Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday was a bad day for democracy in the House of Representatives. Adding to their laundry list of legislative arm twisting, House Republicans once again bent democracy to fit their needs by holding a vote open for 38 minutes until they were able to change the outcome of the vote. Thursday was not an isolated incidence of arrogant disregard for the political process by Republican leadership in this Congress. It was an example of the modern-day Republican win-at-all-cost style of governance. This shameful record speaks for itself. Never before, when the Democrats were in control, when Newt Gingrich was Speaker with the Republicans in control, never before until the last year or so has the House of Representatives operated in such secrecy. At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March last year, the House cut veterans benefits by 3 votes. At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April last year, the House slashed education and health care by 5 votes. At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the leave no millionaire behind tax cut bill by a handful of votes. At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote. At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July last year, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote. And then after returning from summer recess at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq. Always in the middle of night, always after the press had passed their deadlines, and always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed. What did the public see? At best, Americans read a small story with a brief explanation of the bill and the vote count in Saturday's papers, understanding that Saturday is the least-read paper of the week; no accident there. But what did the public miss? They did not see the House votes which normally take 17, 18, 19, 20 minutes dragging on for as long as an hour as Members of the Republican leadership trolled for enough votes to cobble together a majority. They did not see GOP leaders stalking the floor for whoever was not in line. They did not see the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert); the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the majority leader; and the majority whip, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) coerce enough Republican Members into switching their votes in the middle of the night to produce their desired results. In other words, the American people did not see the subversion of democracy. In November, they did it again. The most sweeping change to Medicare in its 38-year history was forced through the House at 5:55 a.m. on a Saturday morning. The debate started at midnight, the rollcall began at 3. Most of us voted within the typical 20 minutes. Normally the Speaker would have gaveled the vote closed, but not this time because the Republican leadership Medicare privatization bill was losing. By 4 a.m., the bill had been defeated 216 to 218. Then the assault began. The gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Committee on Ways and Means chairman, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) and the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce (Mr. Tauzin) all searched the floor, walked around the Chamber looking for House Republicans to bully, the 25 Republicans that had the integrity and the guts to vote against their leadership and to do the right thing. I watched them surround the gentleman from Cincinnati, Ohio (Mr. Chabot) trying first a carrot and then a stick; but he, with integrity intact, remained defiant. They then aimed at a retiring Member, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) whose son is running to succeed him. They promised support if he changed his vote to ``yes.'' They promised retaliation if he did not change his vote to ``yes.'' He stood his ground. Many of the two dozen Republicans who voted against the bill simply went home because they did not want to deal with the pressure. I found one Republican Member in the Democratic Cloak Room in order to avoid Republican arm twisting. By 4:30, the browbeating had moved into the Republican Cloak Room in the back of the Chamber, out of sight of C-SPAN cameras and the insomniac public. Republican leaders woke up President Bush, and a White House aide passed a cell phone from one recalcitrant Member to another in the Cloak Room. At 5:55 a.m., 2 hours and 55 minutes after the rollcall began, twice as long ever as any rollcall had taken in the history of the House of Representatives, two western Republicans, one from Arizona and one from Idaho, emerged from that Cloak Room, walked down the aisle, picked up one of these cards, a green card, scrawled their name and their district number on it, and sheepishly surrendered it to the Clerk of the House. The Speaker gaveled the vote closed 2 hours and 55 minutes after it began. Medicare privatization had passed. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, I guess it is not over until the drug companies and the Republican leadership says it is over. Mr. Speaker, Republicans can do a lot in the middle of the night under the cover of darkness. Last week, House Republican leadership demonstrated a new bravado, the same kind of thing they did last year, month after month, by holding this vote open in broad daylight. What can the American people expect to see from the Republican leadership in the future?

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it has been a bad week in Washington. Adding to their laundry list of legislative arm twisting, House Republicans yesterday once again bent democracy to fit their needs by holding a traditional 15-minute vote open for 38 minutes until they were able to change the outcome of the vote to their favor. It was not an isolated incident of arrogant disregard for the political process by Republican leadership in this Congress. It was an example yesterday of the ``modern-day'' Republican and their win-at- all-cost style of governance. Never before when the Democrats were in control or when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, never before has this House of Representatives operated in such secrecy. At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March, 2003, the House cut veterans' benefits by three votes. At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April, the House slashed education and health care by five votes. At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the tax cut bill, weighted especially towards millionaires, by a handful of votes. At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization bill by one vote. At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote. And then, after returning from summer recess, at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq. Always in the middle of the night, always after the press had passed their deadlines, always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed. What did the public see? At best, Americans read a small story with a brief explanation of the bill and the vote count in the Saturday newspaper. And people here, the Republican leadership, knows that Saturday is the least read newspaper of the week. What did the public miss? They did not see the House votes, which normally take 15, 17, sometimes 20 minutes, they did not see them dragging on for as long as one hour as members of the Republican leadership trolled for enough votes to cobble together a Republican victory. They did not see GOP leaders stalking the floor for whoever was not in line. They did not see the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert); they did not see the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), majority leader; they did not see the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), majority whip coerce enough Republican Members, arm-twisting them, berating them sometimes, threatening them sometimes, offering them things sometimes. They did not see them switching their votes to produce the desired results. In other words, they did not see the subversion of democracy. Then in November they did it again. The most sweeping changes in Medicare in its 38-year history were forced through the House at 5:55 on a Saturday morning. The debate started at midnight. The roll call began at 3 o'clock late Friday night/early Saturday morning. Most of us voted with this plastic card that we were given within the 20 minutes allotted. Normally the Speaker would have gaveled the vote. The vote would be completed. But not this time because the bill was losing. By 4 a.m., the bill had been defeated, 216 to 218. Still the Speaker refused to gavel the vote closed. Then the assault began. The gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert); the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay); the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt); the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the Committee on Ways and Means chairman; and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), the Committee on Energy and Commerce chairman, all searched the House floor for Republican Members to bully. I watched them surround the gentleman from Cincinnati, Ohio (Mr. Chabot), trying first a carrot, then a stick. He believes what he does. He remained defiant. He showed his integrity. Next they aimed at the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith), retiring congressman, and these are his words as I tell this story, whose son is running to succeed him. They promised support if he changed his vote to ``yes.'' They promised $100,000 for his son's campaign. They said if he refused, they threatened his son's future. He stood his ground, again showing integrity and courage. Many of the two dozen Republicans who voted against the bill had fled the floor. One Republican headed into the Democratic cloakroom. I saw her there about 5:30. By 4:30, the browbeating had moved into the Republican cloakroom, out of sight of the C-SPAN cameras and out of sight of the insomniac public. Republican leaders woke President Bush, a White House aide passed a cell phone from one recalcitrant Republican Member to another. At 5:55, two hours and 55 minutes after the roll call had begun, twice as long, twice as long, as any roll call had ever taken in this House of Representatives, two western Republicans emerged from the cloakroom. They walked down this aisle, ashen and cowed, to the front of the Chamber. They picked up cards on this table, they picked up a green card, they surrendered their card to the Clerk, the Speaker gaveled the vote closed, and Medicare privatization passed. You can do a lot in the middle of the night, under the cover of darkness. That is what the Republicans did again this week. You wonder how they are going to violate democracy in the weeks ahead as we preach democracy in Iraq and around the world.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the Special Order time of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney was in Cleveland this week trying to explain the President's economic policy to a State which has lost one-sixth of its manufacturing jobs since President Bush and Vice President Cheney took office, a State that has lost almost 200,000 jobs overall, a State that has lost 195 jobs every single day of the Bush administration. His answer to Ohio's economic problems is more tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the State hoping those tax cuts will trickle-down and create jobs. That clearly has not worked. And his other answer is more trade agreements like NAFTA and other trade agreements which have hemorrhaged jobs and shipped jobs overseas. Clearly we need a new direction. The Bush economic policies are not working in the industrial Midwest. They are not working in small-town Ohio; they are not working in the big cities. We need a different economic policy. The Bush program simply is not working.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I will yield.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, the fact is this quarter trillion dollars of trade we had a trade surplus with Mexico before NAFTA that is now a turned into a trade deficit. We had a small trade deficit with China when the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) came to this body and when I came to this body that is now $120 billion trade deficit. The fact is we continue to have lost jobs in our State, even with some economic growth that has taken place in the last few months. Ohio and the Nation still are 2 million jobs behind what President Bush had when he came into office. There were 22 million jobs created during the Clinton administration. There is a net loss of close to 2 million jobs during the Bush administration. Now, today, Mr. Kerry came to Canton to talk about some of these same issues. Mr. Kerry's solutions are not more tax cuts for the richest people in society, the major contributors to the Republican party. His solution is not more trade agreements that continue to hemorrhage jobs overseas. His solutions are several things. First of all, extend unemployment benefits to the million people who have lost their jobs in this country, who have tried to find work and have not and had their benefits expire. Second, expand rather than eliminate, like the President wants to do, the manufacturing extension program which helps small manufacturers figure out how to navigate the global economy. Third, Mr. Kerry says Congress should put a hold on trade agreements and go back and re-examine and look at changing the trade agreements that are already in effect. Fourth, all of us in this body say pass the Crane-Rangel bill, which gives incentives to those companies and rewards those companies which manufacture in this country, rather than the Bush tax breaks that give manufacturing all kinds of incentives to companies that shift jobs overseas.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell today the tale of two visits. President Bush last year visited Canton, Ohio, visited his friends at the Timken Company. John Kerry today visited Canton, Ohio. I would like to tell you a little bit about each visit. When President Bush came to Canton, Ohio, he came to the Timken Company, a fourth generation manufacturing firm in Ohio, one of George Bush's largest contributors. The Timken family has given and raised for President Bush well over $1 million over last 2 years. He came to Mr. Timken's plant and celebrated his program, his economic program. He stood at the Timken plant and bragged on Timken's workers, as he should have, saying that Timken employees were 10 percent more productive this year, he said that a year ago, this year, than the year before. Ten percent more productive. Now, a few months later Timken announced, earlier this year, that they had their best, their highest sales, highest quarterly sales they had ever had. A week after that they announced they had a 60 percent increase in earnings per share over the same quarter a year ago. Ten percent more productive workers, highest sales ever, very good earnings per share. A week later, the Timken management announced that it was closing its three plants in Canton, Ohio, shutting down its Ohio production, laying off 1,300 workers and moving the factories to China. Now, the President has come to Ohio time after time trying to justify his economic program when Ohio has been a State that has lost one-sixth of its manufacturing jobs. Ohio has been a State that has lost 190 jobs every single day of the Bush administration. President Bush would be the first President since Herbert Hoover to have lost jobs during his time in office. Yet he goes to Timken, he says that is the picture of the future. Now, the President's answer to every single piece of bad economic news is two-fold. First of all, the President says more tax cuts for the wealthiest people in society. A person making $1 million on average last year got a $123,000 tax cut. More tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our society, the largest corporations in our society, hoping that those tax cuts trickle down and create jobs. That is one of the President's answers. The other is more trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, Central American Free Trade Agreement, Free Trade Area of the Americas, all of these trade agreements that continue to ship jobs, continue to hemorrhage jobs overseas. That has been the President's answer.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, President Bush again was in Ohio this past week to try to justify his economic program to try to sell it to the residents of my State. Since President Bush took office, one out of six manufacturing jobs has disappeared from my State. President Bush will be the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs during his time in office. Ohio has lost 190 jobs every single day of the Bush administration. His answer is always the same: more tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthiest people in the country which might, he thinks, trickle down to create jobs, and more trade agreements like NAFTA which all serve only to ship jobs overseas. Mr. Speaker, instead of this disastrous Bush economic policy, we need to change directions, extend unemployment benefits, and give tax incentives to those corporations that do business in the United States rather than using U.S. taxpayer subsidies to reward those companies that go overseas and ship jobs overseas and outsource our middle-class jobs.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as a new generation is being created in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republicans are underfunding programs that are vital to our Nation's veterans. The Bush administration has tried to increase the cost of health care for veterans which would have forced 1 million veterans from the system. Their budget slashed funding for staff needed to process disability claims and cut funding for prosthetic research and long-term care. House Republicans passed a budget that underfunds veterans health care by $1 billion, and they rejected efforts by House Democrats to fully fund VA health care. Their budget cuts do not stop there. The Bush administration, in order to make room for tax cuts for the wealthiest 5 percent in our Nation, their plan for the 2006 budget includes a $900 million cut in funding for veterans health care. That would be catastrophic for the VA and for our Nation's veterans. Last month, Secretary Principi and President Bush announced they had closed three VA hospitals, one in Mississippi, one in Pittsburgh, and one in my district in northeast Ohio in Brecksville. The Ohio facility serves 48,000 veterans and is a national leader in programs that treat substance abuse and mental illness. The Brecksville VA hospital is critical for ensuring the health and well-being of the thousands of homeless veterans who rely on Brecksville and who now will be forced to find another way and go somewhere else. For whatever reason, the administration chose the same month in which we honored our war heroes on the anniversary of D-Day and dedicated the World War II Memorial to close those three health care VA facilities. Ohio is home to more than 1 million veterans. That number obviously is increasing with our commitments abroad. There are 61,000 active Reserve or National Guardsmen and -women from Ohio, 9,000 serving in Iraq and in Afghanistan. When these brave men and women serving our Nation come home to Ohio, they face, as a result of the administration's negligence and policies, they face cuts to health care benefits, cuts to VA hospital closures; and they face, in some cases, loss of their livelihoods. Not since World War II has the U.S. made such heavy use of part-time soldiers. Twenty-seven percent of self-employed Reservists said their businesses were irreparably damaged while deployed in Iraq. Other Reservists and Guardsmen and -women have taken pay cuts in order to fight for our Nation in Iraq. When they return home, many of these veterans will have to take out second mortgages to repair their businesses and to get back on their economic feet. While they struggle to rebuild their source of income and economic support to their communities, they are forced to pay more for prescription drugs, and they are forced to travel further for their health care needs. How do we look a veteran in the eye and ask a veteran to go to Canada to buy less expensive prescription drugs? While our brave men and women serve our country, their benefits and their ability to support their families are being threatened by this administration's policies that hurt America's veterans. In only 3\1/2\ years, we have seen rising costs for prescription drugs from a $3 copay per drug per month to a $7 copay per drug per month, and now the Bush administration wants a $15 copay per drug per month. Mr. Speaker, 330,000 veterans have unprocessed claims and 100,000 veterans are waiting for appeals decisions. New enrollment fees and increased costs of prescription drugs will cost veterans $2 billion over the next 5 years. All of this has happened since President Bush took office. The President opposes the renewal of ``imminent danger'' pay for families of active duty soldiers in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The President opposes mandatory funding for veterans health care; and maybe most importantly, the President, in his campaign in 2000, told veterans that ``help is on the way.'' Three years later, this administration continues year after year after year to cut veterans benefits. We must do better than that.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last week, on the floor of this Chamber, there were two interesting 1-hour presentations. The first hour came from the other side of the aisle, from the Republican side. Members from Texas and Illinois, Members from Arizona and West Virginia, Members from Florida, Indiana, from my State of Ohio all spoke on the floor and talked about the growing economy, how the American economy is back. They talked about corporate profits being up. They talked about economic prosperity. They said that our economy was in fine, fine shape. In fact, they quoted President Bush's Secretary of Commerce who said, ``It is the best economic climate in my lifetime.'' That was the first hour. The next hour a group of us from mostly Ohio, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), was joined by the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky). We, instead of sort of cheerleading this economic growth, we talked instead or related stories from people in our districts and letters we had received about people struggling with stagnating wages, with tuition increases. Ohio State's tuition will go up 13 percent this fall. Akron University's tuition went up 16 percent last fall. We talked about gas prices, people's difficulty of dealing with higher gas prices, of diminishing health care benefits, the employers cutting prescription drug benefits, all of that. In my State of Ohio, we have lost one out of six manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office. Some 228,000 jobs overall have disappeared in my State since the President took the oath of office in 2001. In fact, because we have lost 2.5 million jobs since he took office, President Bush will be the first President since Herbert Hoover to have had a net loss of jobs. Now, we can talk about how much corporate profits are up, and that is a good thing for sure. We can talk about some economic growth, and this is a good thing; but when we look at the economy and we look at the kinds of job loss and we think about what that job loss means, first of all, a steelworker in Canton, Ohio; an auto worker in Lorain, Ohio; a textile worker in North Carolina that loses a job that pays $10 or $12 or $15 or $20 an hour, depending on the plant and the location, what that means when that family loses that job, if perhaps the members of the family can find another job, that certainly will pay less, if they can find anything else, but think what that means to that family and those children and to the schools in that district where that plant closed down. The city of Cleveland laid off 600 teachers starting this fall. Classrooms in Cleveland now will average 30 students per classroom. Layoffs in my home city of Lorain, several dozen teachers lost their jobs because we have lost industrial jobs. Police and fire are laid off, which is a greater hardship on those families and greater hardship on the communities that they face, which will then have slower police and fire response time. The person that owns the diner, the waiters and waitresses in the diner next to the plant that closes down, loses business, may go out of business. The real estate agent is faced with selling a whole bunch of homes that nobody wants to buy. Workers, all kinds of people are affected from this kind of job loss. Now the White House, they have enlisted cheerleaders, Members of Congress, who come to this House floor and talk about this growing economy, talk about corporate profits going up and talk about how it is the best economy in memory of the Secretary of Commerce. In their play book, the White House apparently does not see this or does not care to see what happens to these families and what happens to these communities. The White House play book says between now and the election you have got to be optimistic, you have got to cheer lead, you have got to say the economy is better, you have got to make Americans think everything's great in this country; that we are going to continue to grow. I do not question my Republican friends. I think they actually believe that. They believe that because 5 percent of the people in this country have gotten big, big tax cuts, a person making $1 million got $123,000 tax cut from the President Bush, somebody makes a lot less makes almost nothing. The people that Members of Congress hang around with are doing well. They have good jobs. They get tax cuts. They are doing well. Their companies are doing well because they are the CEOs. But when they are cheerleading about how great the economy is and accusing people like Senator Kerry of being doom and gloom, the fact is we have got to change the policy. We have got to change the direction of this economy. We have got to stop doing it the way we are doing it. We need to give tax relief to those companies that are hiring domestically and not exporting jobs overseas.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, President Bush again was in Ohio today in Cincinnati to again try to justify his economic program and his last 3 years of managing this economy. One out of six manufacturing jobs in Ohio has been lost since George Bush took office. We have lost 190 jobs every single day of the Bush administration. He has two answers. His first answer is more tax cuts for the most privileged, for the largest corporations, for the wealthiest 5 percent of people in this country, hoping that those tax cuts will trickle down and create jobs. That has failed. His second answer is more trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement. He wants to extend NAFTA to Central America into South America. Those trade agreements have hemorrhaged jobs; they have shipped jobs overseas. Instead, we need to extend unemployment benefits, reject the Bush plan, and go in a different direction. We need to extend unemployment benefits, pass legislation to reward and incentivize those companies that manufacture in this country, rather than big tax breaks to those companies that outsource jobs and ship jobs overseas.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last night on the floor of this Chamber there were two interesting 1-hour presentations, as many of you remember. One was several colleagues from the Republican side, if I recall from Texas, Illinois, Arizona, my State of Ohio, West Virginia, Florida, Indiana and a couple other States, who spoke about the rapid economic growth we are experiencing; how this is, as the Secretary of Commerce said, quoting now, ``It is the best economic climate in my lifetime,'' he said; that ``things were great on the job front; lots of new jobs created, lots of economic prosperity.'' Then there also was a group of people, mostly from my State of Ohio, that told stories of letters we have received from constituents, people saying that their college tuition has gone up sharply, 13 percent at Ohio State, for example; they have lost their drug coverage; their programs for education in their communities have been cut, both by local governments and also State governments, and, thirdly, in some cases the Federal Government. There was major job loss. Companies like Timken in Ohio, for instance, have lost one out of six manufacturing jobs. But what was curious about the difference in the view of the country is that it is pretty clear my Republican friends kind of all meet in a huddle like a football game and they are all coming out, I do not mean to mix metaphors, but coming out as cheerleaders because they have been sort of instructed by the White House that the only way to win this election is by saying over and over and over and over that this is the best economy we have had in years. The problem is, and I do not think we are being nay-sayers, I am just passing on, we are all passing on what our constituents in Ohio and Illinois, like the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) and others, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) and the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) here and others are just passing on what our constituents are telling us, that we need to change the direction of this country. If the cheerleaders on the other side of the aisle, the President's football squad, if you will, that comes out of the huddle, if they continue to talk about how great the economy is, it means that they are not willing to admit the mistakes of the last 3 years in how our economy and our country are going in the wrong direction. The only way to correct things is to say, well, maybe we are going in the wrong direction and maybe we need to change course. But the President's answer in every single situation, for every bad piece of economic news the President says two things: we need to cut taxes for the 5 percent wealthiest Americans, maybe some of it will trickle down and create jobs. That clearly has not worked. We have lost 2.7 million jobs since he took office. President Bush will be the first President since President Hoover to have lost jobs during his time in office. And his other answer is more trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement. He wants us to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement; free trade agreements with Singapore, Chile, Morocco, Australia, the Free Trade Area of America, which will quadruple the number of low-income workers in the NAFTA trade block. He wants us to continue to do that when those policies clearly are shipping American jobs overseas. Now, those policies, as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) said on the floor last night, those policies clearly help the President's political friends, they help his wealthy contributors; but they are not helping workers in this country. I do not question the motives of my friends on the other side of the aisle, the cheerleading, for saying this economy is in such great shape. I think they really believe it because they spend their time with the 5 or 10 percent of the people in this country who are doing great, the 5 or 10 percent of the people who see profits going up. They are corporate executives, they are big stockholders, they are getting bigger dividends, they see the stock market going up in some cases, not very regularly, and so they get tax cuts because they are in the upper 1 or 2 or 5 percent income brackets. So the economy is going well for them. But unfortunately, it is simply not going well for so many others in this country. I am not here to criticize and to throw cold water on their birthday party, but what I am here for is to say let us change direction, because those economic plans and programs have clearly not worked. For 3 years, the President has gotten whatever he wanted from this Congress in terms of tax cuts, in terms of cutting spending on education and health care and veterans benefits, but the economy and the country are worse off than they were 3 years ago. In my State, we have lost one out of six manufacturing jobs since George Bush took office. Let me explain sort of what happened. There is a company in Ohio called Timken, T-I-M-K-E-N. It is a major employer and has been a good company for northeast Ohio and Canton, Ohio. It is President Bush's favorite company everyone says. The CEO of Timken, fourth generation, very wealthy family, are some of George Bush's biggest contributors and fund-raisers. A year ago President Bush came to Timken and spoke to assembled workers and mostly management and applauded the company because the workers are 10 percent more productive, a year ago 10 percent more productive than they were the year before, and congratulations to them and to that company for that. But then earlier this year, Timken put out a news release saying that they enjoyed record sales for the first quarter, all-time record sales for Timken, and they said that they had a 60-some percent increase in earnings per share from a year ago. A week later Timken announced, we are building another factory in China and we are closing our three factories in Canton where the corporate headquarters is and laying off 1,300 well-paid Ohioans. So that is what we are seeing. We are seeing on this side of the aisle, my Republican friends sort of parroting what George Bush is saying, saying this economy is really great; and we are hearing people on this side tell stories, with facts backing it up, about how we need change because these policies are not working. Clearly the policies are working if you are in the upper 5 or 10 percent, because corporate profits are up, dividends are up, tax cuts are being enjoyed by the 1 or 2 or 5 percent wealthiest people. But in the case of so many others, there are more people that are receiving, going to food pantries, there are more people who are seeing their college educations going through the roof, the increases in college tuition, there are more people who have seen their drug benefits pulled back or scaled down or eliminated; and it is time that we take a different direction. In this country when you criticize, you need to say, what do you do in place? We should pass the Crane-Rangel bill, which will reward American companies that manufacture here rather than abroad; instead of giving tax cuts abroad, pass unemployment benefits, and pass a better prescription drug bill.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Invitation only, 150 people, something like that, and they all cheered at everything he said. But when they put themselves out in front of the public and they hear these stories, they hear about someone making $22,000 a year who has just had their meager health insurance scaled back even further; who is facing increased gasoline prices; who wants to send their kid to Akron University, which had a double-digit tuition increase each of the last 2 years, I believe, on the average; who faces increased child care costs; whose wages likely will not go up, they are just hoping they can keep their job for another year or 2 before it is outsourced, or before their plants close down. And then they read these stories in the paper, they read the Secretary of Commerce say it is the best economy of my lifetime, they hear our colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about the shining city on the hill and how great the economy is, and they just wonder if they live in the same country that their leaders are presiding over and that their leaders live in.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois. I appreciate her description of the squeeze on the middle class, because I think when any of us goes out into our districts and talks to people, not preselected crowds that when prominent politicians, particularly the President, when he went to Youngstown to the area of the gentlemen from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) and (Mr. Strickland), and spoke to a group at the community health center and they were all doctors.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I do not hold any ill will personally toward any of these leaders in our country whose values and positions and policies are so different from what, obviously, the four of us believe this country should pursue; but when you hear the Secretary of Commerce say, ``This is the best economy in my lifetime,'' when you hear our colleague from southwest Ohio only 45 minutes or so ago talk about how the economy is roaring back; the gentleman from Texas, one from West Virginia, one from Arizona, one from Indiana talk about the record-setting economic growth, it really does remind me of kind of what happened at the Timken Company. The Timken Company, as all of us remember, is President Bush's favorite Ohio company. The Timken family has given both President Bush and his father literally millions of dollars and raised millions of dollars. The President went to Timken a year ago and praised the workers for a literally 10 percent increase in productivity, praised this company for all that it has done in this community, deservedly. Then several months later, only about 6 weeks ago, sent out a news release saying that they had record sales their first quarter, then the company went on to say their earnings per share were 60 percent over last year's first quarter. Then, just 2 or 3 weeks ago, Timken announced that it was closing its three plants in Canton, Ohio, laying off 1,300 workers and moving its production to China. It really is a scenario where I believe the people in the administration just do not see what is going on out there. I mean, Mr. Cheney, the Vice President, gets $3,000 a week in pay still from Halliburton, a company which he has been connected with on and off and continues to do favors for. Most of the administration officials got hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in tax cuts. Most of the Members of this body who believe this economy is humming are not talking to workers who still have their jobs, but who see the gas prices going up, who see their kids' college tuition going up; as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) said, in Ohio State alone, a 13 percent tuition increase just this year alone, and schools all over the country are facing that; who see their local property taxes and State taxes going up; who see their wages stagnant and with not really much chance of increases, and face the anxiety of a potential job loss, potential plant closing, potential outsourcing of their white collar job. And of course they feel anxiety. Even when there are a few jobs being created, President Bush will still be the only President who has had that job loss during his term since Herbert Hoover. But even if the news gets a little better with a few new service jobs that pay not great, but at least pay something, the anxiety people are facing is simply not seen by the members of this administration. I think one of the reasons their policies are so off course and that President Bush's answer to every economic problem is more tax cuts for those of his social class and his contributors, and more kinds of trade agreements that continue to shift jobs overseas and continue to reward outsourcing. I think so much of it is based on the fact that he has not really seen and really understood that these are not, the Members of Congress or the administration, these are not problems that they really see very often in their daily lives. So they conduct these policies, they formulate these policies that work for some small number of people in this country. Profits are up for the Timken Company; the problem is they are laying off 1,300 people. So some people at Timken are doing well, the ones that the President knows, but the people who are not doing well in the community, a community which has now lost the money for their schools and to fix their roads and all of that. Let me yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) who has seen these issues from a slightly different perspective, another Great Lakes industrial State.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, President Bush's Secretary of Commerce recently said, ``This is the best economy of my lifetime.'' Again, I wonder, I know that President Bush and his top advisers have personal wealth and do not get out much, but it is pretty amazing.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on these issues on one of the most important committees in this Congress, the Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend from southern and eastern Ohio, whose district runs from Youngstown all along the river down to Portsmouth, who has been fighting for better health care since he has been a Member of Congress, for lower drug prices, for working to provide access to health care for veterans, health care benefits, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman. We have been joined by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) and the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), and also the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky). I want to call on the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Jones) next, because she is in the middle of a hearing in the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, a group of Members from Congress from Ohio have come to the floor regularly over the last 3 years, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland); and we have since been joined by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), freshman from northeastern Ohio, to discuss what Bush economic policies have done to the middle class, how they have squeezed middle-class Americans with higher gas prices, higher health care costs, stagnant wages, and especially staggering job loss. Our State of Ohio has lost, since President Bush took office, one out of six manufacturing jobs, almost 200 jobs every single day of the Bush administration. These failed economic policies are especially putting the squeeze on America's and Ohio's middle class. Middle-class families feel the brunt of this administration's economic policies. America's middle-class families are losing ground on jobs, losing ground on health care, losing ground on education. Yet the Bush administration's answer to every single economic problem, as we saw from listening to my friends paint their very rosy picture of the condition of the U.S. economy, at least the condition for the most affluent in the U.S. economy, the answer in every case for the President for every problem that we face is more tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our country, hoping that some of those benefits trickle down to the middle class and maybe create some jobs from time to time. That clearly has not worked with the loss of plus 2\1/2\ million jobs since President Bush took office, the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net job loss. And the President's other answer to these economic anxieties, to these economic problems, are more trade agreements like NAFTA, like the North American Free Trade Agreement. Singapore, Chile, Morocco, Australia, and now the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and later the Free Trade Area of the Americas, all of which have hemorrhaged jobs, all of which have sent jobs overseas. As I said, Ohio has lost almost 200 jobs every single day of the Bush administration, and now leading U.S. corporations are beginning to send not just blue collar but white collar jobs, clerical jobs, administrative jobs, technical work, computer programming, even radiology and radiologist jobs overseas as well. Government figures confirm that the North American Free Trade Agreement, very conservatively speaking from a conservative government, that NAFTA has cost Americans more than a half million jobs. If that is not enough, the President now has signed just last week the Central America Free Trade Agreement, which will ship more jobs out of Tennessee or out of Ohio or out of any of our States to Mexico, to China, and all over the world. Roughly 830,000 U.S. service sector jobs, telemarketers, accountants, software engineers, chief technology officers will move abroad by the end of 2005, according to a report released in May by Forrester Research. Forrester Research projected that 600,000 jobs would move overseas by the end of next year; 3.4 million jobs will leave the U.S. by 2015. So instead of fighting for trade pacts that keep jobs in the United States, the President's plan is to repeat the failures of NAFTA and to use taxpayer dollars to outsource American jobs. Get that: to use taxpayer dollars, literally to use taxpayer dollars, to outsource jobs, to send jobs overseas. This is an administration that, when begged, literally begged, by 200 of us in this Congress, would not extend unemployment benefits to those 1 million Americans, 50,000 Americans in the gentleman from Ohio's (Mr. Ryan) and my home State to allow the extension of unemployment benefits for those Americans who lost their jobs, but continue to try to look for jobs. Instead of fighting for corporate tax reform such as Crane-Rangel, the administration remains silent on responsible bipartisan legislation, the Crane-Rangel legislation that both parties support, 85 Republican sponsors, 90 Democratic sponsors, supported by the AFL-CIO and the National Association of Manufacturers, a jobs bill that will reward companies that produce domestically. Instead, the President wants to continue to give tax breaks to the largest companies, which happen to be his largest contributors, which so often send their jobs overseas. Responsible leadership means not just being critical of the President in what he is doing but also offering what we should do instead of these failed trickle-down economic policies and failed trade agreement policies. Four things to start off: a moratorium on job exporting trade pacts, meaning let us look at NAFTA, let us look at China trade, let us look at CAFTA, let us look at all these trade agreements before we pass another one to decide what works, what does not work, and make the changes we need to. Second, tough action against China and other trading partners who refuse to play by the rules. When I came to Congress a dozen years ago, we had about a 400 million, million with an ``m,'' trade deficit with China. Today we have 120 billion, with a ``b,'' 3,000 times the trade deficit that we had with China just a dozen years ago. Third, enactment of the Crane-Rangel corporate tax reform plan, which, as I said, uses the Tax Code to reward companies that produce domestically the manufacturing in our country instead of the Bush way of giving big tax cuts to the largest corporations, most of which outsource their jobs every single day. And, fourth, an extension of unemployment insurance to help bridge the gap until better, good-paying jobs are created and people can once again support their families. The President's plan includes none of these provisions, in large part because large American corporations that have funded the President's campaign, who are the President's strongest allies, from which most of the President's Cabinet has come out of, all of those companies are doing very well, their stockholders and their executives are doing very well under the Bush tax plans and outsourcing plans, but their workers are not and our country is not. And, lastly, before yielding to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) to talk about education issues and what that has done to jobs in this country, the President's health care policies are also hitting America's middle class right in the pocketbook. Prescription drug costs increased 9 percent last year, five times the rate of inflation. Yet the President's drug bill, the Medicare bill, written by the drug industry, written by the insurance industry will increase drug company profits by $140 billion over the next 10 years and has protections in the bill for the drug industry so that they can continue to charge three times, four times, five times what drugs cost everywhere else around the world. Mr. Speaker, one more point. Because I was critical of the President's plan on prescription drugs, I want to mention what we should do to get costs under control. First of all, we should give clear authority to our own government to negotiate on behalf of 40 million Medicare beneficiaries lower drug prices. Every other country in the world does it that way. That is why Tamoxifen, a breast cancer drug, costs the Canadians one-eighth as much as it costs Americans, simply because the Canadians use their 30 million residents as a bargaining pool to negotiate better prices from the drug companies. The U.S. Government has refused to do that in large part because the drug industry gives so many campaign dollars to too many Members of this body, especially Republican leadership and especially the President's re-election campaign. The second thing we should do is allow the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada so if we really do believe in NAFTA and fair trade and free trade, American wholesalers, American drug stores like Drug Mart, should be allowed to go on the international market and buy those drugs from Canada at one third and one fourth the price. Mr. Speaker, I also would mention some things about education, but we have an expert here. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), freshman congressman, will talk for some time about jobs in Ohio and education and some of the issues that he wants to discuss. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. So imagine if the administration when we first were in Congress, and all four of us talked about this, as members of the Committee on Armed Services, as members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, as members who were involved in a lot of Iraq things in the beginning, every one of us came to the floor as well as at least a couple of dozen other Members of Congress and hundreds of representatives of veterans' organizations and people advocating for soldiers, for their better treatment, if the administration had said earlier when we first started talking about this, right when the war started in March and April of 2003, if they had said, we have made a mistake. We have got to do something about this today, and if we do not do something, the people who are responsible will be punished, imagine how many more lives would have been saved, how many fewer soldiers would have been injured and lost their limbs and capacities.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month the President of the United States made another trip to my State of Ohio to argue for and try to justify his economic policy. Ohio has lost one out of six manufacturing jobs since George Bush took office. Ohio has lost almost 200 jobs every single day of the Bush administration. Yet the President's answer invariably is more tax cuts for the wealthiest people, the most privileged people in the country, hoping that it trickles down and creates jobs. His other answer is more trade agreements, like the North American Free Trade Agreement, that continue to send jobs, continuing to hemorrhage jobs out of the country. Mr. Speaker, instead of these failed economic policies that have cost Ohio more than 200,000 jobs, we need to extend unemployment benefits, pass Crane-Rangel that actually gives benefits and rewards those companies that manufacture in the United States rather than giving tax breaks to those companies that continue to ship jobs overseas.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes. I would like to commend my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Deal), and my colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns), and other Members who helped put this resolution together. One in six American men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetimes, one in six. Only skin cancer is more prevalent in our population. Approximately 30,000 men will die from prostate cancer this year. Early detection can obviously reduce that number. In fact, early detection is crucial in raising awareness about this disease as the best way to promote regular testing. A friend of mine in Columbus recently learned that lesson. He had a regular test, early detection, successful surgery and back to his normal active life. This resolution says Congress can play a unique role in raising public awareness about prostate cancer. We can and we should. There have been exciting developments recently in prostate cancer prevention. A class of drugs called statins hold promise for keeping this form of cancer at bay. Each year, I join the gentleman from New York (Mr. King), my friend, on a letter signed by many Members on both sides of the aisle urging the Committee on Appropriations to provide ample funding for prostate cancer research. That is one piece of the puzzle; public awareness is the other. We have a ready tool in the fight against prostate cancer. That tool is information. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this resolution and continue to help get the word out. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to myself. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my colleagues, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), who is a registered nurse and who has been a leader in this body in health care, and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Pickering). Because of their leadership, we have the opportunity to pass legislation today that can prevent disability and save lives. I would like to commend majority counsel Cheryl Jaeger for her good work and minority counsel John Ford for his good work on this bill. Stroke, as we know, is the third leading cause of death in this country and a major cause of severe, long-term disability. Though stroke affects all kinds of Americans, stroke death rates are substantially higher for African Americans. An effective response to stroke, therefore, is an important opportunity to address the troubling health disparities that we see in this country all too often. In all, about 700,000 Americans will have a stroke this year. That is one every 45 seconds. A stroke will kill one American every 3 minutes. Perhaps the most disheartening fact, however, is that this suffering is largely preventable. Early detection drastically reduces the harm from stroke. The risk of paralysis and other disabilities is reduced by 30 percent if stroke victims are detected within the first 3 hours. Unfortunately, only 10 percent of stroke victims are treated in this time period in part because only one of five Americans can readily identify the symptoms of a stroke. In a health care symptom as sophisticated as ours, as high tech as ours, this is certainly simply not acceptable. The Stroke Treatment and Ongoing Protection Act will provide the public with the information necessary to recognize early signs of stroke and drastically reduce the chance of disability or death. The bill will educate medical personnel to help them improve their diagnosis and treatment of stroke victims, and it will help States develop a network to improve stroke prevention and treatment and rehabilitation. EMTs, doctors and nurses have helped close to 5 million people survive a stroke. A strong network of advocates led by the American Heart Association has helped millions more take the steps necessary to reduce their risk of having a stroke. The Stroke Treatment and Ongoing Prevention Act would strengthen these efforts and help us fight this debilitating and deadly disease. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.