Kendrick Meek

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, as we come in for a close there is so much information to share there is just not enough time to do it, but it is important that we go through that to make sure that not only Members on the majority side know, the American people know, Mr. Speaker, that we are doing everything in our power to be able to stop them from selling our country off to foreign nations. Let me illustrate this a little bit more. The U.K. owns $223.2 billion of our debt, Mr. Speaker. I think that is important to identify. You also have Germany. Germany owns $65.7 billion of U.S. debt. That is what they own of this country. OPEC nations, including Saudi Arabia and other countries, $67.8 billion of our debt. This is what they own of the United States of America. It troubles me to put this on the silhouette of our country, but I think it is important that we break this down so the Members know exactly what they are doing. Taiwan, some may have products and toys from Taiwan, and you say ``little Taiwan.'' Guess what? Little Taiwan owns $71.3 billion of our debt. People are so concerned about China, Mr. Speaker, and I am a member of the Armed Services Committee. We are all sworn to protect this country. Ms. Wasserman Schultz, yourself included, Mr. Ryan and other Members in this Chamber, but guess what? Red China, Communist China owns $249.8 billion of U.S. debt. The Republican majority is so much out of control until we are running to countries that are communist countries saying, buy our debt. We need it. We cannot stop ourselves. We cannot help ourselves. Canada, some folks up on the northern border like to go over to Canada but guess what they own? $58.8 billion of the American pie. You also have Korea, Korea, $65.5 billion of the American apple pie. And guess what, Japan, the island of Japan, some folks look at Japan on the map, Mr. Speaker, and say, well, it is not as big as the United States of America. But guess what? They own $682.8 billion of U.S. debt. We are well on our way, Mr. Speaker, to half of our debt being owned by foreign nations, some that we have some issues with. So Ms. Wasserman Schultz talked about secret port deals and all this stuff, this is what is going on right now. Mr. Ryan, we are going to bring this out as many times as possible. I want the majority side to figure out a positive way to talk about how we owe these countries that I have put here, and others that are unnamed, this kind of money.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, you go back and you say, well, the majority side says, well, we are doing fine. We want to cut the deficit in half. Do not worry. Let us do it. Trust us. Well, ``trust us'' has gotten us to this point and this has to stop, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of my colleagues the passing of a Miami native and a sports legend, sprint star Larry Black, who died last Wednesday, February 15, 2006. Born on July 20, 1951 in Miami, Florida, Larry Black was an athlete of extraordinary ability and striking grace. He didn't run as fast as the wind; he was faster. While still a student at North Carolina Central University, Larry Black won two medals at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. He won a gold medal for running the lead leg of Team USA's winning the 4x400 relay squad, and he also captured the silver medal in the 200 meters event, which he ran in 20.19 seconds. Larry Black was an 11-time collegiate All-American who won four individual national championships and was a part of 3 national championship relay teams. He won NCAA outdoor titles in 1971 (220-yard) and 1972 (200m), and the NAIA indoor 60-yard dash crown in 1974. Black also set the NAIA Championship meet record in the 200m dash in 1972 (20.0 seconds) to help the Eagles win the 1972 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Billings, Montana. His record still stands today. As a relay team member, Black won national championships in the 1970 NCAA outdoor 440-yard relay and the 1972 NAIA 4x100m (39.5 seconds) and 4x400m (3:04.8 minutes) relays. Both of these relay times still stand as meet records for hand-timing. For his efforts, he was selected as the 1972 NAIA Championships Herbert B. Marett Outstanding Performer. For the last 10 years, Black has been a personal trainer in Coral Gables. Larry Black is survived by his wife Cheresse, 4 daughters and 2 grandsons. I know that my colleagues join me in sending to Larry Black's family our deepest condolences for their loss, and in celebrating the life of a man of extraordinary ability who had the discipline and desire to hone his talents so finely that he became the best in the nation and in the world.

Mr. MEEK of Florida

Mr. MEEK of Florida. I will tell you the reason why I was a little delayed here, Mr. Ryan, is we had two individuals, one from General Services and another from the Department of Homeland Security. We are about to move into what we call this American Shield Initiative, which is along our borders using technology to protect America from illegal immigration. We set out with an initial program, Mr. Speaker, similar to the one that is about to start now. In that program, there was a quarter of a billion dollars wasted because of incompetence. A quarter of a billion dollars. Now, let me tell you, a quarter of a billion dollars, Mr. Ryan, it is not even in some sort of program that was at some university and someone was to work on some sort of research project and it went south. This is protecting the borders of the United States of America, a quarter of a billion dollars. The four individuals that were involved, Mr. Speaker, only received a demotion. A demotion. Mr. Speaker, let me tell you, I used to be a State trooper. If you have a trooper that damaged equipment, let us just say $1 million, they are gone, period, dot. It is not anything to where you say, oh, well, Tom, I know it was rough and all, and you made a mistake. Guess what, it's just a quarter of a billion dollars, just the taxpayers' money. Don't worry about it. Forget about it.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. As you know, I am the ranking member on the Management, Integration and Oversight Subcommittee in Homeland Security.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. We cannot afford business as usual. So Mr. Ryan, I think it is important as we are in, you know, the closing minutes of our time here of sharing with, I know it is, you know, 15, 20 minutes it is closing for us because we like to share the information.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is letter number six, letter number seven, letter number eight is coming. The reason we have to do it is because we have to pay on the debt, and it is irresponsible policy by saying that we want to make tax cuts permanent for billionaires. Meanwhile, Mr. Ryan, we cannot carry out an innovation agenda, we can't carry out a true health care agenda. The President comes here and says, hey, let's talk about health care. Okay, let's talk about health care. No, it is not really a discussion. I just want to expand a program that only those that have disposable income to put on the side for a rainy day for when they get sick, but the folks that are living from paycheck to paycheck, I want to tell you something, many of those individuals are making good money. Many of those individuals are trying to pay for college loans and tuition, many of them are trying to do that. Many of them have sick family members. They don't have $1,000 or $2,000 to put to one side for the rainy day fund for when they get sick. That is not a health care policy. That is a health care policy for a couple of folks that can afford to do it. I think it is important that we engage, Mr. Ryan, as we do, we come to this floor in this 30-something Working Group, we engage the majority, not in the political sense, but in the sense of saying that the American people deserve better. In the same breath, Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we identify, not only to the Members but to the American people, the only way we will be able to get on track to be able to deal with the issue of health care, to deal with the issue of innovation, to be able to make sure that we do away with the culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence and do away with the corruption tax that the American people are paying because of the incompetence and the cronyism and the corruption that is going on right now in Washington D.C. This is not my report. This is you pick up the paper, you turn on the television. It is going on, Mr. Ryan. We talked about the K Street Project. Folks are saying, well, that is not news. We know it exists. We have Members on the majority side boasting about the K Street Project: Yes, we created it. What's the problem? Now, after a certain lobbyist here in this town gets indicted, does he go to trial? No. Was there a jury pool call? No. He said, guess what, I am guilty, and I am willing to help. Then all of a sudden, 3 days later, oh, well, the K Street Project, we are doing away with that, as though it was right in the first place. I use that example, Mr. Ryan, so that the Members and the American people understand that what we are talking about now is not fiction; it is fact. I said that last night, Mr. Speaker, and I am going to say it every time we come to the floor. We are not promoting fiction. We are promoting facts. That is where we are right now. Mr. Ryan.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Is that like a C, Mr. Ryan? Is that like a C minus?

Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is not a B or an A, am I correct?

Mr. MEEK of Florida. But I want to make sure we understand that he has a responsibility to make sure that this government doesn't run out of money. He is paying attention to what is going on, Mr. Speaker. By him paying attention, all he can do is react to the bad policies that come out of this Chamber, right here. He didn't do it by himself. He doesn't have the checkbook to write checks that he is not authorized to write. He is almost what you might call, Mr. Ryan, the accountant for the United States of America, the individual that makes sure we get a warning when we are heading down the wrong track. Here is a letter to Senator McConnell by Secretary Snow, dated the 29th of last year. This is almost on New Year's Eve, Members. This is like on New Year's Eve. This is during the high holy time. This is during the time that folks are with family and all and the Congress is out of session. But the last act of the Secretary, probably in 2005, was to write this letter, to write this letter so that hopefully maybe one day someone will pick it up and say, oh, wow. In this letter he is saying that we project that the debt limit, which is currently at $8.1 trillion, will be reached by mid-February, 2006, which is now, ladies and gentlemen. At that time, unless the debt limit is raised, or the Department of Treasury authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to continue financing government operations. It is not that we are not going to be able to keep the snack room open over at the Department of the Treasury. We will not be able, Mr. Speaker, to continue government operations. What is government operations? Government operations is making sure that we have enough dollars to be able to fulfill what the American people want us to fulfill, make sure that we have adequate education dollars, and make sure that we can run the government and that we have agencies that are performing services for the people, make sure that the troops have what they need that are in harm's way right now, all of these very, very important things, to make sure that the veteran hospitals are open, to make sure that children with free and reduced lunch are able to get what they need. They are saying unless the debt ceiling is raised, we will not be able to do any of that. Now, Mr. Snow, I can tell you, who is appointed by the President of these United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, is not a member of the Democratic Caucus. As a matter of fact, he can be an independent, because he is just an accountant for the United States of America, Mr. Speaker. The bottom line is, it is not his fault, but he wrote that letter 2 days before the end of 2005. While the rest of us are thinking about New Year's resolutions, he is back here in reality, because the Congress left here trying to pass a budget. He knows that he is going to have to write another letter. There are five other letters that have been written like this by this Republican majority because of their actions. Now, this is letter number six, Mr. Ryan?

Mr. MEEK of Florida. The reality of the situation is the fact that the Republican side will come to this floor, if not within minutes, in another couple of hours or when we come back off of the break that we are taking for a week to go back to our districts and work and what have you, they will come and say, oh, we have an innovation agenda. They will come and say, we want to cut the budget, we want to cut the deficit in half, and we believe in the things that the President believes in, we believe in veterans affairs, we believe that veterans should have health care, we believe that American families should have health care. They will say all of these great things; but guess what, the evidence does not reflect the action that they have taken. The President comes here and says that he believes in innovation, he believes in investing in America's future, and in so many words, he believes in the good old American spirit of saying that we will be first, that we will leap forward, that we will lead the world in the areas of education and in sciences and engineering, all of those things. All of those things, but his budget doesn't reflect that, Mr. Ryan. One may say, well, why do you have to identify the negative part of this argument? I have to identify it, Mr. Ryan, because it is the reality of the legislative process, because the President sets the tone on what the budget will look like. You have our Republican majority here, and we have these partisan votes all the time. They vote in the spirit of the President's budget. Now, one says trust us with the money, Mr. Ryan. Every time we come to the floor, I have to identify what is going on as it relates to trust us with the money. Here is our friend, Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Snow. He is a good guy. He is a good guy.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. We need the corn growers, Mr. Ryan.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. In 5 years. We do not want some neighborhoods to have access to broadband and other neighborhoods, they do not have access. If we are going to move together as a people and society, people in rural America, folks in urban America, individuals that are living from paycheck to paycheck, we have got to level the playing field. This thing of two Americas is not going to get us past other countries in this world that are competing against us. U.S. companies, what I want you to do before we leave this hour, if you would, just read off the comments of the CEOs again. You know, someone might have heard it once before, but they need to hear it again. American technology companies are saying, please, please come together in a bipartisan way, please move in the direction of innovation so we can be competitive; but we cannot complain, Mr. Speaker, when they have to go overseas and hire individuals from other countries to fill jobs that can be provided to Americans right here. So that is the difference between us and the majority.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, anytime we get the opportunity to share with the Members of this House and the American people what the truth is all about, and sometimes the truth hurts, as we share with America and also the majority our positive message for change and putting this country on the right track, because we know that working together with the American people that we are going to put this country on the right track. I mentioned once before, just as late as last night, on some of the last hours of our Innovation Agenda that we have, the Innovation Agenda that we would like to carry out, Mr. Speaker, but the bottom line is the difference between the Republican message on innovation and investment in our young people and our message is the fact that the Republican majority has everything at their fingertips to bring about true innovation here in the United States. They have control of the House of Representatives, have control of the U.S. Senate, have control of the executive branch. We are stopping the Republican majority from moving forward. We have made some very strong statements, and I encourage the Members to go to housedemocrats.gov, and you can download our agenda for innovation. The real issue is that we want to create an educated, skilled workforce for the future; and the bottom line is that we want to make sure that we can move forward in the math and sciences and engineering. We cannot get there by just saying it, Mr. Speaker. We have to put the investment in. But guess what, guess what, the President's budget does not speak to what he said here in the Chamber during the State of the Union, that he is committed to innovation. If you are committed to innovation, you do not cut off the very lifeblood that young people need to be able to pursue an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree. You do not say that we are going to slash student assistance. We are no longer going to assist you in a way of being able to achieve the American Dream in educating yourself. I think it is also important that we have made a commitment on this side of the aisle to guarantee access to broadband in every home.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Just this morning, Mr. Ryan.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Oh, people make mistakes of wide application, you know.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, it is okay. I am talking about, Mr. Ryan, for the majority. It is okay. No, it is fine.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. There is no icing on the cake when it comes down to a family that is trying to figure out how they are going to pay a copayment or they need to keep running down to the drugstore to get children's Motrin or Tylenol. There is no icing on the reality of individuals having to wait at an HMO or at a clinic, that they are on a waiting list to be seen by a doctor. There is no icing on the reality of the American experience right now. So I think it is important for children, if it is from, you know, from a double-wide to the west side, wherever they may live, who do not have the opportunity to broadband access so that they can be just as advanced as the next community or as the next family. That is what we are talking about. It is not a liberal agenda. It is a sound agenda to put this country back on the right track, and it is serious business, and anyone that feels that it is not serious business, we challenge them to say otherwise.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. I just want to make sure, Mr. Ryan, that the American people understand what is happening in the present. We do not even have to go as far back as what happened 4 or 5 years ago or what happened 2 years ago. We just have to talk about what is happening right now. Once again, this President could not do it by himself, Mr. Speaker, needed the partisan vote in this Chamber on the Republican side to accomplish $1.05 trillion in borrowing from foreign nations. Knocking on the door of China, saying can you help us, because we are fiscally irresponsible. That is what the debt ceiling letter comes from, Mr. Speaker. We did not write this letter. Democrats did not set this letter into motion. It was the Republican policies in this Republican House that set this policy into motion raising the debt ceiling, not paying as we go. This is not the responsibility of the minority on the Democratic side. It is the majority. I want to make sure, because we need to break this thing down in 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, so that no one can go back home and tell their constituents, well, you know, you have got a point there, but I did not quite catch that, and I did not know that we have borrowed $1.05 trillion more than 42 Presidents before this President, 42 other administrators before this President, $1.05 trillion that other Presidents and administrations and Congresses have borrowed from foreign nations in 224 years. Folks say, well, you all act like you are alarmed by this. We are alarmed, Mr. Speaker. The American people should be alarmed, Republicans and Democrats. It is almost like saying, Mr. Speaker, if you had your daughter or son that you gave a credit card to and they went out and they just charged that credit card up, as a matter of fact, they charged it to the point that it is at the limit. Let us say they had a $2,500 limit on it. What the Republican Congress is doing now, Mr. Speaker, is that they are going, even though they are maxed out, they are calling the credit card company that happens to be China, that happens to be Saudi Arabia, that happens to be other countries of interest, as it relates to the defense of this country, saying we have maxed out right now. We need your help to pay our bills. And then at the same time, Mr. Speaker, as I continue to go to C here, through the ABCs, they are saying this on one side, but, on the other side, they are saying, hey, make the tax cuts permanent. Make them permanent for the most well-financed Americans, for the top tier of the individuals that are making 2 and $3 million a year. On this side of the debate, Mr. Speaker, they are saying it is okay to give not only royalties but other benefits and tax breaks to the oil industry while they are making record profits. They are saying that it is okay. But then here in the middle are the American people; and the American people are having to suck it up, Mr. Ryan. The American people who want to educate themselves, parents who want to see their children educated. If you have a prepaid college program, you better revisit that program, because it will not assist your child or your son or your daughter in paying for their college because we will just yank the carpet out from under young people. And the Republican majority did. We voted against it. The Democrats voted against it. So if we are going to have a paradigm shift, and I am hoping that we put the pressure on the Republican majority, that we are here to play. We mean business. We are very serious about having the opportunity to give this country what it deserves, and that means representation, representation for them and not the special interests. Mr. Speaker, I speak all of the time about I do not have a picture of the special interests in my office, saying I really dislike the special interests. I really dislike individuals that are paid lobbyists. I really dislike them. No, no. It is not them. It is the individuals that allow the raw needs of those special interests to make it into statutory language. It is those individuals that appropriate in those areas where it gets into the appropriations act and into the budget just the way they wrote it, without saying, you know, I know you have a concern, I know you have an issue and you have needs, but we have to make sure that the American people are represented in this budget. We have to make sure that the American people are represented in this bill. We have to make sure that the future of this country as it relates to innovation plays a major role in what we do here, and that is where we are lacking, Mr. Speaker. So, you know, Mr. Ryan, as we go on, and many Members will return back to their districts and speak to individuals that live there. We challenge those Americans to challenge your Member of Congress. It is almost too late for us to wait until Election Day for you to speak the way you want to speak. But you have the opportunity. I tell you, give the Republican majority the benefit of the doubt that they are going to take a paradigm shift. But I am going to let you know right now, the evidence does not speak to a paradigm shift or a change in thinking or their ways. So I say, Mr. Ryan, that, yes, we do have a couple of friends over here on this side of the aisle that believe what we believe. And it will be those individuals, those very few, Mr. Speaker, that will join in with a Democratic leadership if the American people see fit to have it so that will allow us to move in a bipartisan way. And it will not be like it is now, and it will not be business as usual, and it will not be, well, I don't care if you do not like it.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, you showed this chart a little earlier, but you cannot show it enough.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, here is the bottom line: history does not speak straight talk to the American people about what is happening here under the Capitol dome. But I feel obligated to report it. I think it is important that in the last budget reconciliation bill that we had that passed this floor and the Senate that the Republican leadership did know 5 days before it came to the House for a vote, in the final conference report, that it was an inaccurate report and it was an identical bill between the House and the Senate. It is so interesting that one of the issues, one of the areas where the language was wrong was regarding direct loan payments to parents of post-secondary students in one section. One of the other sections dealt with bankruptcy fees. We did not know it. The majority knew it and the White House knew it and they still signed it. And it is unconstitutional, but they are saying that that is okay. I think, also, it is important to identify, Mr. Ryan, when we start talking about individuals being able to receive good information, I asked the Members, I challenged the Members to go on democraticleader.house.gov, pull up the statement that was put out on February 15, which was just yesterday, on Wednesday, talking about the partisan committee, Mr. Speaker, that was put together to look into Katrina, and basically you know what they are saying? No recommendations for changes or corrections, but they are saying what did we get out of the Department of Homeland Security? We did not get the answers that we deserve. What did we learn from the process that we are not prepared to take on a natural disaster? All right. Let us talk about natural disaster versus terrorist attacks. A natural disaster is something that we see is coming in many cases, outside of an earthquake or what have you, but in many cases we see it coming, nine times out of ten, whether it be a great rain, flood, what have you. What happens, as I am speaking here on the floor hypothetically, God forbid, if a terrorist attack takes place? How do we respond to it? We are not prepared, and we have to be prepared. Mr. Ryan, I want to thank you for coming down and starting this hour. I look forward to working with you, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and others on the 30-something Working Group as we try to improve this government. But I will tell you right now and I will share it with the Members and the American people that we must have a paradigm shift in this Chamber if you want the accountability that you deserve.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, we have to disabuse ourselves of that kind of attitude here in Washington D.C. Let me tell you something. My constituents who can either be Republican, Democratic, Independent, or Green Party, would be highly disappointed, highly disappointed if we were in charge and this were going on. But we are not in charge. We are asking to be in charge of this Chamber. What is happening right now, Mr. Speaker, and what is being printed in the press right now, Mr. Speaker, and what is being said in the Halls of Congress right now, Mr. Speaker, is unprecedented in the history of this Congress. When we speak into the Congressional Record, Mr. Ryan, here on this 30-something, I sleep well. I sleep well because I know that, hopefully, historians will look at this time and say, you know something, the minority side was saying that we could do better, and that we can do better, and that we will do better. We have the history on our side to the majority side. On the Democratic side, we have the history of balancing the budget. Do you? No. We have the history of investing in education and making sure that children have what they need to learn and teachers have what they need to teach. On your side? No. We have the history of putting together things as it relates to a bipartisan agenda on innovation and education, Leave No Child Behind, working with the Republican side, passing that piece of legislation, being there at the bill signing. Then when it came down to funding that bipartisan piece of legislation, it was the Democrats standing there all alone while on the Republican side we had desert tumbleweeds flying through saying, well, you know, we just don't have the money to do that. Meanwhile, on the other side, we have got to give this tax break to the top bracket of Americans who are millionaires. As a matter of fact, not only do we want to give it to them, we want to make it permanent. Mr. Ryan, we start talking about the commitment to making sure that we carry on our constitutional responsibilities. Mr. Speaker, I think it is very clear that we are prepared, and that we are ready. The President came here talking about innovation. He must have been walking down the hall and picked up a copy of the Democratic plan and said, oh, maybe we need to talk about this. We have CEOs who are Independents and Republicans and are Democrats, who are now talking that they are supporting a Democratic initiative. No, what they are supporting is an American initiative that we are committed to.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Corruption tax.

Mr. MEEK of Florida. We are in the fourth quarter right now. We like to share the information, and we like to give it to folks the way it is. There is no icing on this, Mr. Speaker. Because there is no icing when a child is denied an opportunity to enroll in a free lunch.