Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Third-party validator, the U.S. Coast Guard.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. No, if he said it, it is true.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. He said he didn't know about it, and I believe him.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. He didn't even know about it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This is the same party that in 1994 said that they were going to pass a balanced budget amendment to make sure that they balanced the budget every year. It would be a constitutional amendment. And here we are, 12 years later, and they are borrowing money like drunken sailors from the Japanese, the Chinese, and from all kinds of foreign countries. Look, of all the money that we have borrowed, almost all of it is from foreign countries. That is the money we have borrowed. That is the money we have borrowed from foreign countries. And I am sure the Members, Madam Speaker, cannot even see this. This is the money we have borrowed from domestic interests. Look, it is a joke.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Three hundred million dollars.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The welfare kings and the health care industry. If you look at where it is not going, this is the Federal Government's commitment to education. Again, as Ms. Wasserman Schultz said, this is a third-party validator. This is called the Committee for Education Funding in February 2006. In 2002 there was an 18.2 percent increase. And as you can see, it dramatically is reduced to where in the 2007 budget President Bush's proposed budget, Mr. Delahunt, there is going to be a negative 3.8 percent decrease in education funding. So as we are competing in a global economy with 1.3 billion Chinese workers, with 1 billion workers in India, with the country of Ireland that is called now the Celtic Tiger because of its increase; and part of what the Celtic Tiger has done is make education free for everybody, college education. We are decreasing education. And so my friend Vladimir is right. Look at what is happening in this country, Madam Speaker. We are giving money to the welfare kings and decreasing funding for our students. Now, that is appalling to me.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. When you look at what you are just saying, what Mr. Delahunt was just saying, that the money is now, all these tax cuts, but yet they are still borrowing money to spend so they can give it to the health care industry or everything else, where is the money not going? I had a friend of mine who is from Russia, his name is Vladimir, and Vladimir was just a third-party observer to all of this as he was watching. And he couldn't believe honestly the rhetoric that he would hear as a new citizen of the country versus what was actually happening because he was into politics and he was paying a little bit of attention. So all of it, this money that is going to the HMOs and going to all these different places, where is it not going?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You cannot make it up.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can you imagine, Mr. Delahunt, if you are asking the American taxpayer who is already paying an increase of 15 to 20 percent a year in their health care, and now you are telling them, this is what you are telling them, this is the God's honest truth, this is third-party validators, we are not making it up. You are also saying that the money that is taken out of your taxes that you send to the Republicans down here in Washington, that money is also going to the HMOs. So not only what you pay out of your paycheck every single month, but also the taxes that you see come out, that you send down here to the Republican majority, they are sending that to the HMOs, too.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Why did you borrow money from OPEC?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is not only the woman's right to choose. We have a variety of things. It is about throwing people in prison. Throwing people in prison, Mr. Delahunt.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Why would they not? They rubber-stamped it in June of 2002. They rubber-stamped it in May of 2003. They rubber-stamped it in November of 2004. Go ahead. Put it on there.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And trillion with a T.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, it is an excellent question. I think what Mr. Meek was saying was that we are going into the government retirement program in order to not have to increase the debt limit. What we have here is that the Republican Congress has raised the debt limit numerous times since President Bush has been in. June of 2002, $450 billion, which means Congress raises the debt limit so we can go out and borrow more money. May of 2003, $984 billion, Mr. Delahunt. That means almost $1 trillion. Again, November of 2004, this administration, this Republican Congress, went out and borrowed another $800 billion. And now the new increase that the Secretary of the Treasury is asking for is another $781 billion. So, Mr. Speaker, over the last few years, the Republican Congress, the Republican President, has borrowed $3 trillion, new money, from the Japanese, the Chinese and OPEC countries.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. He is a CPA.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Time and time again. Madam Speaker, if Members would like to get ahold of any of the information, all of the charts we had here tonight are available on our Website, www.HouseDemocrats.gov/30something Also, Madam Speaker, my old high school, the John F. Kennedy Eagles, bowed out of the high school tournament tonight. They lost to Campbell Memorial High School, and I just want to say what a great year they had. My brother happens to be the assistant coach. I wanted to give a shout-out to the John F. Kennedy basketball team.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. So if someone would say we are not telling the truth, they are saying the Coast Guard is not telling the truth.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. OPEC countries in order to fund the corporate welfare.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You are making a strong point here, Mr. Meek.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I think the point was, and we were all campaigning during the initial vote for the war. But I remember making the argument as I was campaigning, as I think a lot of other Democrats were here in the House, instead of going off to war, the alternative was, now we are spending a billion and a half dollars a week in Iraq, I think one of the alternative proposals was to fund this stuff, take care of the Nation's security, take care of the ports, make sure that we have enough people to do the kind of real inspection that we think needs to be done instead of spending the money elsewhere. And when you think about it in a logical way, that this money is going to be spent to hire American workers to protect America, it makes a lot of sense.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Job openings.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I just want to make this point too, Mr. Speaker, that, you know, we are not saying that when the Democrats take over in January that all of a sudden we are going to inspect every single ship that comes into the United States of America. That is not what we are saying. But what we are saying, first is because we are going to have to start balancing the budget and start plugging a lot of the holes that the Republican majority will have left us to clean up, what we are saying is, 5 percent of the cargo coming in is a small amount. And when the Democrats are in charge, we want to refocus our efforts on port security and make a little bit more of an effort. So it may not be 100 percent, but we are saying that it is a priority for us to make this kind of investment.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I know you are getting on a roll.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make a point here. The last chart that we had up said that the Coast Guard is saying they need a $7 billion increase in funding. Now you are reading these amendments.