Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Congress.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. One of the other critiques we heard last night and today about the Democratic budget is: More government spending. They want the government to spend the money instead of the individual. Well, I'm sorry, I don't know how you expect to fund veterans' health care if the government is not going to do it. Who do they want to do it? Wal-Mart? Home Depot?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that. And $3.6 billion from the resolution, continuation resolution from last year, for veterans' spending. That increase is government spending. Because we have to fund health care for veterans because it was the government that sent the veterans out. Now, I am not saying that every dollar the government spends is good, but I remember last year under the Republican budget and the year before under the Republican budget passed by a Republican House and passed by a Republican Senate, signed by a Republican White House, that gave $14-15 billion in subsidies to the oil subsidies, that was government spending; and our friends on the other side of the aisle weren't very critical when public tax dollars were going to corporate welfare for the oil companies when they were making the greatest profits they have ever made. That is government spending. What we are doing, not raising taxes, the same revenues as the President's budget had, we are going to reprioritize that money and we are going to take that money and spend it on our veterans and invest it in education and increase the Pell Grant almost $4,600. We are going to take that money and cover thousands and thousands and thousands more kids under the SCHIP program, the State Children Health Insurance Program. That is the difference between these two budgets. When the President says he is going to veto this supplemental bill that is going to get us out of Iraq, you know what else he is vetoing, $1.7 billion increased over the President's recommendation for veterans' health care. That is in the supplemental bill that he says he is going to veto. Also, $1.7 billion above the President's request for defense health care for our soldiers. The President says he is going to veto that. There is $500 million for post-traumatic stress disorder for soldiers coming back. The President says he is going to veto that. There is $500 million in there for brain injuries; and we have both been to Walter Reed visiting the soldiers with the level of brain injuries that we have never seen in combat. So $500 million, the President says he is going to veto that. Almost a billion dollars in the supplemental for children's health insurance, and the President says he is going to veto that. That is what the President is saying he is going to veto. We hear a lot about government spending, and we hear a lot about the kids. You can't send these kids off to war and, in many instances, adults off to war, and then when they come back your argument is we don't want government to spend money. That doesn't cut it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I wish it was just $20, Mr. Meek.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am trying to pay attention to you, but I'm thinking to myself, you do owe me money. I'm kidding. For the record, Mr. Speaker, that was a joke. As we listened to the debate over the past couple of days, we heard a lot from our Republican side, this is about the kids and you have to do this for the kids. I am thinking to myself as I am listening to the debate that it was the Republican Congress since 1994, post-Bill Clinton, when it got out of control in the last 6 years with President Bush, Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican White House, that garnered almost $3 trillion more of debt for our country, as you just pointed out. Now, if you are concerned about the kids, the first thing you don't want to do is leave them in a worse position than even you were in. Quite frankly, if we keep going down the same road that the Republican- led Congress and President steered us down, that is a road of debt and deficits and borrowing money from China and Japan and OPEC countries and some of our best competitors.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let's look not only at the supplemental but with the budget the President presented. We, the Democratic budget, increases the Pell Grant to at least $4,600 from a little over $4,000 now. As you said, we are constrained by the $3 trillion of debt that was created over the past 6 years by our friends in the Republican party. But this Democratic budget rejects all of the things that the President recommended. Here is what the President wanted to do for higher education. He wanted to eliminate the Perkins loan program. He wanted to eliminate the Federal supplemental opportunity grants, and he wanted to eliminate leveraging education assistance partnerships. He wanted to completely eliminate them. Now, we are competing with 1.3 billion people in China and over 1 billion people in India. The key component to economic growth in America in the next decade or two or three or four or probably for the existence of this country is to invest in education, and when you look at what the Democrats have done in the first 100 hours, we cut student loan interest rates in half for both parent loans and student loans, and here we are in our budget and we raised the Pell Grant in the CR as well, and here we are raising again the limit for the Pell Grant to $4,600. That is investing in education. When you look at the billions of dollars we are going to put into children's health care to make sure that every kid in the United States of America has access to health care, those are investments that are going to pay off in the long term, and that is going to lead to a strong America, a strong economic growth. Now, our friends on the other side, and I do not want to talk too much about this, but it has been levied against us that the Democratic budget is somehow going to raise taxes. We have the Brookings Institute, we have the Center for Economic Policy, and we have the Concorde Coalition, three independent folks who have said we are not raising taxes; and I am going to tell you why we are not raising taxes right now. We are going to fix the alternative minimum tax. It has been creeping into the middle class, and we are going to provide 23 million Americans with a tax cut because we are not going to allow the AMT to go in and creep into their tax levels. Not only does the budget not raise taxes; we include tax relief where the child tax credit stays on, marriage penalty relief stays on, 10 percent bracket tax deduction stays on, and a deduction for State and local taxes all in this bill. I want to say one further thing on the tax issue, that the same people claiming that the Democrats are raising taxes are the same people that said that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They were the same people that said that it would only cost us $50 billion in Iraq, and we are already to the $500 billion mark. They were the same people that said we would be greeted as liberators. They were the same people that said they would be handing roses out to the Americans. Same people, same President that said mission accomplished, you know, same person that said we are in the last throes, the Vice President's comments on the war. So they are the same people saying that we are raising taxes, and all I want to say to the Members is this, the American people can reserve judgment on whether or not this budget does it. We know it does it, but they can reserve judgment. Keep your 2006 tax returns, keep your 2007 tax returns, make a copy of them, and next January and February, March, April, when you get your taxes back, you compare your 2008 tax returns to your 2006 and your 2007, and you will see that there is absolutely no difference. Then you can add those comments that we have been getting here over the past couple of days, you can add that to the column of weapons of mass destruction, and last throes and mission accomplished. Just take that comment on its axis and put it in the column with the list of all the other issues that have been in some ways misrepresented here on the House floor and across the country. So I am proud of this budget. I am proud that the Democratic budget invests $50 billion to cover children. I am glad we are investing in veterans health care, and those are things that need to be done. Those are not things that individual families can do. Those are the things we can only do collectively as a society, as a community. I am so proud that you have had the opportunity to come down here and lead this debate, as we are beginning to wrap up. I think it is important to say that the Democrats have heard the call from the American people in the November election. The country wanted to go in another direction, and that is really what we have done.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Slingshot it in.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am not going anywhere.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Thank you.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am excited and I called my mom on the way over here, and I was just saying, this is really great because we are actually getting things done to help people. That is what is exciting about this is that next year at this time, all of us are going to be able to go back home and campaign about how many thousands of kids in your congressional district now have access to health care because of what we are going to do through the SCHIP program. All of are going to be back home. We are going to be able to talk about the increase in the Pell Grants, and how many more kids have access to higher education. We are going to be able to go into the VFW and the American Legion and talk about the highest increase in the history of the Veterans Administration, who supports the troops. I am excited about the opportunities that we are going to have over the next year to go out, and as our Speaker said, this is a movement of hope for the American people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You know what I have heard? Do you know what I have heard from folks around the Capitol, people who don't make a lot of between, $100,000, between $50,000 and $100,000. Do you know what I heard them say? I don't mind paying taxes. But if I am going to pay taxes don't give it to the oil companies and corporate welfare. If I am going to pay taxes out of the $50,000 I make a year, living in D.C., very expensive town, don't spend $2 billion of it a week in Iraq. I don't mind paying, but if I am going to pay, give it to the poor kids who need health care. Make college more affordable. Make investments in our economy. You know, I think most people recognize they have got to pay their own fair share. But what they get frustrated about is where it goes. Now, are you telling me Halliburton is going to get billions and billions and billions of dollars out of a guy or a woman who makes $50,000 a year, who is paying those taxes? And then that same company moves off, out of the country? No respect for anything. But I want to make a point here as we begin the wind down. Mr. Speaker, many people have made comments on this floor over the past several hours that our budget somehow raises taxes on the American people. Now, we are big on third-party validators here. I am going to give you three, this is the Hamilton project at the Brookings Institution. ``The budget would not raise taxes.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes, just moved to Dubai. You would think that with all of the taxpayer money they get, they would at least stay in the country. But all of this is not just coming out by coincidence. There have been 104 hearings related to the Iraq War. Oversight and accountability. One of the key responsibilities of the United States Congress is to provide oversight to the executive branch agencies, and we did not hear about any of this stuff for 6 years when the Republican House and the Republican Senate sat on their hands while all of this was going on. This is not stuff that is on the news. This is not stuff that just happened. This is stuff that happened when the Republican Congress was in charge. Now, I understand that we are all loyal to our political parties, but at some point, when it begins to hurt the American people, you need to provide the oversight of their tax money and the kind of inadequacy that has been going on in Iraq. Now all of the sudden they want to change course. Now all of the sudden the commander in the Middle East is running around saying that we do not have time. You know why they do not have time? Because we are putting the heat on them to get things done. 104 hearings on oversight. That is our responsibility.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Would not. Now this is the Center on Budget and Policy, statement, March 28 ``This claim about raising taxes is incorrect. The House plan does not include a tax increase.'' That is a third-party validator.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We have one more. This is the Concord Coalition. This is the gold standard of the budget hawks. This is bipartisan, this is deficit hawks, Republicans, Democrats. In an issue brief of March 28, quote, ``Thus, to be clear, the budget resolution does not call for or require a tax increase.'' That was three, separate, third-party validators. I am just going to make this statement, and I am going to kick it to one of my friends. The same people that are saying we are raising taxes are the same people that said we would be greeted as liberators. They are the same people that said, you know, we use the oil money for reconstruction, the same people that said it would only cost us $50 billion to run the war in Iraq, the same people that said we are in our last throes, the same people that said mission was accomplished, those are the same people that are saying that the Democratic budget is going to raise taxes, which three third-party validators have not say. All I am going to say is this. Let's ask the American people to reserve judgment. Next January and February, when you file your taxes, you compare them to the taxes you filed this year, and you will see that the Democrats have not raised your taxes. Reserve judgment, keep your sheets, keep your forms from this year, and you will see next year that we have not done it, and that will be one more that you could add to the list of inaccuracies that have been levied towards the American people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Those are trillions of dollars.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Here is the difference we are starting to see. When Members turn on the television, Mr. Speaker, and they see what is happening with the Attorney General's Office, when they hear about $10- 12 billion in Iraq that nobody knows where it is, and now all of this information that is coming out, hearing about the gulf coast, hearing about Halliburton. If a truck blows a tire, Halliburton puts in for another truck instead of putting a new tire on the truck.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Exactly. Budgets are priorities. They are blueprints for what you stand for and what you believe. And the Democrats and the Democratic budget is something that I think really is going to invigorate the country. It is not going as far as a lot of us want it to go, but the fact of the matter is we are left holding the bag of a Republican-led Congress and President that added almost $3 trillion in debt to this country, and we have got to deal with that. That is the stark reality of the budget situation. But, again, I would like to say this. This President has threatened to veto the supplemental bill that adds an additional $1.7 billion for veterans, an additional $1.7 billion for defense health care, $500 million for post-traumatic stress, $500 million for brain injuries. That is what the President is going to veto when he says he is going to veto the supplemental. The American people are way ahead of us on this war, and the national intelligence estimate said that the war in Iraq has created more terrorists and has made the terrorist situation worse, Mr. Meek. This war has created more enemies for us, has created more terrorists that are gunning for the United States. So to say that by coming home that that somehow is going to make us less safe is inaccurate and inconsistent with the national intelligence estimate and the basic common sense of most Americans. So as we move forward in a new direction in Iraq and the budget blueprint that we have that is going to move the country in a new direction domestically, without raising taxes, as the Concord Coalition said, the Democratic budget is not raising taxes. And the Center on Budget and Policy is saying the Democratic budget is not raising taxes. I will say, and another third-party validator, the Brookings Institute, says the Democrats are not raising taxes in their new budget. I want to repeat this. I am asking, Mr. Speaker, for the Members of this House who know the facts, who will vote on this bill, they know we are not raising taxes, and that is why we are going to get broad support on it. But for the American people to compare this year's tax returns that they get, reserve judgment on the Democratic tax policy, compare this year's to next year's, and you will see that your tax rates are the exact same, the exact same. And you will have one more piece of evidence to put in the column of we will be greeted as liberators, the same thing, the same column as we are in the last throes, the same column as mission accomplished. You will be able to put the Democratic budget and the Democratic tax policy in that same list.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Appreciate that.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I have got it right here, Mr. Meek.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I would like to ask to submit this for the Record, Mr. Speaker. So this will be listed and memorialized in the Congressional Record, the organizations who have endorsed the 2008 budget. The following organizations have endorsed the 2008 Budget Resolution: American Academy of Pediatrics, March 27 American Association of People with Disabilities, March 26 American Association of School Administrators, March 27 American Association of University Women, March 27 American Farmland Trust, March 28 American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, March 27 American Hospital Association, March 28 The American Legion, March 21 American Public Transportation Association, March 23 The ARC of the United States, March 26 Association of Child Support Attorneys of Los Angeles County, March 27 Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, March 27 Association of Public Television Stations, March 27 Audubon, March 27 Catholic Charities USA, March 27 Child Support Directors Association of California, March 27 Coalition on Human Needs, March 27 Committee for Education Funding, March 27 Computer & Communications Industry Association, March 28 Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, March 26 Catholic Health Association, March 27 Council on Competitiveness, March 28 Defenders of Wildlife, March 22 Disabled American Veterans, March 21 Electronic Industries Alliance, March 28 Emergency Campaign for American's Priorities, March 27 Environmental Coalition (including American Rivers, Audubon, NRDC, Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and many others), March 26 Families USA, March 26 Food Research and Action Center, March 27 Independent Budget, March 21 Information Technology Association of America, March 27 Information Technology Industry Council, March 27 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., March 27 Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, March 28 League of Conservation Voters, March 27 Military Officers Association of America, March 26 National Child Support Enforcement Association, March 27 National Low Income Housing Coalition, March 26 National Women's Law Center, March 27, 2007 Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, March 27 National Association of Counties, March 27 National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, March 27 National Association of Police Organizations, Inc., March 28 National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, March 27 National Council of La Raza, March 27 National Council of Social Security Management Associations, March 27 National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, March 27 National Education Association, March 26 National Head Start Association, March 27 National School Boards Association, March 27 Ohio Child Support Enforcement Agency Directors' Association, March 27 OMB Watch, March 26 Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International North America, March 27 Student Aid Alliance, March 27 Symantec, March 28 Technet, March 28 Transportation Construction Coalition, March 23 Trout Unlimited, March 26 The Trust for Public Land, The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and Land Trust Alliance, March 27 United Cerebral Palsy, March 26 United Spinal Association, March 27 US Action, March 27 U.S. Public Interest Research Group, March 27 Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, March 21 Wider Opportunities for Women, March 23

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We just want them to meet the benchmarks that the President set on January 10 of this year. We are going to hold the administration's feet to the fire. 30somethingdems@mail.house.gov. For any e-mails you may want to send, www.speaker.dot.gov/30something. All of the charts that Members may want to look at are all available on these Web sites. www.speaker.gov/ 30something.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate what you are saying, and there are a couple of points I would like to add. When the President says he is going to veto the supplemental bill, he is going to veto a $1.7 billion understand increase for veterans. We have seen Walter Reed and heard the stories from across the country. We know we have more veterans coming back. He is going to veto a $1.7 billion increase from his recommendation. And then he is going to veto a $1.7 billion increase for defense health care for our troops, not yet veterans but still needing access to care. And $500 million is for post-traumatic stress disorder. And $500 million is for brain injuries. Those of us who have been to Walter Reed have seen these veterans who are more affected than any of us. They are the ones that are hurt. They are the ones with the brain injuries, and we get in and we try to put in $500 million in addition to what the President wants for brain injuries, and the President threatens to veto it. That is $500 million for post-traumatic stress disorder, and the President threatens to veto it. We put in this supplemental bill, Mr. Speaker, rules that the Department of Defense and the Pentagon say we need. That if you don't have the proper equipment, you shouldn't go off to war. If you don't have the proper rest, you shouldn't go off to war. If we can't put the proper armor on your Humvees when you are on patrol in Baghdad, you should not go. The President said he is going to veto that. So the President is saying he is okay with sending our American troops to Baghdad to drive in a Humvee that is not up armored, to send the soldiers out in the field without the proper body armor, and to sending kids back when they have only been home for a few months, sending them right back. That is what the President is saying he is going to veto, Mr. Speaker. I am not okay with that. And the Democratic Congress is not okay with that. And the Senate is not okay with that. And the American people are not okay with sending our troops to Baghdad to ride in Humvees that don't have the proper armor on them. Period. That is the debate. That is what the President says he is going to veto. Let's be very, very clear about what the Democratic Congress has passed and put in front of the President and what he is threatening to veto. Now, we have even given him a few months to get done what he wants to get done. Many of us want our troops home now, I'm one of them, but I recognize there are a lot of us here, and we need to have some level of compromise. All we are saying is if there is not progress by July, we start bringing our troops home. The war has already been longer than World War II. If you haven't done it by now, it can't be done. Bring them home. But if there is progress, we will give them until October. If they don't meet the benchmarks that the President set out, Mr. Meek, in January, and these are the President's benchmarks. These aren't the Speaker's benchmarks or Senator Reid's benchmarks; they are not Kendrick Meek's benchmark. They are not mine. These are the benchmarks the President of the United States set out in his speech of January 10. All we are saying, is you have been able to say one thing and not live up to it. You have certain goals, and then not get there, and we just all go on our merry way. What we are saying, is you've got to be accountable for the benchmarks you have set out. If they don't meet those benchmarks, we are coming home. We are bringing our troops home. So I think it is very important that the American people understand what is going on. You mentioned Katrina. Everybody wants to talk about there is pork in this bill and this and that; the majority of this goes to the troops, and the next biggest chunk goes to Katrina relief. We are trying to free up money to rebuild the gulf coast. And the hold-up the whole time has been that the President and the Republicans want a 10 percent match from a local community in order to draw down 90 percent of the Federal money. And we wonder why the coast isn't getting rebuilt, it is because the towns have been completely destroyed. They don't have the 10 percent match, Mr. Speaker. They are wiped out. They don't have police, they don't have fire, they don't have roads, sewer, anything. And the former leadership in our last Congress was so ideological they said no, you have to have your 10 percent match, and then billions of dollars did not get down to the gulf coast. That is what the President is also going to veto. I feel strongly about this.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Right up to the staff level. Mr. Speaker, we yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Civil war.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. On behalf of the American people, I think they are trying to see what we are trying to do. We are trying to end this war, stop the killing of our own kids, stop the maiming of our own soldiers, get them out of a civil war, try to calm down what's happening, stop the $8-plus billion a month that we are spending over there, and try to take some of that money and invest that into our own students, our own kids. I was, just before I got here, having dinner with an old friend of mine, who is a Republican. He said, we have spent $400 billion, soon to be $500-and-some-billion dollars on this war. Can you just imagine, we could have covered all of our citizens for health care, we could have paid for everyone's college education, and, you know, gotten some stuff done in this country. Instead, we have $500 billion, we have well over 3,000 kids have gotten killed, adults and soldiers, some 25,000 maimed or injured and God knows how many innocent Iraqi civilians, many of them children.