Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is it. We don't have some elaborate playbook that is going to run left and fake this way and run this way. Three or four different basic things, and you will see the difference between having Democrats running the government and Republicans.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And even in the first couple of days, we will raise the minimum wage and cut college loan interest rates in half for parents and students. Just in the first couple of days, once we get this signed into law, we will recognize a huge difference. Www.housedemocrats.gov/30something. All of the charts that we have here can be accessed on the Web site. Www.housedemocrats.gov/30something. It has been a real pleasure.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The belly of a whale.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is the same old song, we don't need a minimum wage increase. Things are going just fine. The President said the economy is doing great and it is benefiting all Americans. Well, he hasn't been to my district, and I am sure he has not been to a lot of districts around the country where people are struggling. I found it interesting, over the 4th of July break where we do a lot of parades, and doing a parade is like taking a poll in your district as to how people feel. They will shout at you exactly what they are thinking. As you are going down and shaking hands and meeting people, you hear about the gas prices and the lack of vision; you hear about the trailers sitting in Hope, Arkansas. And you hear about the $9 billion being lost in Iraq. This is what average Americans are talking about. And then the kicker is when the Republican Congress pushes a pay raise for themselves, but not a pay raise for the American people. Give me a break. They raise the salary for Members of Congress, but at the same time not at least tie it to minimum wage and say the American people need to be a part of this, too? Come on. What is going on? No matter what issue you are talking about, and this is the thread that ties all of this together, the Republican majority is incapable of executing government as stated by our friend, Newt Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, he said, ``They are seen by the country as being in charge of a government that can't function.'' He, the former Speaker of the House, the father of the Republican revolution, is now calling the leadership and the Republican Members of Congress ``they'' and also saying that they are in charge of a government that can't function. Whether you are talking about negotiating down the drug prices or the $9 billion in Iraq, or FEMA, or any other issue, I think time and time again they are seen as being incapable of being able to execute government.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Look, the retirement package, Lee Raymond, CEO of Exxon, $398 million retirement package. He gets a $2 million tax break. So it is bad enough you are already subsidizing his business to the tune of $14 or $15 billion. And this is the kind of disparity, we have the highest disparity between the wealthiest people in the country and the poorest people in the country since the 1920s, that is going like this. And the whole idea is to try to lift all the boats up into the middle class. And we were talking earlier about the economy. This is, again, third- party validator, as we begin to wrap up. The long term, because we get a lot of happy talk, but the long-term outlook is such a deep well of sorrow that I can't get much happiness out of this year. That's a former director of the Congressional Budget Office that used to work for President Bush. It is such a deep well of sorrow. This country is going in the wrong direction, whether you are talking about oil or Medicare or the war or Katrina or whatever, and my friend has got his toy there. This country is going in the wrong direction and we want to go in another direction. If you like the neoconservative agenda that has been implemented, look around, gas, oil, retirements, pensions, minimum wage, Social Security, college tuition, keep the Republicans in office.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I guess if we were on the other side, Mr. Speaker, I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is, Why are they trying to distract? What are they distracting us from? And I think when you look at what is happening and why the Democrats want to take the country into a new direction, all you have to do is look around. And I know, Mr. Meek, and you know, Mr. Meek and Ms. Wasserman Schultz, there are a lot of Republicans, when we start saying this stuff, they have got to turn their TV off, they can't listen to it because I think it rings true. The bottom line is this, the neoconservative Republican agenda has been implemented into the United States, period. And look around, here is what it looks like: Iraq, Afghanistan, gas prices, health care prices, tuition costs, minimum wage. Look around. Deficits, who are you borrowing it from? That is the neoconservative agenda. It is here. And we need to take the country in another direction. So they obviously don't want to talk about it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And just those few steps that we can take in the first week that we are here, talk about taking the country in a new direction. Imagine if we raised the minimum wage that first day, imagine we cut the student loan interest rates in half saving students and parents $4,000 or $5,000 over the life of the loan, the negotiation by the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the pharmaceutical companies, the money we would be able to save the government just in those three steps. We are not talking about brain surgery here. We are talking about basic fundamental commonsense moves that will benefit everyone, commonsense moves for the common good. And I think moving the country in a new direction is what we need to do.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This guy said that George Bush dethroned Lyndon Johnson?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think that is exactly it and I know Mr. Meek has points he wants to make, but I think Members of Congress and average Americans need to ask themselves just one question, and we will just pick two of these. Implement mentally this in your mind if you are an American. We will raise the minimum wage to $7.50 an hour in the first week we are here, and we will then cut your student loan interest rates in half. Whether they are parent loans or student loans, your rate will be cut in half if Democrats are in. Let us just pretend we will not do anything else, and we have got binders full of ideas here that we will implement, broadband access, tax cuts for venture capital that was basically written by the high-tech industries who Nancy Pelosi sat down with to make sure how do we get the country up and running again. But just say we do those two things, we are not saying we are going to overpromise. We are saying in first day or two we are going to pass the minimum wage and we are going to reduce college loans by half. What would that do? That will save students $4,000 or $5,000 over the course of their loans, parents the same way, and the minimum wage will be increased unfortunately just a few thousand dollars a year. Hopefully, if we take the majority back in a significant number, along with the Senate, we can do maybe even more. But just picture those two things and the impact it would have on your life.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Making barely minimum wage. I have to quit my job because I cannot afford the gas prices as they are. I am better off going on welfare and registering for Medicaid. We have a system that is going against people who want to work. We want to incentivize that. And in the first 100 days, it will be amazing what the Democratic Party can do.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can you imagine in the first week when we raise the minimum wage? I am just going to pick two of the issues: We raise the minimum wage, and we cut college loan interest rates in half. Can you imagine the impact for average people in Ohio, in Miami, in Texas? Can you imagine? You are actually going to be helping people. We can do this, and we need an opportunity to do it, Mr. Speaker. I have taken way too much time, and I know both of you have points you want to make. But look at what is happening in the country and look at the disgraceful debate that is happening here in Congress. And one final point: The debate we had a couple weeks ago on the Iraqi war resolution, we had a debate here in Congress. We have lost $9 billion in Iraq, and no one really seems to know where it is, and the Congress is not much interested in finding out exactly who has it. We have spent $318 billion, $400 billion, tons of money in Iraq with no oversight. We have had hurricanes in the country and we do not know where FEMA is spending money. They are paying for divorce attorneys' fees and the like, and we don't have any oversight hearings on that. So if the American people want to keep going in that direction, all they have to do is continue to rubber stamp the Republican House, the Republican Senate, and President Bush.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Exactly. We are not the only ones. And I think the country is obviously divided on those very polarizing issues. But regardless of how you feel, we have got real problems in this country, Mr. Speaker. Can we stop insulting the American public to think that they are going to somehow fall for these shenanigans again that were used in 2004? The President was for a gay marriage amendment; then he was against it and decided he was not going to push it. And then 1\1/2\ years later, when he is 30 percent in the polls and the Republican Congress has not passed one piece of significant legislation, all of a sudden, they are for the gay marriage amendment again. It is not going to work. Do you know why? Because this is what has been going on, Mr. Speaker: People making more than $1 million are getting $42,000 a year back in tax breaks, and we are borrowing the money from China. We do not have money to give a millionaire $42,000 back in this country, Mr. Meek, Ms. Jackson-Lee. If we had the money to give them, we would have a discussion. We would have a debate: Why are we giving someone who makes $40,000 a year $17,000 and someone making $1 million a year gets $42,000? If we had the money, we would have that discussion. We would have a national debate about whether or not that was a good idea, about whether or not that money should go into tax cuts for millionaires or education spending or Head Start spending or health care for our citizens or making sure that young kids had health care or veterans would have the proper care that they needed. Mr. Speaker, we would have that discussion. But we do not have the money. We do not have it. We are running $400 billion deficits, borrowing the money from Japan, China, OPEC countries. Mr. Meek, can you imagine with the cost of gas right now, we are borrowing money from OPEC? We are not just giving it to them at the pump. We are going to go out and use them as a bank. Let us get this country in order, Mr. Speaker. It is time to go in a new direction. And do you like this? Do you like the cost at the gas pump when you have got to put in 55 bucks to fill up your truck? Do you like the fact that the health care costs are up, health insurance up 97 percent; that 4-year public college is up 77 percent; that gas is up 136 percent; that bread is up 25 percent; that whole milk is up 24 percent? If you are happy with this, vote Republican. Continue. They have been in charge of the House and the Senate and the White House for a good many years now. The neoconservative agenda, Ms. Jackson-Lee, has been implemented. We do not have to worry about what is going to happen. We do not have to wait and see one day how it will affect the American people. It has been implemented and this chart is the end result. Look at these numbers. And we are having debates about gay marriage? You have got to be kidding me to insult the American people like that. I go to Giant Eagle in Niles to do my shopping. Union meat cutters, a small little town of Niles, Ohio. I go and get some bread, Lucky Charms because I like to eat cereal, and I get the organic milk because it lasts a lot longer than regular milk. We are traveling a lot; so I get the organic milk. So we go and I fill my basket up, and I checkout. And you know how it is when you go back home, people will grab you and they will want to talk issues. No one grabs me in the aisles and says, ``Can you please stop the gay people from getting married up in Massachusetts because they are really affecting the gas prices?'' No one says that to me. No one asks me about flag burning, Mr. Meek. They ask me about how are we going to reduce the cost of gas because I am a nurse's aid and I have to travel around.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We always enjoy your presence, and I think you have made a good point. And I come from a conservative Democratic district in Ohio. I am probably one of the most conservative Democrats from Ohio in the Congress. Regardless of how you feel about the gay marriage amendment, regardless of how you feel about flag burning, regardless of how you feel about any of these political issues that the Republican Congress is bringing forth, I think we can all agree that gas prices, health care costs, tuition costs, and lack of education funding rank just a little bit higher than these issues that the Republican Congress and Republican President bring out every other year or every election year. Now, the President runs a whole 2004 election campaign, Ms. Jackson- Lee, on the gay marriage amendment and then days after getting reelected says, I do not think we are going to pass it. I do not think I am going to push it. The country is not ready for it. You just ran your whole campaign on it. Now you are not for it? And they, the President and the Republican Congress on the other side, actually think that the American people are going to fall for this again. Well, we have got news for them.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Corporate welfare. Let us expand just for a second. Corporate welfare, $16 billion to the energy companies and between 20 and $30 billion to the health care industry. That is where that money is going. So if you are going to dethrone Lyndon Johnson, at least dethrone him by investing in education.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Look at this, Mr. Meek. The Republicans increased the debt limit by $3.7 trillion. You will notice that is a ``T'' there in the red, not a ``B''. In June of 2002, May of 2003, November of 2004, March of 2006, and the House Budget Resolution, another $653 billion, $3.7 trillion this Republican Congress has increased the debt limit, which is saying, go out, Mr. President, Secretary of the Treasury, go out and borrow some more money. It is okay to borrow money and then spend it on corporate welfare for the oil industry and the energy companies. It is okay to spend it for the health care industry. Come on. Let us get things in order here. This is not brain surgery. And, you know, Mr. Meek, I thank you for doing that, because our whole mission here as 30-Somethings is to break down and talk about issues that are going to affect our generation in the long term. And when you look at the kind of borrowing from these other countries, you know, just an example of China. Okay. How much we are borrowing. Now we are asking China to help us negotiate with North Korea. Well, you think they are going to be helpful when they are our bank? You think they are going to be pressured by us when they are loaning us money? Like you say so eloquently, when you loan someone money, it changes the dynamics of the relationship. You loan me $5, now I owe you so I cannot come back and say, hey, help us with North Korea. This is not about North Korea. We got to take this country in a new direction. This is about North Carolina. This is about the north side of Youngstown. Okay? This is about the north side of Cleveland and the north end in Boston. This is about America. Let us get this country going in a new direction again. We know what the world looks like when a neo conservative Republican agenda has been implemented. Just look around. Read the front page of the newspaper, Mr. Meek. Look at the foreign policy, look at the domestic policy. That is the implementation of the neo conservative agenda. You like it, vote Republican. You do not like it, take the country in a new direction and vote for the Democrats. And let me get this out here, our oldest and most trusted chart. If you would like to contact us, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Meek, www.housedemocrats.gov/30somethings. All of the charts that were available here tonight are available on that website. I would like to take one second to thank Tom Anatos who does such a tremendous job helping us gather all of this information. I would like to thank my good friend from Miami. I missed not being with you last week while we were on break. I look forward to spending more time with you.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. To make a point, when we were talking about what we have control over in our own government and how we can streamline and do the audit and make sure that everybody is held accountable, I bet we know exactly where every single one of these dollars goes. There is someone in China on the other end saying, you owe me another 10-, and I want it here right now. They are not waiting around to say where did that $10 million go? We know where all of this $230 billion went.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This is the interest payments on the debt. This is the 2007 budget of what we are going to pay. It is about $230 billion just on interest on the debt. So all of those numbers we were showing, this is big time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Are you talking to me?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I would like to make a point, because when you raise the minimum wage, you raise the wages for all people who are participating in the labor market. Let's take for example our friends at Wal-Mart, okay? If you raise the minimum wage, now, if you don't work at Wal-Mart or somewhere else of that caliber of a store that hires so many millions of people around the country, they are all going to get a boost. So instead of companies like Wal-Mart making billions and billions and billions in profits, some of that money will make its way back to the workers, so all the workers will get a couple dollars more an hour, which means you are going to have consumers with more money in their pocket so they can pull it out and go buy more goods, which will stimulate the economy. The American people right now are feeling they are not benefiting from what is happening. I think a raise in the minimum wage would do that, it would accomplish that, it would give demand a spark, which is obviously what we want to do. Then, like we have talked about here, investing in sewers and roads and bridges and infrastructure and get this country back where it needs to be with our infrastructure, so that we could build industrial parks and roads and bridges and increase commerce in the United States, extend broadband. All of these things will stimulate the economy here in the United States of America, educate our kids, get information into the households, and, at the end of the day, you have got a strong country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate you letting me do this. Www.housedemocrats.gov/30something.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Thank you, Mr. Meek.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And whatever business you have, your customers are going to have more money to go and spend. This is the basic difference that we have between what the first President Bush called ``voodoo economics,'' which is the current system we are in right now, the implementation of the neoconservative agenda. That is what is happening right now. And if you are happy with what this system is yielding for you and your family, then you need to continue to vote for the Republican Party. But if it is not effective for you and your family, then you need to look for alternatives, and that is what we are doing here. But the Democratic Party is saying raise that minimum wage and give these small businesses more customers to go out and purchase their products.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And what is the end result of all of this wasteful spending? I think it is important to point out what the long-term effects are. When President Bush took office, our debt limit was $5.9 trillion. As you can see, and these charts are on HouseDemocrats.gov/30something, in June of 2002, it increased by half a trillion dollars. May of 2003, another debt limit increase. November of 2004, another one. March 2006, another one. The budget this year for 2007, the budget resolution will raise our debt limit to $9.62 trillion. By 2011, the debt limit under the Republicans will almost double from when President Bush took office. Now we are trying to say that we want to audit the government and save money and make sure that we invest it properly into our priorities that will lead to economic development, and it is clear that the Republican majority, which controls the House, Senate and White House, has been fiscally irresponsible not only with the way they lack enforcement, they don't audit and pay attention to where the money goes, and then they turn around and borrow it from China and Japan and OPEC and all of these other countries and run us into this huge structural debt that hurts the economy long term.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is probably a driver, a 3-wood and a 7-iron for you.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We had a wonderful, and I am going to share this with the Speaker and the House, we had a wonderful conversation about three weeks ago with Alvin Toffler, who wrote ``Future Shock,'' and then wrote this new book, ``Revolutionary Wealth.'' And he goes into how civilization during the Industrial Age was much different than it is now. He used the example of 9/11, about how this decentralized, information-based, cells popping up al Qaeda, basically a private group, moved money and information around the world on cell phones and very decentralized, attacked us. And our response was to build a 20th- century pyramid bureaucracy called the Department of Homeland Security because that is what we know how to do. We know how to build these bureaucracies. And how we are living in an age that no longer represents, those kind of bureaucracies no longer address the needs of the American people. So this audit and what Mr. Tanner and Mr. Cardoza are trying to do is squeeze this government, squeeze these bureaucracies, get the fat out of them and find out where we can gain resources and invest them into the new programs, the new technologies, the new ways of doing things. And Democrats are for this. And I am excited about this summer and this fall for us to go around the country and talk about this new approach that we have because people say, oh, the Democrats aren't going to do it. We are experiencing the implementation of the neoconservative agenda right now. They haven't done anything. They are spending like drunken sailors. We are running huge budget deficits. We are spending $230 billion a year, just paying interest on the debt. We are borrowing money from China and Japan and all of these other countries and funding these long-term structural deficits that we have. We need an opportunity to take over this government, and let us start auditing this thing. This is a new Democratic Party, Mr. Speaker, that wants to squeeze the fat out of this government. The Republicans had a lot of good talk in 1994. But even their own leader, Mr. Gingrich, Speaker Gingrich is saying now they are in charge, they are seen as in charge of a government that can't function.