Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think that the key point to this whole thing with the Katrina scenario is that the President ran on he was going to make the country stronger, that he could protect us better than his opponent, which is fine. Katrina happened. It was not a surprise attack. It was not a surprise that Katrina hit the gulf coast. This hurricane was on the Weather Channel for 5 days. And we say, were we really ready? Unfortunately, as Mr. Hamilton and Governor Kean said, that there will probably be another terrorist attack in the United States. We don't want that to happen, of course, but we are not going to have 5 days to prepare for a terrorist attack in the United States. You are not going to be able to turn on the Weather Channel and they are going to say, a terrorist attack is coming for New York City and you have 5 days to prepare for it. That is the number-one responsibility that we have. Article 1, section 1 creates this body and we have an obligation to protect this country. We are not going to have forewarning. We are not going to be tipped off by the Weather Channel. And if we cannot do it with 5 days' preparation, it frightens me at what stage we are at right now and the job we are not doing because we are so focused on all these other things. I would be happy to yield to my friend who just strutted in from wherever she was.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think this goes right to the point that our friends on the other side, as much as we like some of them, are unable to govern. They just don't know how to do it. There is just total incompetence, from the economy, from the poverty levels, the macroeconomic situation, balancing the budget, lack of fiscal restraint, fiscal recklessness in borrowing $1 trillion from foreign interests over the past 4 years. They just are unable to govern the country. They have had their chance. They have controlled the House and the Senate and the White House, one party, they have had a chance to implement their agenda, and nothing seems to be going right.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. No.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The problem with this whole situation, this whole scenario, is that as we are spending $1.5 billion a week in Iraq, and we are borrowing money from the Chinese, over $1 trillion in the last 4 years, not investing in the United States, not investing in education, not investing in research and development, not fixing our health care issue, we are weakening ourselves as a country. Now we all as Americans want to say we want to be good to other countries. We want to be helpful to other countries. But if you are not strong at home, what good really are you to the rest of the world? We need a strong America, because if America is not strong, you are going to see a communist China rear its ugly head. And talk about having a debate about an issue. It was in today's paper and on the news last night and today. Osama bin Laden. There is a name we have not heard for a while. Osama bin Laden is still alive leading the jihad. Why are we not having the discussion about where is Osama bin Laden? This is the man who coordinated and organized the attack against the United States on 9/11. And we are having this huge debate about Iraq and what we should do and when we should leave and how it should go. What about Osama bin Laden?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think the President needs to recognize, and I am not saying this facetiously, he is not the President of Iraq. He is the President of the United States of America. And I do not say that to be flippant. I say that because this President's sole focus throughout his first term and into the second term has been Iraq. And to give a speech today as Ford announces that they are cutting 30,000 jobs in the United States of America, as Delphi is in bankruptcy, as General Motors is having great difficulty competing, he is giving a speech on the Iraqi economy. It is like we are having a bad dream. I mean, come on. At some point, should not someone around the President or somebody in this Congress tug him on the shirt sleeve and say, hey, Mr. President, we need you. We need your help. This country needs a domestic economic policy. Borrowing money from the Chinese to subsidize tax cuts for the top 1 percent is not a domestic agenda

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure, quite frankly, if there is a good answer. I mean, what could possibly be the good answer? And the rhetoric that we get from our friends on the other side is that the tax cuts are stimulating the economy. The tax cuts are creating jobs. And this is laughable. Where? Where? In the Delphi Corporation? Ford just announced they are cutting 30,000 jobs. General Motors? Who is creating the jobs? And I heard our friend on the other side say a little bit earlier he had a company in Texas that went from two jobs to four jobs. I mean, that is laughable. Ford cuts 30,000, and the argument coming from the other side is there is one company in Texas, Mr. Speaker, that went from two jobs to four jobs. Now, that is economic growth.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Up to $70 billion, they are going to go to the Chinese, to the Saudi Arabians, Mr. Speaker, to the Japanese governments.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority tomorrow is going to extend or reinstitute tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, people say what does the 30-Something Group have to do with all of this, what does our group have to do with all of this? Listen, this is the future of our country. There is no greater issue for the 30-somethings or the 20-somethings or those kids in school right now or those college students right now. There is no greater issue because the money, we do not just borrow it from the Chinese. We have got to pay interest on it, and our national debt right now is $8 trillion. So who is going to pay this and who is going to pay the interest on it? And I think it is $300 billion a year we are paying just in interest on the debt that we have. $300 billion. So just imagine if we could get to a position where we were in the late 1990s.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. To the Koreans, and they are going to borrow the money. There is no one, Mr. Speaker, that could possibly hear this argument, no Member of Congress that could possibly hear this argument and not think to themselves why would we cut taxes by $70 billion for the wealthiest people in the country and have to borrow the money from the Chinese to pay for it?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. And I think he is absolutely right. That is the most startling statistic that he has shown us with the money that we have borrowed from foreign interests because we come to the floor nightly, sometimes for a couple hours a night, to talk about the future of the country. And there is no more important part, no more important aspect, of the country than our fiscal stability. And right now we have a Republican Congress, House and Senate, and the President, who are borrowing money consistently from foreign interests, and to have one President do in 4 years what 42 Presidents could not do in 224 years is absolutely outrageous. And for anyone to stand up and somehow defend this fiscal policy that we have is an outrage, and it offends me, to be quite honest, because not only are we borrowing money which we have to pay interest on, we ran a $500 billion deficit, or close to $500 billion. We are not factoring in the war or anything else. We are spending $1.5 billion a week in Iraq, which is a lot of money, and we are close to over $200 billion already there. But to have this money and spend it is one thing, but to not have the money and have to borrow it primarily from the Chinese, the Saudi Arabians, the Japanese, to borrow that money to plug our holes here in the United States puts this country at risk, and it weakens our country. And we do not come here because we do not have anything better to do tonight. We come here because we take a constitutional oath and we swear our allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is absolutely right. Let's get this straight out. I want to kind of lay some things out here because all the rhetoric that we are now hearing and the administration is really good at getting in the huddle and then breaking the huddle and everyone goes onto the TV shows on Sunday and everyone starts singing from the same hymn book and trying to convince the American people that the world is really not what everyone thinks it is. They find a way to try to spin it. I just want to go back just for a couple of minutes for all of us to recognize who we are dealing with here and what their track record is. The CIA leak where Scooter Libby, the chief of staff of the Vice President of the United States, was indicted on five counts for lying basically, obstruction of justice, false statements, everything else. This is right from the indictment. On July 10 or 11, Libby spoke to Karl Rove who advised Libby of a conversation that he had. Rove talked to Novak, Bob Novak, the columnist, and Novak said that he was going to basically use Joe Wilson, the ambassador who went to Africa to find out what was really going on with uranium and everything else. So Rove tells Libby that Novak is going to write about Joe Wilson's wife. That was in July. Okay? Then we find out, here it is, 2 months later, in September, Karl Rove denies even knowing anything about a CIA leak or outing Valerie Plame. So he told Libby that Joe Wilson's wife was going to be outed in July and then in September ABC News asks him what is up with this and he says, ``I don't know.'' He lied to the American people. Scooter Libby lied to the American people. The Vice President of the United States in the same indictment told Scooter Libby about Joe Wilson's wife and then 2 months later he did not give all the facts on Meet the Press. We have to be very careful with the Rules of the House when we deal with high-ranking administrative officials. Okay. So this is the outfit we are dealing with here. This is the group that has failed to be honest. Now we go through the war. Remember what we heard prior to the war? We are going to use the oil for reconstruction. We are going to be greeted as liberators. They had weapons of mass destruction. All not true. We even got a little piece of information, it will be interesting to see how this comes out with the use of phosphorus in Falujah. We were told months ago there was no phosphorus being used. Phosphorus they use in the military. We are not using any of that stuff. If we are using it, we are just using it to light the sky. Then we find out on November 10, this is quoting from the BBC. This is not the Meek report, the Wasserman Schultz report, the Delahunt report. This is the BBC. ``We have learned that some of the information we were provided is incorrect. White phosphorus shells which produce smoke were used in Falujah, not for illumination but for screening purposes.'' That was in the March and April, 2005, issue of Field Artillery Magazine; and it was used as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes. Now this is the use of a chemical weapon. Now I do not know if it is true or not, but what I do know is that they said they were not using it, and now they are saying they used it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Would the gentleman read that one again about the ghost employees?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, one of the words that our President used was irresponsible; it is irresponsible to question what is going on. Is that responsible, that kind of fiscal undiscipline, reckless disregard for a budget in the United States? That is irresponsible? And what else is irresponsible? Cutting money for student loans, that is irresponsible. How about Karl Rove telling Scooter Libby about Joe Wilson's wife and then going on TV a couple of months later and saying he did not know anything about it. I think that is kind of irresponsible to say that to the American public. I did not hear the President say Scooter Libby was irresponsible.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is irresponsible.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are paying ghost employees in Iraq, and we are not allowed to question the validity of what is going on over there? How about ghosts paying some of my Adelphi workers who are going to get their salaries cut by 60 percent? Does this administration want to ghost pay some of them? Do we have enough money to pay people for not doing work in Iraq?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are joined by our good friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek), who was getting an award tonight. I congratulate the gentleman. Welcome to the inaugural 30-something Live.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I believe over 400 e-mails.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, we are not going to be able to get through them all, so we will lay down some basic ground rules here. We will not be able to get through them all, obviously, Mr. Speaker. We are going to have to take a few and maybe expound on them, but we are going to continue, Mr. Speaker, to make our arguments. We are going to lay out the case for what we believe needs to happen in the country, what direction we need to go in, and as we receive information from the public, use that to supplement our arguments that we have been making here.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is very loose. Adaptable. But it is good to see that you got your nap in this afternoon.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I cannot remember exactly which one of us said something, but it was to the effect that we had to tuck you in bed and make sure that you were getting your proper amount of rest.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We appreciate the opportunity to be here again representing the 30-Something Working Group. I want to thank Leader Pelosi for the opportunity, our favorite uncle, Bill Delahunt, who is here from Massachusetts, also Kendrick Meek from Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz from Florida, who are also members of the working group and will be here in just a few minutes. We want to welcome, Mr. Speaker, everyone to the first-ever 30- Something Live, in which we will be interacting not only with other Members of Congress here, not only with the audience, C-SPAN audience, but also with our friends in the blogosphere. And we will be interacting with them, reading e-mails that they will be sending to us, as we have been receiving e-mails from our constituents in our offices for years on Capitol Hill. But this is the first time ever that there will be interaction between Members of Congress on the House floor and at the same time constituents and citizens of the United States of America having direct access to this Chamber. So we are very, very excited about introducing 30-Something Live. Being the 30-Something Group, we are trying to take our communications to the next level, trying to reach out to the American people, because we have said for quite some time that if we are going to solve problems in this country, that we have to engage the best and brightest talent that is out in the country in order to do this. So we are not only going to answer your questions, Mr. Speaker. We are going to take suggestions as to issues that need to be addressed, ideas that folks may have at home. And this is a pretty exciting time for all of us. We have been joined here with our friend from Florida, Ms. Wasserman Schultz. And this is going to be the first ever. So this is pretty exciting stuff.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Now, you and I, we are ready to rock and roll on this. And when Mr. Meek gets here, he is going to be ready to rock and roll. But we may have to break it down for our favorite uncle.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We can break it down.