Steve Kagen

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, for too long our Nation has been dependent on foreign oil. Today all of our constituents and all Americans are feeling that lack of independence at the pump. It is time for this Congress to enact realistic and effective energy legislation that will help America become energy independent. We must begin to invest in the resources we have right here at home. We must work together to create solutions to rely on our own ingenuity rather than the unreliable sources of foreign energy. Some of these solutions begin right on the farm, like in my own district in northeast Wisconsin. Biodiesel, methane digesters, cellulosic ethanol, all of these measures will help us become independent once again. It begins with a $5 million investment in our own family farms, the energy independent family farm program. This provision will be included in the farm bill, and I urge all my colleagues to support it, along with the other positive measures within it. By investing and creating energy independence on the farm, we will take the first step in becoming less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, as we move closer to Memorial Day weekend and the summer months ahead, families in Wisconsin and across the country will be packing up their families to head off on vacation, like up north in Minocqua, Door County in Wisconsin. And once again, gas prices are hitting record highs. American families and small businesses everywhere are bearing the full weight of the Bush administration's failure to enact a meaningful energy policy. On Monday, the President announced his most recent attempt to do something, and once again it is another insufficient and inadequate solution. This failed attempt at energy policy is a placebo. It is a fake solution to a very serious problem. There is a better way of doing things, and it begins with energy efficiency, developing renewable energy resources and moving away from fossil fuels.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, last Friday it was announced that the Democratic leadership had struck a deal with the administration and the United States Trade Representative regarding how this country will approach trade agreements with other nations. While very few have seen the actual text of what this deal looks like, many of us in Congress have concerns as to how these new standards on labor and environment will realistically and effectively be enforced. As a member of the newly elected class of 2006, I was elected to help change the course of this country, to help change our Nation's trade policy in particular, a policy that cuts the legs out from under American workers and places our industries at a competitive disadvantage. It threatens our quality of life and our global environment at the same time. We are now operating under a flawed model; and until that model is fixed, our Nation's jobs and the livelihoods of our constituents in Wisconsin and elsewhere are in jeopardy. As we have seen in our trade with China, we have been unable, unable to stop illegal subsidies, unable to stop illegal dumping and blatant violations of basic human labor rights and environmental standards. What will we Americans have to give up next? Trade deals in the past were flawed, and the ones still being negotiated must show promise of helping American workers, of helping their families and American communities. I believe that John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, put it clearly in his statement when he said about a new deal: ``Our trade policy will not be fixed overnight. The Bush administration's consistent unwillingness to enforce trade violations against nations like Jordan and China remind us there is no guarantee the executive branch will enforce any new rights workers may gain through these negotiations, and President Bush has negotiated flawed agreements with gross human rights violator Colombia and a losing, one-sided agreement with South Korea.'' My friends, it is time that the United States of America begins shipping our values overseas and not our jobs. It is time for America to take back our rich history of manufacturing, of making things. After all, if we don't make anything, we won't have anything. What everyone in Wisconsin is asking for is balanced trade, and we need it now.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I would like to honor Nicholas Riehl. Private First Class Nicholas ``Nic'' Riehl, from Shiocton, Wisconsin died at age 21 on April 27, 2007, while serving his country in the U.S. Army near Fallujah, Iraq. Last Saturday, his sister, Roselyn, had this to say to the several thousand in attendance: When I think of my big brother Nic, many things come to mind. But coward was not one. So when he joined the army there wasn't going to be a way to stop him. His life was a long, long, road, with many turns, some for good, some for bad; but those little bumps in the road made Nic who he was. If he wanted something he would have to work for it, and he did with such pride. It was truly amazing, also he would do it all with a smile, but not just any smile, he has one of those smiles you can see with your eyes closed. I know I was truly blessed to have him in my life, better yet as a brother. He was there to always lend me his words of wisdom, a helping hand, or to bring my ego back to the ground, and simply prove to me once again that he was the best. There were many things he attempted to teach me like guitar, how to be a ``Riehl'' leader on the basketball court, and never give up and also, to stay true to yourself. I understand that the Lord needed him, not only did He take my big brother, He took my best friend. Nic, I'll see you on the court! Please join me in a moment of silence for Nic Riehl, and for his family's courage in his loss.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, in northeast Wisconsin last Tuesday, prices for regular gasoline hit $3.13 per gallon, 37 cents higher than a month ago, and they have doubled since President Bush took office. And what is worse, the price of gasoline rose even as the price of crude oil fell. Yet the Federal Trade Commission has yet to investigate or punish anyone for price gouging. This is unacceptable. The FTC has a duty to investigate unfair trade practices. H.R. 1252, the Emergency Price Gouging Prevention Act, gives the FTC explicit authority to investigate and punish energy price manipulation at each and every stage along the way. It brings greater transparency to oil and gas markets and forces offenders to pay penalties to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1252. It will protect consumers from unreasonable escalations in gasoline prices. There is a better way to do things in America. Let's get started today.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remind everyone here and throughout the country that our President needs our help. The President needs our help to support our troops before, during, and after serving in harm's way, and to guarantee our soldiers receive everything necessary to heal their wounds from battles fought on our behalf. The President needs our help to fulfill Abe Lincoln's promise to our veterans, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphans. The President needs our help to hold the freely elected Iraqi Government accountable to his own benchmarks. And the President needs our help to accept the new direction away from Iraq back towards al Qaeda. The people of Wisconsin urge the President to sign the Iraqi Accountability Act, for in doing so he will be able to once again tell our troops and all the American people: ``Mission Accomplished.'' Mr. President, the American people hope you will accept our help.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I rise this morning on behalf of 47 million Americans who go to sleep every night knowing that tomorrow they may go broke solely because they cannot afford health insurance. People without coverage often delay treatments they desperately require, and we are all paying the price, for early treatment saves lives and saves money. We saw that in Blacksburg, Virginia, and we see it every day in emergency rooms and in amputations due to diabetes. There is a better way of doing things, a way to guarantee access to affordable care for all citizens. Let's build the largest insurance risk pool possible, 300 million strong. If you are a citizen, you are in. Let's openly disclose prices so we know the price of a pill before we swallow it. And let's be kind to those who are in need. I urge the President to extend the lifesaving SeniorCare drug program in Wisconsin, and please, please, please, do not veto the children's SCHIP health care program. There is a better way of doing things. Let's find it together, with no patient left behind.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Chairman, in the last Congress the House approved a water resources bill that included language to modify the navigation channel for the Fox River in Wisconsin. This provision, which was inserted by my predecessor, would have modified part of the navigational channel from 150 feet wide to 75 feet and from an authorized depth of 18 feet to 6 feet. However, the Congress adjourned and the work never was completed. This year I requested that this language not be included in the water resources bill because of my concern that it might impair the navigability of the Fox River and the potential for future commerce. It is my understanding that a 9-foot authorization depth is considered the minimal depth for a navigational channel to safely handle barge traffic. I would like to work with the Congress, with the chairman in conference to ensure that whatever language is included in the conference agreement, it will not adversely impact the navigability of the Fox River and will accomplish the goals of a safe cleanup of the Fox River.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Well, I thank you very much for the kind introduction. And I would say the diagnosis looks good. We've got a positive change and a new direction for the country. We are headed in the right direction. What have we done? We have brought back fiscal responsibility, and we are socially progressive and responsible as well. Now, listening this evening back in my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, is my mother. I won't tell you how old she is, but I will tell you she does need affordable prescription drug coverage. In Wisconsin, we had this thing called SeniorCare. It was group purchasing, where we knocked down the cost of prescription drugs tremendously, saved the Federal tax dollars, millions and millions of dollars. We had affordable prescription drug coverage that has been terminated by this administration. Now, my mother's medications were about $310 off of SeniorCare, and on it: $89. Same pharmacy, same pills, same manufacturers. It proves this point: when you negotiate, you can get a better deal. When you have a larger purchasing pool or a larger insurance pool, you can get that better deal. So I think the diagnosis tonight is, it's looking good; the future is looking fine. I am glad that my colleague from Minnesota is here tonight to lead us in that new direction.

Mr. KAGEN. I don't have to remind anyone here that if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. If you do serve in harm's way, if you are brave and honorable and serve, as many thousands and thousands have done. From my district in northeast Wisconsin, 20,034 brave Americans, men and women, served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And when we passed the supplemental bill we voted to support our troops before, during, and, very importantly, after being in harm's way. We stood up to our responsibility. They covered our back. Now it is time we should cover theirs. It is not just the veterans that need help. Our senior citizens, they can't afford their prescription drugs. I came to Congress because one time in three when I would write a prescription in my practice, my patients could not afford the medication. It wouldn't be on the list, their insurance company wouldn't cover it, and they went without. And today in America, people listening here tonight are asking this Congress, the 110th, to stand up to the drug companies and to the health insurance companies and get the job done. I think if I stand back a little bit and give a bigger picture to what is going on in the 110th Congress, take a look at the class of 2006, our class, which I consider America's hope, what is the difference between what we are doing and the previous Congress? We are listening to the people and we are speaking out on their behalf. They can't be here tonight, but their voice is being heard. The other difference is judgment. I believe it was poor judgment that took us into Iraq. It was poor judgment in the administration that prevents our people from having affordable prescription drugs and affordable insurance. One of the biggest comedies here in America is the 47 million people who do not have any health insurance at all. And what they haven't figured out is they are paying for everybody's health costs because they get to pay the real bill, the top-dollar bill. They don't get a discount at all. So we have to change things in America and move where we can afford the prescription drugs, where we can afford to have insurance coverage for everyone. But this 110th Congress, when you talk, Congressman Ellison, about security, we also passed a bill, H.R. 327, to help prevent suicide in veterans. Now, in my district that will help 64,000 veterans in northeast Wisconsin alone. We also enacted the 9/11 Commission on Homeland Security recommendations, H.R. 1. That will help 245 police and fire departments throughout my district. We also passed a bill, H.R. 4, that would require the Secretary of Health to negotiate for lower prices for our seniors for their prescription drugs. In my district alone, that helps 68,000 senior citizens, if only the Senate would put that language in and if only the HHS Secretary would be so kind as to use his buying group to negotiate for lower drugs. I think you can look for positive movement from the 110th Congress. We are not afraid to back down from any interest that harms those that we serve.

Mr. KAGEN. Well, I would say, first of all, thanks to Congressman Klein for pointing the way forward about becoming an energy independent Nation. In a bipartisan statement, I will tell you Republicans can grow corn just as good as the Democrats, but we cannot grow our way out of this energy crisis. It will take technology and innovation to get off of dependence on foreign sources of oil. But our families and our children are really at risk of this new economy that we have. We really have to get back to the basics in America. It is really amazing that it is the Democrats that are the fiscally responsible party here when you think about it. Think about the old laborers. We are the fiscally responsible party. We do not believe in borrow and spend. So there are four deficits in America that I will point out tonight to you and have you respond to. The first deficit is a savings deficit. Our families are not saving any money. For the first time since the Great Depression, 1933, we had a negative savings rate last year. Second deficit we had is a budget deficit. Last year, our budget deficit was over $250 billion, and if you throw in the $175 billion that we credited from Social Security, it is over $400 billion on every citizen's head. Every working man and woman has a Federal deficit of $425,000. The third deficit is our balance of trade deficit. China has an advantage on us or, shall I say, Communist China where their government will invest illegally in corporations, and that puts every manufacturer in this country at a competitive disadvantage by 30 percent right out of the box. The fourth deficit we had until last November was a deficit of leadership, leadership that would stand up, put their foot down and say there is a better way of doing things. I think you will find our Class of 2006 will work together with all parties to fashion a better future forward. By working together, we will build a better future and a better Nation for everyone and every man, woman and child in this country.

Mr. KAGEN. You can look forward to good judgment from the 110th Congress on both sides of the aisle. We have got a great leader, Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has a steel spine, and she will keep us on this path of fiscal responsibility and being socially responsible.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask all of us what kind of Nation are we when we neglect the needs of our senior citizens. In the past 2 weeks, I have received over 15,000 cards from voters in Wisconsin, just like this one from Elaine in Peshtigo which reads: ``I am soon an 80-year-old woman and a widow. My husband and I farmed, and we certainly had hard times the first years. But the years now are harder for old people. Oil companies take a huge profit. The CEOs make a salary no man on Earth is worth. The pill companies are taking huge profits with no consideration for our old people. The people of my generation lived through the Depression, World War II and two more wars, and now, in our old age, we face other obstacles.'' My friends, there is a better way of doing things in America, and by working together, we will find it with no patient left behind.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to respectfully request that the administration be kind to Wisconsin's elders by granting a waiver to SeniorCare, an extraordinarily successful prescription drug program. SeniorCare does three things we should all appreciate: It saves tax dollars, it is nearly half the cost of Medicare part D, and it offers a broader range of prescription drugs to our elders. The AARP found that 94 percent of SeniorCare enrollees are better served by SeniorCare than by part D. And SeniorCare is easy to understand. It has a simple, one-page application form and an annual fee of only $30. Simply put, SeniorCare is a better program than Medicare part D and it should be imitated across America. But SeniorCare cannot continue without permission from the Bush administration. I am appealing to the conscience of the President. Please, please be kind to our elders. Allow SeniorCare to continue, for it saves not only taxpayers' money, it also saves their very lives.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, thank you and I thank as well Tim for being not just a classmate in this great class of 2006 but also for serving the country and speaking out so eloquently and forcefully. You do not have to work out later like I do. You just had your workout. But you bring up something that is terribly important. These are not just words or phrases. The boards are accountability, responsibility. This is something that you know from living your life as you have that we must do not just here in Congress but in our everyday lives as citizens. I am sure you would much rather be home teaching and serving your country as you were, but you were called to a higher duty. You were called to come here, and it was meant to happen. I would like to mention a few things about values. I believe that the President has put forward a budget that is a reflection of his values and his party's values. Where you spend your money is a reflection of your values, and the President sought to cut $3.8 billion from veterans health care and veterans benefits. The President and this administration was asking our veterans who have already earned their benefits to pay for them again. Why pay for something you have already earned? This is something that I consider to be disrespectful to those who have served in harm's way. We will be talking about Iraq in several days and several weeks here on floor. We will be talking about supporting our troops, not just before they go in with adequate training and preparation and all the armament they need, not just during the combat itself, but after they come home, they must receive the care that they deserve in a prompt and meaningful fashion. I served our veterans for a number of years in VA hospitals in Wisconsin and Illinois, and I can tell you the VA hospitals are superior, much better today than they were in the 1970s and 1980s and early 1990s when I was working there. They are much better than what we saw in Walter Reed, much better, but what happened at Walter Reed was this infection, if you will, this malfeasance, this bad idea, that government cannot help people. It is called privatization. We should not privatize the health care of our veterans unless you are going to offer every veteran who served in harm's way with a card and say, here you go, soldier, you served in harm's way, you covered our back, now we have got yours; go to any doctor, any pharmacy, any hospital of your choice, we have got you covered. Well, we are not ready to do that yet, are we? This administration has to come to understand there is a better way. Our class of 2006 represents America's hope, hope for a positive change and new direction, not just in veterans health care but in health care for every citizen in this country. I believe that is what we have to offer.

Mr. KAGEN. I am very proud to be standing next to both of you and express a great deal of optimism. I was sent here from the great State of Wisconsin, some might call it Cheeseconsin. We are still the Dairy State. I was sent here because people felt they needed some honest leadership, leadership that wouldn't let them down, some straight talkers. We are delivering that message here. We are delivering a message not just verbally, but in a work product. Take a look, if people around the hall here and at home across America will take a look at the work we have already produced, you will find we have been working hard, and the work is not done yet. I am absolutely convinced that by working together, we will build a better future for everyone in this country. Stay tuned to C-SPAN. We will be back and deliver a positive message again.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, last fall the American people went to the polls and they voted for positive change and new direction, not only in the way we do business here in Washington, but also in Iraq. The 110th Congress is fulfilling the mandate the American people provided by putting forward a supplemental bill that will guarantee three things: First, support for our troops before, during and after being in harm's way; second, accountability and responsibility, not only from our own administration, but from the newly elected Iraqi government as well; and, third, a positive change away from Iraq and back towards al Qaeda by guaranteeing an end to our involvement in the civil war in Iraq. The American people will no longer write blank checks to this administration, and neither will this Congress; nor will we continue to send our sons and daughters to the sands of Iraq in an open-ended commitment. The time has come for this administration to listen to the will of the people. The American people demanded new leadership, positive change and a new direction, and that is exactly what this Congress is delivering.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Chairman, I support H.R. 720 because it will renew our commitment to a positive change in a new direction by investing in our Nation's substantial water infrastructure needs. To me, it is all about our health. It is about clean water and the success of our economy. As a physician, I am particularly concerned with the health risks directly related to contaminated drinking water and am pleased this Congress understands the need to invest in wastewater infrastructure needs. The EPA predicts that without significant investment and upgrades in our water pollution system, this pollution will continue excessively. By investing in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, we will ensure the communities receive the financing they require for their wastewater treatment projects. In northeast Wisconsin, the Clean Water Fund program has helped Brown and Outagamie Counties invest and develop and rehabilitate wastewater and sewer treatment plants. The projects funded in my district alone are indicative of the demand across the Nation for this bill. By encouraging long-term planning for our Nation's clean water infrastructure, we will reduce overall maintenance costs and create more sustainable systems, even as we create higher-wage jobs back home in Wisconsin where they belong. Finally, I am particularly pleased the Davis-Bacon Act requirements provision will prevail and that the wages of Davis-Bacon will be upheld and local prevailing wages will take place. This bill will be great for our health, our economy, and our environment. I encourage all of us on both sides of the aisle to vote ``yea.''

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Chairman, I am proud to cosponsor legislation that will stop pollution from sewer overflows and preserve our clean water everywhere. Today, I rise in support of H.R. 569, the Water Quality Investment Act. This important legislation will authorize grants to municipalities and States to reduce combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows in our Nation's water supplies. Everyone should be glad that we are ensuring clean water is a top priority, not just for our families but for our Nation and certainly for every citizen in Wisconsin. I am pleased that this Congress is addressing this serious problem and this challenge that our Nation's water and sewerage infrastructure poses. This legislation, along with the other water bills offered later this week, will finally begin to update and repair the outdated and aging systems that have been ignored for far too long. By adding this critical funding to the Clean Water Act, we will ensure the communities like those in my northeastern Wisconsin district, who would otherwise be unable to upgrade their aging sewer systems, will have the necessary funding to do so. CSO and SSO overflows in the Great Lakes are a particularly serious impact on all the health of everyone living in our region. Our environmental stability and the economic prosperity of the region depend upon clean water. I am proud to cosponsor this legislation that will aid communities and municipalities. In eliminating overflow pollution, it will create separate sewage and storm water flows. I also wish to thank Chairman Oberstar and Chairwoman Johnson for bringing this important legislation to the floor.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you very much for leading off and expressing the view of one brave American soldier.

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you very much. But what we are talking about is not bricks and mortar. The buildings didn't fail. The windows didn't fail. The furnace didn't fail. It was a failure of leadership and, really, a failure of this administration. It adds yet another failure to the long list of failures. After all, this current administration, would you not agree, has failed to secure our Nation, our borders, our ports. It has failed to strengthen our middle class. It has failed even to educate our children. But, most importantly, for all the brave Americans who have put themselves in harm's way, this administration has cut and run from them at their military hospital, the Army hospital at Walter Reed. It is a disgrace. And it is not about bricks and mortars; it is about failed leadership, something that this Congress, the 110th Congress, can turn around and will as we already have.

Mr. KAGEN. Every physician, every nurse, everyone on the floor at Walter Reed is doing their personal best to take care of the soldiers, and they are getting great care. But the thing I find extremely upsetting, on the night of the State of the Union address, my wife, who is a nurse, was in town. She is president of the social organization for the spouse's club of the freshmen class, both Democrats and Republican; and she went to Walter Reed on a fact-finding tour to see that the soldiers were getting all the care and all the prosthetic devices that they required. Well, they gave her the company tour. They didn't give her a tour of Building 18. And come to find out, according to testimony revealed, that Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley knew about these conditions as far back as 2003, when one soldier reported that the conditions were extremely poor and he wasn't getting what he needed. So I have the opinion, as a physician, and having years of experience of caring for thousands of military veterans, that if they had our back covered during conflict, we must not let them down. We have got to cover their back when they come home.

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you very much, and thank you for being there to ask the tough questions. What I think the American people have to understand is that there has been a positive change and a new direction in this country and in this 110th Congress. You are looking at two new Members of the Class of 2006. It is the class I call America's hope. It is America's hope that we intend to represent. But I think everyone watching tonight and everyone in America must really be asking themselves several questions: What are these people's values, and whose side are they on? Things have changed in the 110th. I think you measure a person's or an administration's values based upon how they spend their money or our money, and this administration was seeking to cut $3.8 billion from the health care of veterans. They were asking our veterans, who have put their lives on the line, to pay for the benefits they have already owned. Those are not the values of the people I represent in Wisconsin. I am sure they are not Arizona's values either. And the other question: Whose side are we on? Well, the current administration is choosing to help the politically connected, private, inside contractors, not just in Iraq but here at home at Walter Reed, rather than the wounded who seek the best care possible. This administration, in my view, has chosen to help insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies rather than our hardworking families and the senior citizens that I take care of in Wisconsin who cannot afford their prescription medication. I don't believe the values of this administration reflect those of the American public, and that is why I think I got elected to this Congress, to bring a positive change. What you see at Walter Reed is a symptom of a bigger problem in the White House.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you very much, Congressman Michaud. I certainly appreciate being with you this evening, especially after an enlightening hour of finding out that really they weren't borrowing and spending money. But, indeed, this is the class of 2006. We were elected to take a positive change in a new direction. We are not the party of borrow and spend and borrow and spend. Because as you all know, the first two letters of borrow and spend are B and S. We are here this evening to talk with you about our trade policies. Indeed, our foreign trade with China has become entirely a negative number. In this brief slide, the 2006 trade deficit will show you that the United States is losing. We have lost $233 billion a year in 2006. In the first 2001 numbers, $83 billion deficit has mushroomed to $233 billion. In 2006, China ranked as the fourth largest export market for the United States and the second largest import market. They are our trading partner. We have had the American century, and now we are moving into what will become the Chinese century. But we should be ordered in the rule of law, and unfortunately for us here in the United States, we suffer because they are not following all of the laws. In a recent article in The New York Times, it reads in part that the Chinese's real advantage results from subsidies. They include government grants for modernization, low-cost loans, debt forgiveness, tax breaks for export or businesses and subsidies for suppliers of wood and pulp, something we are keenly aware of in Wisconsin, in my district, which used to be known as Paper Valley. According to government data available from the Chinese government themselves, more than 70,000 illegal seizures occurred of private property, of land in 2004. In 2003, the Chinese admit that 168,000 occurrences of seizures took place. Well, this is what happens in a Communist country, and it is to their advantage. The subsidies: According to our own U.S. Trade Representative, ``The Chinese subsidies at issue are widely available and offer significant benefits, particularly through income and value added tax breaks. They make it harder for U.S. products to compete with Chinese products, not only in the U.S. and Chinese markets but in any market in the world. They accomplish this by providing a competitive advantage to a wide range of Chinese exports, including, for example, various steel products, wood products, such as hardwood, plywood and paper products, and by providing incentives for Chinese firms to purchase domestic products instead of those from the United States.'' United States' manufacturers and exporters are suffering because there is another trade partner of ours that is not following the rules. Indeed, 15 to 20 percent of all products made in China are counterfeit materials. They need to follow the rules. On this slide is a measure of their unfair trade. There are three things primarily that China is not complying with: currency manipulation, their yuan is below where market prices would bear the price; illegal subsidies; and illegal grants, grants given to companies that have no intention of paying them back. And what can we do about this? We really need balance in our trade deals. We don't need free trade; we need fair trade. How do we fix an unfair trade deal? We need new leadership in the administration. We need a President and an administration that is interested in fair trade. And what must we do? We must establish fair trade and export our values, not our jobs. After all, if we don't make anything in America, we simply won't have anything.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, my name is Dr. Steve Kagen. I am from Appleton, Wisconsin, and during the past 30 years I have cared for thousands of military veterans as their physician. The resolution under consideration today and voted on tomorrow will answer these questions: What kind of Nation are we? In which direction shall we move? During these past several days we have all benefited from listening to hundreds of points of view from our elected representatives from every region of this great country on our ongoing involvement in Iraq. During these past several months, I have been listening to the people who sent me here from northeast Wisconsin, people a lot like you, fiscally responsible and socially progressive, the citizens of northeast Wisconsin. People in Wisconsin, like many elsewhere, voted for a positive change and a new direction. The new congressional class of 2006 has given us hope again. We are indeed not just in name but in spirit America's hope, and I am proud to be associated with these talented individuals. I rise today in support of our troops and their families and to encourage all of you to support this resolution. For it is the first step in bringing an end to our costly involvement in a senseless civil war between the Sunni and Shiite people. Like every American, I strongly support our troops, but I cannot support the President's poor judgment in promoting violence instead of diplomacy. The President has been wrong in every decision he has made in Iraq. Indeed, on four separate occasions, prior escalations have failed. And his current plan makes no sense even to the generals who understand it most. The reality is this, it was poor judgment that took us to war in the first place. It is time to take a different course. For the path we are on now is morally unacceptable. And here are the facts: more than 650,000 Iraq civilians dead; over 3,000 American heroes gone forever; over 20,000 of our troops maimed for life, many with scars we will never see, at an economic cost that may rise above $2 trillion. Make no mistake, we must do whatever it takes to defend America and keep hostilities from our shores. But what we need now is a tough and smart national defense policy. It is time now to get the smart part right. This resolution has been criticized on both sides. Some say it is not enough; some say it is too tough. But I am convinced it offers us the opportunity to ask these questions again: What kind of Nation are we, when a President takes us to war based on lies and deceptions, when our energy policy is decided behind closed doors, and when in our free elections not everyone's vote is counted? What kind of Nation will we be when all of our manufacturing jobs are taken overseas, when workers lose their rights to effective collective bargaining, and when our government closes its eyes to global warming? What kind of Nation are we and in which direction shall we move? Let's begin now to work together and take a different path, a path where people come first ahead of political parties, ahead of profit and loss statements, ahead of politics of fear. When we put people ahead of political calculations, we will begin to see a different world. We will see that we must begin to solve our differences by means other than going to war. After all, war is our greatest human failure. This is not an idealistic sentiment, a realistic assessment of the chronicle of horrors witnessed every day in Iraq, and even our own experiences here at home, in New York City, in Virginia, in Pennsylvania, in Oklahoma City. We must teach our children and our leaders alike that in the end diplomacy defeats violence. We must begin to think differently in America as we establish a new direction for hope in the world and a new beginning for our American era. By working together we will build a better future for all of us, beginning right here and right now. Like the new congressional class of 2006, America's hope, I strongly support our troops, but not the President's failed policy. I encourage all of my colleagues to join the class of 2006 and vote ``yes'' on this important resolution. Join us. Be part of America's hope.