is the same President that celebrated a Congress that was willing to 
follow through his original thoughts.
  During our watch on the 109th Congress and the 108th Congress, the 
President signed bills with billions of dollars in special interest tax 
breaks and subsidies to big oil, to a number of other high-level, 
connected, plugged-in, I-know-them kind of folks, and direct access to 
the Capitol and direct access to the White House, signed a bill and 
didn't even blink an eye.
  And in this emergency supplemental which is a true emergency, our men 
and women need what they need now in the field, not in 2 or 3 weeks, 
now.
  The real issue is we are helping and correcting the lack of 
oversight, the lack of will and the desire to correct the issues at 
Walter Reed Hospital which, when our troops are injured in the field, 
some of them, and Mr. Ryan and I have been through the whole track of 
what happens to our men and women that are injured in the field. They 
are dealt with in the field hospital, then shipped over to Germany. 
They spend some time over there, and then they are medevaced over here 
to Walter Reed Hospital. The last thing they need to see is a broken-
down, lights-out, insect-infested Walter Reed Hospital. We responded.
  As a matter of fact, it makes me feel so good with this new 
Democratic Congress that we have here now, prior to the Walter Reed 
story coming out, and I need to get my chart on Walter Reed, prior to 
the Walter Reed story coming out, this Congress, through the continuing 
resolution that we passed at the end of January, because the rubber 
stamp worked on some days, the 109th Congress did not finish the 
appropriations bills, we reprioritized their priorities and put $3.6 
billion in into VA health care.
  Here is a specialist here. She lost her legs. She lost her legs 
because this country asked her to go and fight in a foreign land, in 
Iraq.
  This whole story here, the Newsweek cover, and Newsweek comes out 
every week, but I actually saved this. I save a number of Newsweek, 
Time and other periodicals and dailies so we can archive what has 
happened in the past so we can have a better future.
  Right now what we are doing in the emergency supplemental is a better 
future for the very people we are trying to help. For the President to 
say, well, I am concerned about other things that are in the bill.
  Well, he wasn't concerned when it was okay for big oil. He wasn't 
concerned about that. I am so glad we live in a democracy, and I am 
able to say this. I am very concerned. You know why I am concerned? 
Because there are some American people who woke up early one Tuesday 
and stood in line and voted for some representation.
  Mr. Speaker, as sure as my name is Kendrick Meek, they are going to 
get it from this Congress. They are going to get representation from 
this Congress. We are going to make sure that their values are turned 
into not only law but to action.
  Mr. Ryan, when you talk about this issue of what is in the bill, what 
is actually in the emergency supplemental, when we talk about the 
accountability measures, you can't help but get passionate about it.
  Mr. Speaker, if I was an intern working in a congressman's office and 
if he or she voted against the emergency supplemental, my American 
spirit would have to come out. I would say I love the congressman or 
congresswoman, but it is the right thing to do.
  So what is the problem? Maybe they need to send an e-mail. Maybe they 
need to send out an e-mail under the name John Doe or something saying, 
Mr. President, I love you and all of this, but please don't veto this 
bill. That is where we are now.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let's look not only at the supplemental but with 
the budget the President presented. We, the Democratic budget, 
increases the Pell Grant to at least $4,600 from a little over $4,000 
now. As you said, we are constrained by the $3 trillion of debt that 
was created over the past 6 years by our friends in the Republican 
party.

                              {time}  1615

  But this Democratic budget rejects all of the things that the 
President recommended. Here is what the President wanted to do for 
higher education. He wanted to eliminate the Perkins loan program. He 
wanted to eliminate the Federal supplemental opportunity grants, and he 
wanted to eliminate leveraging education assistance partnerships. He 
wanted to completely eliminate them.
  Now, we are competing with 1.3 billion people in China and over 1 
billion people in India. The key component to economic growth in 
America in the next decade or two or three or four or probably for the 
existence of this country is to invest in education, and when you look 
at what the Democrats have done in the first 100 hours, we cut student 
loan interest rates in half for both parent loans and student loans, 
and here we are in our budget and we raised the Pell Grant in the CR as 
well, and here we are raising again the limit for the Pell Grant to 
$4,600. That is investing in education.
  When you look at the billions of dollars we are going to put into 
children's health care to make sure that every kid in the United States 
of America has access to health care, those are investments that are 
going to pay off in the long term, and that is going to lead to a 
strong America, a strong economic growth.
  Now, our friends on the other side, and I do not want to talk too 
much about this, but it has been levied against us that the Democratic 
budget is somehow going to raise taxes. We have the Brookings 
Institute, we have the Center for Economic Policy, and we have the 
Concorde Coalition, three independent folks who have said we are not 
raising taxes; and I am going to tell you why we are not raising taxes 
right now.
  We are going to fix the alternative minimum tax. It has been creeping 
into the middle class, and we are going to provide 23 million Americans 
with a tax cut because we are not going to allow the AMT to go in and 
creep into their tax levels.
  Not only does the budget not raise taxes; we include tax relief where 
the child tax credit stays on, marriage penalty relief stays on, 10 
percent bracket tax deduction stays on, and a deduction for State and 
local taxes all in this bill.
  I want to say one further thing on the tax issue, that the same 
people

[[Page 8479]]

claiming that the Democrats are raising taxes are the same people that 
said that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They were the 
same people that said that it would only cost us $50 billion in Iraq, 
and we are already to the $500 billion mark. They were the same people 
that said we would be greeted as liberators. They were the same people 
that said they would be handing roses out to the Americans. Same 
people, same President that said mission accomplished, you know, same 
person that said we are in the last throes, the Vice President's 
comments on the war.
  So they are the same people saying that we are raising taxes, and all 
I want to say to the Members is this, the American people can reserve 
judgment on whether or not this budget does it. We know it does it, but 
they can reserve judgment. Keep your 2006 tax returns, keep your 2007 
tax returns, make a copy of them, and next January and February, March, 
April, when you get your taxes back, you compare your 2008 tax returns 
to your 2006 and your 2007, and you will see that there is absolutely 
no difference.
  Then you can add those comments that we have been getting here over 
the past couple of days, you can add that to the column of weapons of 
mass destruction, and last throes and mission accomplished. Just take 
that comment on its axis and put it in the column with the list of all 
the other issues that have been in some ways misrepresented here on the 
House floor and across the country.
  So I am proud of this budget. I am proud that the Democratic budget 
invests $50 billion to cover children. I am glad we are investing in 
veterans health care, and those are things that need to be done. Those 
are not things that individual families can do. Those are the things we 
can only do collectively as a society, as a community.
  I am so proud that you have had the opportunity to come down here and 
lead this debate, as we are beginning to wrap up. I think it is 
important to say that the Democrats have heard the call from the 
American people in the November election. The country wanted to go in 
another direction, and that is really what we have done.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is very interesting, my grandmother used to 
say sometimes, I am so glad that I lived long enough. She used to say 
sometimes, even as I go from day to day, you know they say thank God 
for life. That is what she used to say, I am glad God allowed me to 
live long.
  I am so glad that God allowed me to live long enough to see the 
paradigm shift that is now taking place here in Washington, DC; see 
accountability; see a new direction; see oversight and see us sharing 
in that accountability, us sharing and making sure that we are making 
cuts and having reform ourselves so that America can be better.
  We used to say, Mr. Speaker, all the time in the 109th Congress, we 
have the will and the desire to lead; give us the opportunity to lead. 
And now that leadership is happening. So, Mr. Ryan, keep pointing it 
out. Let us keep sharing good and accurate information. Let us continue 
to go to the Congressional Record. Let us continue with our third-party 
validators because we love third-party validators, and the credibility 
and the integrity of the 110th Congress will live on in a bipartisan 
way.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, I think the American people will be very glad 
when they see this budget. They are going to be very glad over the past 
couple of weeks and really over the past 100 days of all of the 
accomplishments led by Speaker Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn 
and Rahm Emanuel and John Larson, and really the amazing leadership we 
are getting from our leadership in our caucus and the real teamwork on 
behalf of our freshmen Members and the different aspects of our caucus.
  I have never been prouder to be a Democrat than in the last couple of 
weeks on this floor and to pass that resolution last week that is going 
to get us out of Iraq responsibly, invest in our veterans, make sure 
they get the kind of health care they need, the first 100 hours, where 
we began to bring some fiscal discipline to the House, cut student loan 
interest rates in half, repairing student loans, invested in 
alternative energies, invested in the stem cell research and some great 
advances, creating new sectors, raising the minimum wage, all of this 
was done in the first 100 hours.
  When you add to that the supplemental and the $1.7 billion and the 
billion dollars for vets and the additional $1.7 billion above the 
President's request for health care for our soldiers, and you add this 
budget of $50 billion that is going to go to poor kids to make sure 
that they get health care so they can go out and get up on their feet 
and go to school healthy, ready to learn and move forward and get a 
good job and pay taxes and advance their families forward, break the 
cycle of poverty, these are the kind of investments that we are making, 
increasing the Pell Grant to $4,600. Key investments.
  So I am proud of what has been going on here, and it has been a 
pleasure to rekindle this kind of debate that we have, and I really 
appreciate your friendship.
  With that, do you have any closing comments? I am going to wrap it up 
here. [email protected]. If anybody wants to e-mail or see 
any of the charts we have had, you can go to www.speaker.gov/
30something.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, it is always a pleasure coming to the 
floor.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am sorry to interrupt you, but we are leaving 
tomorrow, and I will not see you till after the Final Four where the 
Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes may have a rematch, and I 
just want you to know everybody in Ohio is looking for some revenge.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, I just want to say that the past will 
speak to the future, and I want to leave you with this closing comment: 
remember the field mouse is fast, but the owl can see at night. It is a 
pleasure being on the floor with you.
  Mr. Speaker, it is always an honor to address the House.

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