Kendrick Meek

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. For a change.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let me say this, Mr. Ryan. He says, starting today, February 16. Now that is when you have waited as long as you can. When you write a letter talking about an action that you are going to take on that day, the same day, not that we cannot do it a week from now. Not that we can't do it on the 18th; I cannot do it the day I sign this letter.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. OPEC countries.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ryan is 110 percent right.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) for spelling it out, and I do not want you to miss your plane. I want to thank you for coming down and sharing that information. We needed to hear it. We have a number of Members running around here because they are following. They are following the Republican leadership on the Republican side and voting in a way that they probably could not go out on a street corner in their districts and if they were to ask 10 people, do you believe in this vote that I took, it would be probably two, maybe one and a half that may say that makes sense, give bigger subsidies to oil companies which are making record profits while we are paying more at the pump. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for putting the ``something'' into the 30-somethings. Mr. Ryan, it comes down to leadership. That is the word, leadership, and making sure that the folks that woke up early one Tuesday morning to elect every Member of this House, if a Member leaves midterm, gets sick, whatever the case may be, I do not want to be in Congress any more, there has to be an election called and it has to be filled. The Governor cannot appoint someone like in the Senate. I think it is important for us to be able to point out the irresponsibility that not only the President has carried out as it relates to being fiscally sound, not putting this country in a bad posture. You have a chart there that talks about what we are facing right now. I am going to take maybe 5 minutes and go down the line, just in case a Member did not see us last night or the night before. I think it is important for everyone to understand what is going on. Our good friend, Secretary Snow, the Secretary of the Treasury, wrote this letter about raising the debt ceiling on December 29, 2005. I was thinking about the new year, enjoying family. I was not in my office writing a letter saying we need to raise the debt ceiling. I do not blame Secretary Snow; I blame the policies of this Republican majority. It says, ``We will be unable to continue to finance government operations.'' Basically, he is saying we have to raise the debt ceiling, but that is the punch line. That is enough to send me running saying we need to do something immediately. If the Democrats were in control, we would not have to go through this process because we believe in balancing budgets. The Republican majority says we want to cut it in half, or eventually by the year 2084 we would cut it in half. We are not saying that. We have balanced the budget, and we are about paying as we go so we do not get further into debt. Secretary Snow wrote to Mr. Spratt, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, just to say he has to now go into what they call the G Fund, the Government Security Investment Fund, that is for the Federal Employee Retirement System. They are saying they can no longer pay into that because there is no money to do it.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. So what you are saying, Mr. Ryan, is that education could have $250 billion; am I correct?

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, I want to say something about that chart that is right behind you. I am going to tell you, Mr. Speaker, how the American people end up going through what we call here in Washington the Potomac two-step. I will break it down a little further, how they get fooled, what one may say, bamboozled, hoodwinked. You go that way; I am going this way. Let me just quarterback this thing for a minute, Mr. Ryan. As you can see, the increase in foreign borrowing is $1.16 trillion on this chart. What the President has done and what this majority, the Republican House, has done, Mr. Speaker, is they have said, well, we will put it in this column and further down here in the corner where you have a $0.02 trillion increase in domestic borrowing, we do not want folks to really know what we are doing. We want to borrow from these other nations and let us make a big deal here at home because if we make a big deal here at home, maybe, just maybe, Mr. Ryan, the American people will say, wait, slow down, easy on that credit card. That is an interest rate. It is a $230 billion interest rate per year, more than what we are investing in education, more than what we are investing in homeland security, since the President and the Republican majority are supposed to be the big homeland security people. More than what we are doing there. Mr. Ryan, I know it is tough because I am living it, getting in this building at 8 o'clock in the morning, being in the middle of meetings, running from this end, going to committee meetings, going to try to figure out what happened in the secret port deal, running over here and trying to get over to Armed Services so that we could hopefully get the truth of what is happening in Iraq or what is really going on. You have to run over to your other committees and try to figure out what is happening, meanwhile answering constituents' phone calls. And, Mr. Speaker, meeting about what is happening in this dome, trying to find out what is going on, talking to staffers, I am going to tell you, I am just going to come clean, Mr. Speaker, we have got Republican staffers talking to the 30-something group about what is going on in the back scenes. That is how bad it is right here. That is how bad it is. Congressman, excuse me, do not look at me, I just want to tell you something. Congressman, here is a little note here. Maybe you need to talk about this because this is happening. That is how we are able to unearth this stuff. That is how we are able to share with people what is going on. We have got Americans emailing us, saying, Hey, I am in the military and I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Expose this. The VA in my rural community is only open on the second Wednesday of each month, and they are talking about stopping that from happening. Meanwhile, we have got folks around here advocating on behalf of billionaires, saying they want to make the tax cut permanent, or they want to give record-breaking subsidies to industries that are making record-breaking profits. And we have American families. Some are small businesses that are trying to provide health insurance for their employees, and we cannot help them? The President marched down this aisle here. The Republican side stands up and claps, and we are all clapping when he comes in because he is the Commander in Chief and the President of the United States and the ``leader'' of the free world. And then we start talking about health care on only one side of the aisle. The Republican side can get up and start clapping. We are thinking the President is going to come with a comprehensive plan that we can all work together in a bipartisan way, a major paradigm shift in providing health care, Mr. Ryan. No. What does he do? I just want to use an example. It is almost like going to the refrigerator, taking out a carton of milk, and saying, Oh, this is sour. Let me put it back in. Maybe it will be fresh tomorrow. On the health care plan, they want to go back to health savings. There is already evidence that that is not working. We want to increase that plan. What do you have to do to be a part of the health savings plan? A, you have to have some savings. So you have to invest not only for your kid's college fund, where in the President's budget and the Republican budget they are cutting student aid, and talk about innovation, that students will be able to compete against the kids in China and these other countries that are cleaning our clock right now as it relates to training and innovation and all these other areas, not because our students are not up to the fight. It is because we are not putting forth the kind of platform they need to be able to educate themselves financially. So, Mr. Ryan, when we start talking about this issue of responsibility, it is not serving Americans enough for us to go the extra mile. A supermajority of Members, Mr. Speaker, right now are already home. But let me tell you something. It is important that we continue to hammer at this nail. Mr. Ryan, I want to commend you for doing what you do. And I know it is hard. I know it is hard to come here and do it, because we are doing it together along with other Members of this House. But, Mr. Speaker, I am going to say it time after time, that we must stop using the credit card and spending it on things that are not improving U.S. cities, that are not protecting America, that are not educating our children, and that are not bringing down gas prices that Americans are paying through the nose for right now. So it is important because we are in this thing together. And I am going to tell you it is almost like the Congress being in first class and the American people being in coach. If the plane is going down, we are going down together. And I think it is important that we put a stop to using this credit card. Mr. Ryan, I want you to put that chart up again about how much we are paying on the debt service. I want you to put that up because that goes right into what I am talking about. I want you to explain it one more time because the reason why I was able to make it through school was that my teachers kept going over the stuff, and we have got to make sure that some folks are coachable here because this is the information that is prepared and we get this from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, also from the Budget Committee. Mr. Ryan, would you just explain that so people will understand what I am saying.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. There is no probably about it. You are saying they probably will raise the debt ceiling. There is no probably about it. It is going to happen. We have our rubber stamp here because you know that they are going to rubber-stamp this deal. They are going to take this stamp out, and they are going to rubber-stamp raising the debt ceiling. What does that mean? What that means, by some $821 billion, raising the debt ceiling, even more, beyond where it is now, and that is just the number that I received recently that Secretary Snow has predicted we need to raise the debt ceiling by. It is because of the love affair with special interests, giving oil companies more subsidies or more money in the time that they are making record profits. It is when the President says let us make tax cuts permanent for billionaires, knowing that we have been fiscally irresponsible, Mr. Speaker; and I think it is important, I was about to just give some information that is pretty fresh about what happened last night in Appropriations Committee, and I think it is important for us to reflect on this. We talk about bipartisanship. We talk about working in a comprehensive way. We are trying to make that happen. Like you said, we are trying to bring this government back into pay-as-you-go fiscal responsibility, making sure that we do things in the right way. I just want to say that the Democrats, we want to keep America safe, and I know Republicans want to do it, too; but we are following the 9/ 11 Commission recommendations of trying to move towards 100 percent container screening. Now, there are some other countries on the globe, I know one in particular, that is doing that, and I think it is important for us to be the superpower of the world, we are supposed to be financial superpower of the world, and we are only checking less than 5 or 6 percent of containers; and I think it is important that I point this out. That is not what Democrats called for. That is what the 9/11 Commission called for, because we believe in working with those that have researched issues and flushed them out so that we can move forward in protecting Americans. It is not something that came out of the back rooms of some Democratic club somewhere in Sioux City, Iowa. This came about by professionals coming together, past Members of this House, Governors, security people, testimony from FBI, CIA, port directors, individuals that specialize in terrorism. That is just like our innovation plan. We did not over a cup of coffee and a muffin say, well, what do you think our innovation plan should be, and write it on a napkin. We went out to the CEOs. We went out to the universities of higher learning. We went out to everyday, front-line employers and asked them what do you think we should do as it relates to innovation and where we are lagging. We went to students that are trying to get into the math and sciences and said what do you need. We went out and we talked to America. We did not just come up with a plan in the back rooms, and we definitely did not get in a room with the special interests and say let us write a bill like the oil industry has had the opportunity to do and some other industries have had an opportunity to do. I am not holding the oil industry or any other industry at fault here. They are just doing their job. I hold the Republican majority at fault that has allowed us to get in a situation that we are in now. Real quick, I just want to make sure, just fresh from last night, from the Appropriations Committee, we offered amendments to strengthen how government reviews foreign transactions by mandating a review of all foreign transactions. That amendment was offered, and it was voted down. All Democrats voted for it. Republicans voted against it with the exception of one Republican that voted with the Democrats. That is strengthening, making sure that all transactions are reviewed, not just a few, but all so that we do not have to continue to walk down the same road. The second vote that came about was by Mr. Sabo, basically providing $3.4 billion for critical homeland security shortfalls, including a $1.5 billion for port security needs. I think that it is important to say that, again: party-line vote, 27 Democrats voted for it, 34 Republicans voted against it. I am glad that we get this information from the committees, and we are sharing with not only the Members who probably were not, there some Members with respect in the Appropriations Committee because all Members are not on the Appropriations Committee, but also, the American people should know. The American people should know exactly what we are trying to do here. When I say trying, we are trying. If we were in the majority, it would be done. We would have all transactions reviewed dealing with foreign countries. It will happen. We would have had a Hurricane Katrina commission by now, and we would be taking action on what we should do to correct it, and so the oversight would have been different on Katrina. So I think it is important to bring these fresh votes to the floor, not even 24 hours ago.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. To be able to paint this even further for the Members, I am going to put a couple of countries up, more than a couple up, thanks to the Republican majority, that own a piece of the American pie. This bothers me in putting these countries up, but I think it is important that we spell it out. Mr. Speaker, when American civilization 500-600 years from now, when they start digging into the Congressional Record to find out what happened at this time, because I will guarantee you this, and I was talking to a group of veterans that came to my office today, this Congress, this Republican Congress, the 109th Congress and the President of the United States will go down in history, not in history of, oh, wow, something great happened, history in saying what were they doing? How did we get to the point that we owe so many foreign nations money? How did they buy a piece of the American pie? Why wasn't this an alarming time? We want them to be able to unearth this map here. U.K., they own $223.2 billion of our debt. The U.K. did not make us do it; they just were available to say fine, because you are going to owe us. Germany, that should mean something to some veterans, $65.7 billion of our debt. Taiwan, folks talk about Taiwan, many of the toys that are floating around the United States are made in Taiwan; and what they are doing with the money, they are buying our debt, $71.3 billion that they have of our debt. Canada, the country just north of the United States of America, they own $53.8 billion of our debt. Korea, and that should mean something to our veterans, $6.5 billion they have of our debt. We owe them. OPEC nations, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, I can go down the line. OPEC nations, oil-producing nations, while we are here paying record- breaking prices for gas, they are flipping that around and getting a piece of the American pie financially at $67.8 billion, OPEC nations. China, Red China.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor once again to come before the House. I would like to thank Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi for allowing us to have the time and the Democratic whip, Mr. Hoyer; Mr. Clyburn, our chairman; and Mr. Larson, our vice-chair. Mr. Speaker, we have been coming to the floor all this week. We are going to be talking tonight about our plans to hopefully move this country forward. Maybe we can work together in doing that in a bipartisan way. Mr. Ryan is here at the top of the hour tonight, and I am so glad that you are here.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is very easy to say that, trying to let them know that we are moving forward because that is what we are trying to do, Mr. Speaker. We are trying to move this country in the right direction. Unfortunately, I must add there has been a lot of discussion here under the Capitol dome about who we are going to do business with, how we are going to do business with them, and how we are going to prevent ourselves from getting into a situation like this ongoing port situation that is some back-room deal that took place with a special committee, and we are finding out more and more about it each day. When we start, I do not really want to focus on that, Mr. Speaker. I want to focus on the fact that we talk about working in a bipartisan way. The Republican Party here in this House is in the majority. That means that the majority has the opportunity to lead in a comprehensive way, including all Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, as we start to move down the road to not only making this country financially secure but secure its borders and secure all America.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Communist China, $249.8 billion of U.S. debt they have purchased. We owe them. Japan, the island of Japan I must add, the island of Japan, not as big as the United States, but we owe them a whopping $682.8 billion. We owe them. The American people owe them. And we owe them because of the policies of the Republican majority and the White House. Now, Mr. Ryan, let me say this. I do not care what party an American is affiliated with, if it is Republican, Democrat or Independent, or someone who does not vote at all. The bottom line is you are going to receive the tab for this. You are, not your children's children's children. You are. They are going to pay their fair share, but I guarantee if this Republican Congress continues to head down the track that it is heading down now, more countries will be on this map. Like I said last night, when creditors call your house for you to pay them, they call you by your first name. They disrespect you from the beginning. They do not say, Mr. Ryan, maybe you can pay us whenever you feel like it. No, they say, Tim, you are going to pay this bill now. These are the terms; and if you do not do it, this is what we are going to do. Mr. Speaker, I can see folks saying Mr. Tim Ryan and Mr. Kendrick Meek and Ms. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Delahunt and the rest of the 30-something Working Group, they are just down there talking fiction. This is fact. We should be alarmed. We are alarmed, and more Members of this House should be outraged by the fact that we have allowed these countries. It is not because of their doing; it is because of the votes that went down on a party-line basis, not votes that went down along lines that are in the better interests of the people of the United States of America. I challenge Members to go to your constituents and say, is this okay with you all? Is it okay that foreign nations own $1.6 trillion of our debt? And this has all happened over a period of 4 years, and I want you to reelect me. I guarantee you there would not be a Member of this House that would put this on a T-shirt and say ``reelect me.'' That is the reason why people need to understand how important this is.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Borrow and spend.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. It must have been faxed. March 6, this letter is very, very alarming. As you can see through our discussion, we have stamped the rubber stamp Congress onto it. We have this rubber stamp, and it should be very familiar to the Members right now. This is about the fact that they are going to do exactly what the administration asked them to do, and that is why we are in this situation and not able to meet our obligations. We are going to go down memory lane real quickly. This is saying for the first time in U.S. history we will not be able to meet our Federal Government obligation, our financial obligations. That means paying our bills if the debt ceiling is not raised immediately. The Secretary is going into in this letter that he is going to have to use his special powers that he has been given to divert and no longer pay into and suspend paying into not only the G Fund but other governmental accounts, and it has to happen as soon as possible. Mr. Ryan, how did we get into this situation, and who do we owe? How did we make history? And when I say ``we,'' the Republican majority. Well, they made history by following the President, and by following the President, they made it in a wrong way, Mr. Speaker. No other time in the history of this country, no other time since the beginning of this country, and I am saying the history, and I am trying to crumble this thing down, since the beginning of the United States of America have we ever been in this situation and borrowing from foreign nations that is now reaching the 50 percent mark that we are going to owe foreign nations; $1.05 trillion we have borrowed from foreign nations. We have the Republican Congress right under the President's picture because the President could not do it on his own. Forty-two Presidents, $1.01 trillion, 224 years; it took 224 years for 42 Presidents to borrow $1.01 trillion from foreign nations. Mr. Ryan, that means that the Great Depression, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, all of the issues we have had as a country, they knew being financially sound as a country and paying our bills as we go, that borrowing, record-breaking borrowing from other countries was not a good thing to do, Democrats and Republicans. This President and this Republican Congress in 4 years. So what is going to happen if we do not bring it under control now? You know we cannot do it alone. We have to have the majority to bring a stop to this.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Just wanted to be clear.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Like homeland security and veterans?

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pay tribute to the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (BAME) as it celebrates its 110th Anniversary on Sunday, March 12, 2006 in the Overtown community of Miami-Dade County, Florida. This important milestone is truly a testament to the leadership of the church and the commitment of the faithful and the church's theme reflects it: ``Greater Bethel AME: A Beacon of Light Shining Bright for 110 Years.'' I commend the entire Greater Bethel AME family, including the Senior Pastor, Reverend Milton Broomfield and Ms. Barbara Brown, the Chairperson, on this wonderful occasion. It is the thorough exercise of faith that we are emboldened by God's Blessed Assurance spoken through the Prophet Isaiah (Chapter 58, Verses 9-11): ``. . . You shall call, and the Lord will answer. For if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness . . . and the Lord will guide you always.'' Greater Bethel AME Church symbolizes an unshakable monument that has manifested and continues to manifest our community's faith in God. The longevity of this landmark church--not only through its members' genuine caring of one another, but also through the outreach efforts of its services and good works for those it has been privileged to serve-- is truly remarkable. Despite the pain and agony that our community suffered in the midst of many years of disenfranchisement and misrepresentation, Greater Bethel AME Church stood out as a beacon of Hope and a citadel of Truth by which God has called our community to respond to the mandate of Christian stewardship. It is with this spirit that I recognize this historic Church on its 110th Anniversary, defined by determination and courage throughout its ministry. We are grateful for what Greater Bethel AME Church symbolizes for all of us, even as we look forward to the challenges of the future.

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. I am sorry, Mr. Ryan, you are going to have to yield to me.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, you have to yield to me. The President has said that he has not known about a lot of things and then we found out later.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. If the gentleman will yield, let me just basically say, Mr. Delahunt, the bottom line is backroom deals are nothing new to the Republican majority. They do it every day, every hour. That is the reason why we are in the situation we are in now as it relates to our fiscal situation. They are meeting with these special interests in the back halls of Congress, not here on the floor of the House, but in the back halls of Congress, and we wonder why things are the way they are. Do you want to talk about irresponsibility? The bottom line is we can't even print them fast enough. Secretary Snow writes a letter saying we have to raise the debt limit or they will not be able to continue to finance government operations. That is on December 29. There are so many letters, I just don't have time. The bottom line is here, February 16, just last month, again, the Secretary writes and says that we have to raise the debt limit, and if we don't do it, as a matter of fact, no, today, on February 16, he is going to have to go into the G fund, the retirement fund for Federal employees. One more letter, Mr. Ryan, if you would bear with me. Here again, March 6, 2006, he is saying, hey, I am going to have to exercise some of the power that has been given to me by Congress. We no longer can operate unless you raise the debt limit. The bottom line is, Mr. Delahunt, that you cannot believe what the Republican majority tells you as it relates to, oh, we want to cut the budget in half. Oh, trust us. We will make sure that we are fiscally responsible. The bottom line is these letters by the Republican Secretary of Treasury, as a matter of fact, Mr. Snow, I think he is a nice guy. He is the accountant for the United States of America.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. He is a CPA, and he lets us know when we are running out of money. The bottom line is that he is saying he has to take drastic steps. Never before, this last letter just written days ago, it says for the first time in the history of the United States of America, we may not be able to reach our obligations to foreign nations. Madam Speaker, I think this is something we need to be very alarmed about, and we need to do something about versus being alarmed about, but we need to do something about it immediately.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. I am glad that you are breaking this down so that Members understand exactly what we are talking about. I just want to say that all of these letters that we have received from Secretary Snow raising the debt limit, Madam Speaker, Republicans have given the administration and themselves these increases in the debt limit. Mr. Ryan, can I just walk down there and just rubber-stamp that chart there? This rubber stamp says ``Official rubber stamp. I approve everything that George W. Bush does, Member of Congress.'' You can talk, sir, but I just want to have permission to come down there and rubber-stamp that, because all of these letters that have been written by Secretary Snow, I guarantee you that the Republican majority will grant him the raising of the debt ceiling so we can owe foreign countries more money.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Delahunt, you are 110 percent right. The bottom line is who is going to level with the American people, tell them the truth about what is going on? If you are not prepared, say you are not prepared and then take the steps to get us prepared. The American people, we are an understanding people. We know we run into real issues every day in our own homes, but for the President to say, A, he did not know anything about possible levee breaks or individuals being in a detrimental situation and loss of life, the video proves that that is not the case. Time after time, again, this administration has been caught on camera, okay, saying one thing to the American people and something else is going on in the background. As you know, we have asked for a Hurricane Katrina Commission, just like the 9/11 Commission, so we can get down to the bottom of this. It is not to say, hey, Mr. President, you were wrong; Louisiana, you were wrong; New Orleans, you were wrong; other gulf coast cities, you were wrong; and Mississippi, you were wrong. It is not finger pointing. It is making sure that we correct it. If we find ourselves in a bad situation, we have got to make sure we correct it. Speaking of correction, I think it is important that we share, Madam Speaker, the fact that we are going down almost a path of no return. This Republican majority, Madam Speaker, is out of control, out of control in a way that they are borrowing as much money as they can possibly borrow from who? Foreign nations, foreign nations that we have questions about. There was just some press accounts today talking about Iran. Iran's President is shooting verbally back at the United States of America, saying, bring it on. The bottom line is that this administration has put us in a posture, Madam Speaker, to where that if we say something about Iran, that we want to get serious with, and they should not chuckle when we say it, and that is what is happening right now. As it relates to fiscal responsibility, I just want to speak for a moment very boldly on the fact that we have tried to do everything we can as a minority, and as you know, as the minority party, we do not have the votes to be able to push the policy in the direction we need to push it, pay-as-you-go. When you are in a situation, when you are borrowing more from countries, record-breaking borrowing from countries that at $1.05 trillion, let me just add the Republican Congress to that because the President cannot do it by himself, $1.05 trillion from foreign Nations, more than any other time in the history of the Republic in 4 years, from 2001 to 2005, versus 42 Presidents before this President and this Congress were only able to borrow $1.01 trillion from foreign nations in 224 years, it is alarming. I want to say that we have tried to stop that from happening. On March 30, 2004, Republicans voted by a 209-209 to reject the motion by Representative Mike Thompson of California, who is a Democrat, to instruct conferees to use pay-as-you-go policies. Also, again in 2004, vote number 97, we believe in third-party validators, they voted down. Similar vote on May 5, 2004, Republicans voted 208- 215, Republicans on the 215 part, to reject a motion by Representative Dennis Moore, once again Democrat. In 2004, vote number 145, similar vote on November 18, 2004, Republicans voted to block an amendment by Representative Stenholm, who is no longer in Congress, to not raise the debt limit and to be able to use pay-as-you-go. Mr. Ryan has two other examples there that are recent that Mr. Spratt has put forth, pay-as-you-go amendments. Again, Republicans voted against it. Again, Mr. Spratt did it, and H. Res. 393 in 2005, budget resolution, failed. No Republicans voted for it, bottom line. I am trying to read the chart from here. Let me just say this, Madam Speaker. I think it is important that we document this and we share this with the majority and with all of the Members that we have done everything in our power to stop this Republican Congress from putting this country in further debt to foreign nations. That is incompetence. That is jeopardizing America's security. That is jeopardizing America's financial security. If anyone knows what it means when a creditor calls your house talking about you need to pay me, you know exactly what I am talking about. The creditor calls your house, they call you by your first name. They disrespect you from the beginning, and no other time in the history of the country, this is not Democratic stuff, this is U.S. Department of Treasury information that we have here, they are disrespecting the United States of America. Democrats have nothing to do with that. We have tried to turn the tide on the dependency that this Republican Congress has in raising the debt limit. Now, the Secretary of Treasury has asked us to raise the debt limit again by $821 billion. That is going again to allow Iran, Japan, Red China and other countries, OPEC countries, Iran, Iraq, Madam Speaker, Korea, that should mean something to some of our veterans that allowed us to salute one flag. This is a problem. This is a major problem. That is a problem that not only Democrats, Republicans and Independents should be concerned about, but the Americans that are not voting now need to rise up and say enough is enough.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. He thinks someone might have said something to him about it.