Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. 231.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, in this talk today, as we watched the press conference, the Iraqis have army and police force in one region that is in southern Iraq, where nobody lives. They have got control of it, and the Prime Minister is here with the President saying, See, we are making progress. You are not making progress. Electricity, water, utilities are all at prewar levels. Below prewar levels.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is William F. Buckley.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Or that the baby, in the country that this baby was born into, is going to owe $11 trillion to China and Japan and OPEC countries. This is bogus. This Congress is bogus, Madam Speaker. This is the biggest illusion, smoke and mirrors nonsense. This is disrespecting the American people in the past couple of weeks. Totally has disrespected and insulted the intelligence of the American people. I yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Be happy to yield.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Because I think it is so important that the American people and the Members who are watching this here tonight understand that things will be completely different when the Democrats take over in January; that we will, within the first, not 100 days, Madam Speaker, Mr. Delahunt, but within the first 100 hours out of this House we will pass a minimum wage increase that will get us in a few years to $7.50 an hour; that we will, in the first 100 hours, cut student loan interest rates in half for parents and for students, which will save families $5,000 over the course of the loan. We are not rocket scientists. We are not saying we have some extravagant plan that is very elaborate and very complex. These are basic fundamental things. We are going to strip the oil companies of the $16 billion that they get in subsidies, and we are going to put that towards education and innovation and alternative energy sources. And all these things we need to do, Mr. Delahunt, in order for us to be competitive as a country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Reclaiming my time, I yield to my friend from Massachusetts.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And the bill stripped the courts of hearing a case that the courts actually ruled in favor of what they wanted.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I yield to the gentlewoman.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Ms. Wasserman Schultz, you are exactly right. It wasn't that they didn't like the answer, because it went to the appeals court and the court ended up ruling in their favor, that ``under God'' should stay in the Pledge. But they didn't like the question, which is so typical down here, Mr. Delahunt. They don't like the questions that people are asking, whether it is at President Bush's press conferences or having a hearing and asking questions about what is going on in Iraq or Katrina or with gas prices or what the oil companies are doing. When you have an elected body in a democracy that stops liking the questions, we are losing the basic fundamental aspect.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are borrowing the money from China, Japan, and OPEC countries in order to fund the war and to fund tax cuts that are going predominantly to people who make more than $1 million a year. The average American person, Madam Speaker, does not agree with that policy. They wholly reject that policy because it makes no sense. People in Youngstown, Ohio, work very hard, and they meet their obligations for the Federal Government. They pay their taxes, and to watch the United States Congress, Republican-controlled, take their hard-earned money and build roads and bridges in an elective war, with no plan, no exit strategy, no idea of how to execute it, and take their money and build roads and bridges and hospitals over there. I yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Within the first 100 hours.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to kick off the 30-something Working Group, and my good friend Mr. Meek from Florida, who was delayed for a minute, will be here any second to talk about taking America in a new direction. We have heard a lot tonight, and I want to agree with my colleagues on one thing that they said earlier, just a few minutes ago, that the American people know how to spend their money better than the United States Congress, and I agree with that. If you look at where this Congress has given the money, $16 billion in subsidies to the oil companies, hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax returns, tax breaks for millionaires, Madam Speaker, I agree that the American people would not do that, and that is why it is time to take the country in a new direction. I want to, before we get too revved up here, thank our good friend from Massachusetts for carrying the ball last night when the younger and the weaker, the fatigued other Members of the 30-something did not have the stamina to come here at 11:40 last night, and you showed up, and I yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. What is that $50 billion going to be spent on?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Again, this is the 30-something Hour, Madam Speaker. This is the 30-something Hour, so we are talking about issues that are going to face generations to come, but I want to agree again with the statement that the previous speakers made, which we do not like to refer to, but they said that the American people know how to spend their own money better than the United States Congress, and I am all in on that statement.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And not spending it in a manner which the United States citizens, from Florida and Ohio or Massachusetts or wherever they are from, would completely and totally and wholly disagree with where the Republican Congress is spending their money. They are building hospitals in Iraq. They are building schools in Iraq. They are building clinics in Iraq. They are building roads in Iraq, in a fruitless attempt to try to win over the Iraqi people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And who has a record of it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think it is important what you said. These aren't unreachable goals for us. These are goals that are achievable, and they are very achievable in the early days. Many of these advances we could make within the first 100 hours, Mr. Meek, within the first 100 hours. Within the first 3 or 4 days that we are here, the American people are going to know by the legislation that we pass out of this House next January that there is a new America, and we are going to go in a new and a different direction. And all we have to do, Mr. Speaker, is just think about what will happen in those first 100 hours. We pass an increase in the minimum wage to $7.25. How many lives will that affect around this country? Six or 7 million directly, and then millions of others as the bottom gets bumped so the middle income people will get bumped as well. Cutting student loans. If you have a student loan right now and your rate is 6 or 7 percent, parents and students, loans interest rate will be cut in half within the first 100 days here. That is $12 billion. So many people may be saying, well, are you going to get the money? We are going to not give the oil industry $12 billion in corporate welfare. The American people have a choice to make. Okay? They can reaffirm that legislation, they can reaffirm that position that the Republican Congress implemented over the last year or two and that President Bush affirmed by signing the bill into law and Vice President Cheney kicked off with his secret meeting that he had years ago where we were complaining and saying, well, the oil industry was in there writing the legislation. And everyone said, well, the Democrats, you know, they were in there writing the legislation and now we have $3 gas prices. Okay? So these small steps, and as you said so articulately at the wee hours or almost the wee hours of the morning about balancing the budget. We implemented what was called pay-go years ago, which means the government can't spend any money that it doesn't have. It can't go out and borrow it. You have to cut it from a program in order to get it, like we will do with our education. We are going to reimplement those rules so that we have a system in place that will restrain the runaway spending. Now, you have many conservatives like William F. Buckley saying that this President is not a conservative because of the spending, the borrowing that has been going on from this Congress, on and on and on and on. We can take care of these problems very simply. Now, I am not saying that the structural problems are not going to be more difficult. Getting to a balanced budget after the Republicans have bumped the debt ceiling five times and are going to allow the United States Government to borrow more money from foreign governments than any President prior to President Bush put together, that is going to be a difficult thing to overcome, and that is going to take time. Reforming the government when Republicans have put in all their cronies that operate like they operated FEMA, it is not that they are bad people, but it is that power corrupts, Mr. Speaker, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The institution is corrupted because there has been no change, and we when you see Newt Gingrich, the man who gave birth to the Republican revolution, be the most critical of what is going on here, it is not the Democrats saying it only. It is William F. Buckley, it is Pat Toomey, it is Newt Gingrich, it is Dick Armey.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We do not really have to look that far to the 1993 operation that we had here and the Democrats who obviously were not perfect, but we knew how to balance budgets. We knew how to implement the PAYGO rules so that we were not borrowing money. We actually were going to pay down the debt and begin generating surpluses in the United States of America. Can you imagine now, since the Republicans have raised the debt limit five times, harking back to a day when we actually had surplus money and we were on track to actually pay off the national debt in the United States of America? Actually pay it off? That is what we need to get back to. And it is not that difficult if you are disciplined and you are willing to say no. This is like giving candy to a baby, and then the baby wants more candy, and they keep giving it to them. That is the oil industry. That is the top 1 percent. And really, quite frankly, I am even starting to meet people in my district who are in the top 1 percent who are saying I don't want any more tax cuts. I am doing fine. I have a Hummer, I have this, I have a nice house, I have Italian marble flown in, I am doing okay. But kids 2 miles away, on the other side of town, aren't doing well. Their parents are trying to work for minimum wage, a single mom with one child is living in poverty with that kid by working a minimum wage job. It is unacceptable. And when you run these huge budget deficits and you raise the debt, and this is the interest we are paying in the 2007 budget, $230 billion, just on the interest on the debt. We get no value from that. That is not lowering tuition costs, where people would benefit, get educated, contribute to the economy and generate wealth. That is not taking care of our veterans. That is not investing in health care or research or alternative energy sources. There is no value from that. And that is the disappointing part, is that we are not getting any kind of benefit from that money. In fact, as Mr. Meek pointed out in the last hour, that money is going to Japan and China to pay down the money that we are borrowing, and paying interest on the money we are borrowing from them. So here we are, and this is just silly, we are borrowing money from China to give tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent, who don't need it, and to give $16 billion in subsidies to the oil companies, to give huge subsidies to the health care industry, and then the money that we borrow, China will charge interest on it, and then take the money they make off us and invest it back into their state-run factories because China is a Communist country. That is not a level playing field, to begin with, because China manipulates their currency, as we talked about yesterday. They do not enforce their intellectual property laws. They have no environmental laws. They have no human rights, no religious freedoms, none of the things we value. So they are taking this money and wiping out the middle class of the United States. That is not free trade. That is not fair trade. It is an unbalanced system. And we just keep feeding the beast: Right here. How much more do you want? How much more interest do you want? Be happy to yield.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is Charles Barkley. For God's sake, if you do not believe it, Mr. Speaker, that Newt Gingrich criticism does not hold water, Charles Barkley's should.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And the bottom line with the minimum wage is that the increase in the minimum wage is good for the economy. In 1997, when it was raised, there were 11 million new jobs that were created after the increase in the minimum wage, 11 million new jobs. States that have a higher minimum wage than the Federal minimum wage have an increase in business start-ups, an increase in sales, retail sales, because it is a different philosophy. It puts the money in the pockets of the consumers and allows them to go out and spend the money, and that stimulates the economy. We have implemented the neoconservative agenda, and it has not benefited 99 percent of the American people, whether it is foreign policy, the war in Iran, the disengagement in the Middle East, what is going on all over the world or on the domestic side, with Katrina and the prescription drug bill and the stagnant wages and the increase in energy costs, all of these things. We have now witnessed what it looks like when the neoconservative agenda is implemented, and just look around. If you want to know what happens, just look around. You see it. What we are trying to say is an increase in the minimum wage, cutting student loans in half, implementing the 9/11 recommendations, shoring up our border security, these are things that we are going to do; and we have a long history in our party of doing it, and we will continue to do it when we take over. But it is important to recognize that the statistics are there regarding the minimum wage. We could sit here and make moral arguments all night long because it is, it is the morally right thing to do; but at the same time it is good for the economy and it is good for people all over the country, and I think the more we recognize that, the better off we are going to be. I want to make one more point. When you talk about this 7 million people who make minimum wage and the underclass and the people all over our country who are living in poverty, and the minimum wage would keep you in poverty if you work 40 hours a week and you are a working mom, we only have 300 million people in this country. We are competing with billions of people around the world, 1.3 billion in China, 1 billion people in India. We only have 300 million. So we have got to go to great lengths to make sure that all 300 million that are physically and mentally and emotionally capable so they can be on the field playing for us. This is what an increase in the minimum wage does. That is what cutting interest rates on student loans in half, that is what that does. That is when you look at the Democratic Party's Innovation Agenda, creating incentives for venture capital and research and all of these things that we are doing, broadband access for all Americans in the next 5 years, when you look at what we want to do with alternative energy sources, my God, we cannot just reject science outright. Let us turn it up. You know, let us get America focused on an alternative energy plan, and we can do that and that is doable; but we need the leadership here in Congress and the resources. Instead of going to the top 1 percent to give them a tax cut, we should be focusing on what is the next generation of alternative energy going to be. Let us implement the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. Let us secure our ports. We can do all these things; and at the same time as we are doing this, we have to talk about what Mr. Tanner came down here a couple of weeks ago to talk about with us, Dennis Cardoza from California, his piece of legislation, that says we are going to audit, we are going to audit the Federal Government, and we are going to make sure that there is no fat, no waste, no abuse, no misspent funds, no misappropriated funds, no misallocated funds, and frankly, like in Iraq, there are funds missing, $9 billion. Nobody knows where it is.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I know.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You know what Mr. Tanner's bill says, it is our bill, it says that if you are the Secretary of the Department and you cannot pass these audits, then after a couple of years, you have got to come back before the United States Senate and you have got to get confirmed again because you are not doing your job. We are trying to run a government that is based, it looks like it is 1950, but society has moved forward. Society has decentralized, and the Republican Congress, they are like dinosaurs that just do not recognize the changes that have come in the world and have not done the due diligence necessary to reform government. I mean, you can say, well, here is the Democrats making this up again. We do not have to make anything up. Look how FEMA worked with Katrina. Look at how after the military portion of the war in Iraq, look at how we have done after that, not only losing money but not achieving the objective, not really having an objective, to having a big problem there, too. As Newt Gingrich said last week on Meet the Press, with all that is going on around the world, our bureaucracies do not have the capabilities of handling all these situations. State Department, Pentagon, Department of Defense, all of these. Come on. We need to reform this government and we don't have time to wait. Because if there is going to be a terrorist attack in the United States of America, it is not going to be like Katrina where we have 5 days where we could watch it on the Weather Channel and know it is coming. This government needs reformed and it needs reformed immediately and that means getting to the bottom of things. That means getting all the facts necessary. That means calling hearings. What that also means, Mr. Meek, is that some people are going to get embarrassed. Maybe people just need to come before Congress and say, ``Mr. Meek, under this system, no one could do this job.'' Maybe that is the case. I will give you the benefit of the doubt. You appointed equestrian attorneys and all this other stuff to key positions. Yes, there has been a lot of cronyism here, let's not make any mistake about it. And it cost lives and money during Katrina, bottom line. But at the same time, maybe there are good people, hardworking Americans, that want to serve their government that are trapped in a bureaucracy that was designed in the 1930s or 1940s or 1950s and has stayed there and they can't work within this bureaucracy. Have the decency and the guts to try to reform it.