Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes, these are our priorities as a country. And we can stand here and talk about port security, and we can talk about education all we want, and we can talk about what investments we need to make in alternative energy sources, and we can talk about the Democratic plan for innovation, research and development tax credits, broadband in every household, Mr. Speaker, in 5 years.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. In 2007 it will be almost $230 billion, with some interest.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. One of the issues that I think is a fundamental issue that we have in the country facing us is the issue of balancing the budget here and making sure that our country pays its bills. The Republican majority has not been able to get themselves together in a comprehensive way, as you said, to try to balance the budget here in the United States. I want to just make a point here, and we have got several charts I think that are pretty powerful in illustrating this point. The Republicans have increased the debt limit, Mr. Speaker, by $3 trillion, $3 trillion. This Republican Congress, Mr. Speaker, has said to the Treasury Department, go ahead out and borrow that money. In June of 2002, increased by $450 billion. In May of 2003, increase of $984 billion. In November of 2004, $800 billion, and we have an increase coming that is going to probably come in the next couple weeks of another $781 billion. Over $3 trillion this Republican Congress has okayed for the Treasury to go out and borrow because this Republican Congress does not have the fiscal responsibility or the discipline to rein in spending.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, just as you were saying, this is what you were saying: only 5 percent of the cargo coming in is inspected. Mr. Speaker, our source on this one, our third-party validator on this one, is Fox News. So that is where we are. Now, here is the recommendation from the Coast Guard. Their own estimates, this is the U.S. Coast Guard and I know you have a Coast Guard, probably more than one facility, down in Miami, in the intercoastal for sure, but this is what the Coast Guard estimates that they may need, $7 billion in order to secure and meet their obligations through the Transportation Security Act. Here is what Congress has appropriated, $900 million, not even $1 billion. We need to be here. Here is where we are. Now, what have the Democrats tried to do? We have been very aggressive and assertive and proactive in trying to make sure that we meet the obligations to protect and secure our own ports. This is just a laundry list. I am going to run through them real quick here. November 28 of 2001, Dave Obey from Wisconsin tried to put $200 million in grants for port security and studies. Republicans knocked it down 216-211 in a party-line vote. April of 2003, another Obey amendment for $722 million to increase security. Again, 221-200. All the Republicans prevented us from increased port security. Again, Democrats, June 17 of 2003, Obey again, $500 million, shot down, party-line vote. June 24 of 2003, Obey again, Republicans blocked consideration of that amendment by a vote of 222-200. All of the Republicans are voting to prevent the increase in funding just by a few hundred million dollars. It is not like we want to even say we are going to go for the whole $7 billion that we need, but we are trying to slowly increase the funding for this so we can make sure that we are protecting our ports. Again, in September 17 of 2003, Obey, Sabo and Senator Byrd tried to increase funding to enhance ports by $475 million. Republicans defeated that amendment on a party-line vote. Again, June 9 of 2004, Mr. Speaker, again, again and again; June 18 of 2004; October 7 of 2004; again and again, September 29 of 2005, $300 million, again shot down along party lines. March 2 of 2006, again. Mr. Speaker, we have a real problem here because it seems that every time that the Democrats want to increase funding even marginally to protect our ports, there is a Republican party-line vote that prevents us from doing that. That is what the Democrats are trying to do. That is our plan.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And it is not just the war, Mr. Delahunt.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is the war intelligence that no one here has asked any questions on. It is what is going on with the ports. It is the amount of borrowing that we are doing; this $3 trillion in new debt this Republican Congress and the Republican Senate and House and White House has incurred on the American people and, just like in our own houses, we have to pay interest on that debt, that money that we borrow. What we are having happen now, because of the reckless and fiscally irresponsible behavior of the Republican majority, it is impossible for us to make the kind of investments that we need to make here, Mr. Speaker. Every single family fundamentally understands the importance of education; yet here is what we have to fund because of all this borrowing. We pay this much on our interest on the debt, not even buying the debt down, but just paying the interest on it, Mr. Meek. We have to pay almost $230 billion in the 2007 budget. These little blocks down here, these are the investments that we have to make in education, in homeland security, for veterans. Look how small they are compared to the interest on the debt.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes. Yes, if this money could be distributed to these other priorities.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Borrow and spend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This President has not vetoed one spending bill, not one. So to say Congress needs to get its act in order, Congress is spending and the President is okaying it. Then the President puts his budget, and this Republican Congress gets out the rubber stamp, all at the expense of the next generation who are going to have to borrow and pay interest on this money to pay it back. Ultimately at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, it weakens the country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Communists.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. At the same time, my friend, the Republican majority is borrowing and spending and borrowing and spending. They are not borrowing it from Sky Bank in downtown Warren, Ohio. They are not borrowing it from National Citibank. They are borrowing it from these other countries. And at the same time, at the same exact time, Mr. Speaker, this Republican Congress has given $6 billion in corporate welfare to the energy companies, primarily the oil companies, which are having their most profitable quarter, one after another, one after another; $22 billion to the health care industry, Mr. Speaker. Corporate welfare. So what the Republican majority is doing, my good friend, is they are borrowing money from the Japanese, the Chinese, and OPEC countries; and they are then taking that money that they are borrowing and then they are giving it in corporate welfare to the most profitable industries in the world. And at the same time, tuition costs go up, local property taxes go up, no investment into after-school programs, the significant kinds of investments that we need to allow our kids to be competitive in a global economy.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, that is powerful, very powerful stuff. I mean, that is good. And in addition to what the gentleman from Massachusetts said, the point is that it is not conservative to balance the budget. It just is what it is. You just do it. The Democrats did it in 1993 without one Republican vote. President Clinton got in with the Democratic House and a Democratic Senate and balanced the budget, Mr. Meek. That is just what you do when you take your oath, when you swear to uphold the Constitution and preserve, protect, and defend the country. Part of preserving, protecting, and defending the country is making sure we balance the budget, Mr. Delahunt.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, this means that we already are not meeting our obligations. That already means that the financial constraints that the Republican majority has put upon us already is forcing the Secretary of the Treasury to not put money in to meet the obligations of the Federal employment retiree program.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Japan.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. He must have faxed it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. All of this money that we are borrowing, we have got to pay interest on it. And if we pay the interest on it, that means that we cannot spend that money in other areas or give it back, in fact, to the taxpayer maybe in the form of a tax cut so there may be some middle class people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. For a change, instead of giving it to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who themselves say they do not want the tax cut. Bill Clinton, who is making millions a year, we do not want the tax cut; make the proper investments. From all the borrowing and spending and borrowing and spending that the Republicans have done, Mr. Speaker, this is the interest on the debt for 2007: $230-some-odd billion. Of the tax money that the American people will send down here, 230 billion of it will go to those countries that Mr. Meek mentioned to pay off the debt service. Meanwhile, education, homeland security, and veteran spending will be reduced here, here, and here. Now, what the Democratic plan is is to make sure that we ask the Warren Buffets of the world to pay their fair share, make the proper investments in the broadband research and development tax credit, and grow the economy so we can reduce this payment, and we can make sure that we properly fund and invest in education, homeland security, and veterans. Now, if you want to just look at what we could do, my friend, if we did not have to pay that interest on the debt, the red bar, what would we be able to do with it? Sixty thousand kids we could enroll in Head Start to make sure that they have health care so they could be healthy, productive, educated citizens. Every single Member of Congress would get $1 million a day for their congressional district, $365 million for you, $365 million for me, $365 million for all 435 Members. Could you imagine what you could do in your district with $365 million a year to spend if we did not have to pay that interest on the debt? Your schools; your transportation issues; your ports; the Coast Guard, which I know is there in the intercoastal; health care. Almost 80,000 veterans would be able to get health care, improve Social Security solvency by $.5 billion. This is what we can do, my friend, when the Democrats take over. We will be able to move ourselves in this direction. Will it be a panacea? No. Because we have got a big mess to clean up when we take over this place. But, Mr. Speaker, time and time and time again, the Republican majority went out, borrowed money, and spent it on corporate welfare for the most profitable industries, whether it was health care or whether it was the energy companies. Time and time and time again. And one of the provisions that the Democrats have tried and tried and tried to get on, we need a structure in which we could contain the reckless spending of the Republican majority, and what we have tried to do is put an amendment on bills that say if you spend money, you cannot borrow it. You either have to go and raise it, raise revenues somewhere, or you have to cut it out of another program so it is deficit neutral. Mr. Spratt, our leader on the Budget Committee, tried to put these PAYGO, pay-as-you-go, rules onto the 2006 budget resolution. It failed. Not one Republican voted for it. That is rollcall No. 87, March 17, 2005. I am not making this up. This is right in the rollcall. We wanted to put controls on spending. Republicans voted against it. Again in the 2005 budget resolution, Mr. Spratt tried to do it again, rollcall vote No. 91, March 25 of 2004. Not one Republican voted to contain the spending and put the pay-as-you-go rules on. We also have been trying to do this for years now. For years. Mike Thompson in California tried to do it. Charlie Stenholm of Texas tried to do it. Dennis Moore of Kansas tried to do it. What are the Democrats for? We are for balanced budgets, and the proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the Congressional Record, because we have tried to do it time and time and time again, and every time we have been shot down by the Republican majority. So we are trying to contain spending so that we could reduce our debt payments so that we could take that money and provide broadband for every citizen in the country in the next 5 years, to have a strong, sufficient research and development tax credit, to encourage spending, investment, into innovative programs. We have a plan, and we know what we want to do.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. www.housedemocrats.gov/30something. Drop us a line.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Right. If you break it down, Mr. Meek, basically what is happening is we are here in the United States Congress. Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution creates this House of Representatives. Levy taxes. The Republican majority levies taxes on the American people. The money comes down here. What do we do with it? What the Republican majority is doing with it is they are spending it on corporate welfare, and we don't even have it to give to them. So the Republican majority wants to give them so much that they have to go and borrow the money. I am not making this up. So the Republican majority goes out and borrows the money. They have borrowed so much money in the past 4 or 5 years that they have to go out and borrow it from the Chinese government, from the Japanese government and from----

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, the point is that it is not that we have the money to give the health care industry. It is not like we have it. It is not like you look at the table behind me in the House of Representatives and it is stacked with money and who wants it. No, the health care industry is over here, Mr. Meek. We will give them some. We don't have the money to give. This is the point I think we need to focus on: We don't have the money in the United States of America today to subsidize the energy companies, to subsidize the health care industry. So what is the Republican Congress doing? They are borrowing the money, Mr. Meek. They are borrowing the money from the Chinese, they are borrowing the money from the Japanese.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You cannot.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Balanced by not one Republican vote in the House or the Senate.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is what they want.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Bingo.