Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And each person at home owes $27,000. We have a notice today that we are going to finish up next week and we are all going to go home for the holidays, Christmas and Hanukah. I cannot wait to get to our Christmas Eve party. We have a Christmas Eve party every year. My mom is Italian, and my Uncle Joe Guerra, who lives in Florida now, is in charge of the sauce. He is going to be making the sauce, and he is going to ask me, what did you do last year in Congress? And I am going to say, well, Uncle Joe, you owe $27,000 to the national debt, and the country has borrowed $8 trillion, and that is what we all owe. And as I stated a couple of hours ago when we were here, Nicholas John Ryan, born 3 weeks ago to my brother and his wire Carrie, he owes $27,000, just like that. Now that is no way to run a country. And when the Democrats are talking about balancing the budget and we talk about making some tough decisions and maybe having to go ask a millionaire to maybe pay their fair share in order to reduce the debt and to reduce the annual deficits that we are running, we cannot find anyone with any courage on the other side. But when they have the opportunity to cut Medicaid, to cut the free and reduced lunches, to cut the budget for child support enforcement agencies in our local communities, who go out and try to get money from deadbeat dads, that is where they want to get the money from. Now, we are not saying that government does not need reform, that we do not need to streamline it. But does it not start with a lot of these contractors in Iraq? We are spending a $1.5 billion a week in Iraq, Mr. Speaker. A week. We are building dams in Iraq, roads in Iraq, schools in Iraq, training people in Iraq, training health care workers in Iraq and teachers in Iraq, and the outfit on the other side is cutting free and reduced lunches in the United States of America. They do not have the courage to go and ask a millionaire to maybe give up just a few thousand dollars of his tax cut, Mr. Speaker. This is about leadership. We are at a critical point in the history of the United States of America, Mr. Meek. We are in a war in Iraq, we are in a war in Afghanistan, and we have huge budget deficits. A $323 billion budget deficit is projected for next year, yet we cut taxes tonight for millionaires up to the tune of $32,000 per, after giving them over $100,000 over the course of the last few years. Are these good decisions long term for the United States of America? Because, again, we do not have surplus money to give back to millionaires in the form of tax cuts. We are running deficits. And what countries do when they have a deficit is the same thing a family does when they have an annual deficit. You have to borrow the money or you have to get out the credit card. And that is what this country is doing right now. We are putting the future of the United States of America on a credit card. And we are asking the next generation, the same generation that we are asking to pay double the tuition that they paid 4 or 5 years ago, increasing the fees for student loans, increasing the burden of taxes on the middle class, we are going to also ask that generation to pay the national debt off; and to try to somehow close this gap by borrowing the money from the Chinese and making sure that they pay back our debts that we are borrowing from the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Saudi Arabians at the same time we are spending $1.5 billion and a half a week in Iraq. Now, one final point. You voted for the defense appropriations bill. So did I.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And to take the analogy even further with the business, how can you just keep going on borrowing, borrowing, borrowing, borrowing, borrowing? That is all we are doing right now. This is the national debt today, $8.120 trillion. That is a lot of money, $8 trillion.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, just to back it up, and we used this earlier, because we like third-party validators. This is from the Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org, the conclusion of a report they put together regarding a briefing paper. It is called ``The Boom That Wasn't.'' ``The economy has little to show for $860 billion in tax cuts.'' This is from the EPI. I did not do this. ``A review of economic performance over the last 4 years indicates that the series of major tax cuts enacted in that time have not strengthened the economy. Almost every broad measure of economic activity, GDP, jobs, personal income, and business investment, among others, has fared worse over the last 4 years than in past cycles.'' Let me repeat that. ``Has fared worse over the last 4 years than in past cycles. Proponents of the series of major tax cuts since 2001 had projected that gauges such as these would reflect improvements after enactment.'' The Boom That Wasn't. Because we were not cutting them for the middle class, we were cutting them for wealthy people. And I just want to say that I do not have anything against people who make a lot of money. In fact, God bless you. That is great. But you have an obligation. You benefit from what is happening. And what is happening now in our country, and we have talked about this, I know privately a lot and here a bit, who is investing in the country? We are giving tax cuts to millionaires, yet they are investing their money into China. They are putting it in a bond fund or a mutual fund that is an international fund, or they are investing in the stocks of private companies, publicly-owned companies that are investing into China. We are cutting taxes, and those people are giving their money over there. Delphi, General Motors, General Electric, all these companies are investing in China. And here is what the Democrats want to do to just kind of talk a little about what you were doing. Another problem we have is the amount of engineers that some of these other countries are producing. Just this year, engineering degrees in China, 600,000; engineering degrees in India, 350,000; and engineering degrees in the United States, 70,000. So what the Democrats are proposing is to make an investment into the people, into the technology that is going to get this number where it needs to be. You cannot have a high number here when you have 70 percent of the kids in all of these school districts, inner-city school districts around the country living in poverty. You cannot get that number up when you have kids in rural areas that do not have the skills that they need. One of the other things we want to do in the Democrat plan. America ranks 16th in broadband penetration. Here is Korea, per 100 inhabitants, 24.9; then China; then Iceland; then the United States of America. And the Democratic caucus here in the House has a proposal, should we get the reins of government next year, that we will have a proposal together to put broadband access in every home in the next 5 years. You want to create a strong economy; you want to get people all over the country in rural areas and inner cities, in poorer communities to start generating wealth. An automobile plant is not going to set itself in Youngstown, Ohio again. A Delphi facility is not going to locate in Warren, Ohio, and hire 10,000 people any more. If the leadership on the Republican side does not wake up and recognize the country is suffering because of this, then we are going to continue down this long road that is leading us to nowhere. When we have Iceland that has higher broadband penetration than the United States of America, that is a shame. I was telling Ms. Wasserman Schultz I was doing some research for what we were going to do today, and I got into some of the great initiatives of the United States, and I ran across President Kennedy's speech in the early 1960s about going to the Moon. I mean, talk about setting out an agenda and leading. Where is it? The Democratic Caucus that is here has proposal after proposal that cannot even make it to the floor for the American people to evaluate. We offer in committees amendments that get voted down on a party-line vote. We are trying to improve this country, and we are being shut down because the Republican majority has to cut taxes for millionaires. We want to improve this. In 5 years, if the Democrats had control of this Chamber and the Senate and the White House, we would have a proposal that would begin to penetrate communities all over the country with broadband access. I want to make one final point. This is a poverty program, this right here, this innovation program that the Democratic Caucus has put together and the majority leader has put together. We want to penetrate these communities, and we want these young kids who if they miss this great technological boom, if they get caught on the wrong end of this digital divide that we have in the country, they are not going to be creating wealth in our communities. They are going to be on Medicaid and on the earned income tax credit and need public assistance. We want to make investments now into these communities, not for the sake of saying we helped these poor kids out, but because those kids want opportunity. If presented with opportunity, like broadband access, like access to the Internet and the latest technology, these kids will achieve. But if this kid does not get broadband access in his school and he does not have it at home and then he is asked to go out and compete with the Chinese engineer who makes $10,000 a year, he is not going to be able to do it; she is not going to be able to do it. We have to get on the stick here. We have to wake up and start leading this country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Article I, section 1 of the Constitution creates this House. The first part of the United States Constitution creates this House. So we have an obligation for oversight. We have an obligation to balance the budget, and we have an obligation to protect the future of the United States of America. What more basic fundamental part of our jobs is there other than making sure this country is fiscally stable? And to go out and borrow over $1 trillion, I mean I think it is--this is very important for us to make this point again. In 224 years, 42 Presidents borrowed over $1 trillion from foreign holdings, from foreign interests. Over $1 trillion in 224 years. This President and this Republican-led Congress has borrowed over $1 trillion in 4 years from foreign interests. That weakens our country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. 30somethingdems@mail.house.gov.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. How about the gentleman, I cannot remember his name, a couple of weeks ago came up who had $87 million worth of contracts in Iraq he was in charge of and he was stealing money, hundred of thousands of dollars. In the 1990s he was convicted of fraud, but yet, this administration hired him again. That is incompetence. That is cronyism. That is an inability to execute the proper role of government.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This country deserves better than that. That is the point that we are trying to make. We do not have to settle for a dictator like some people do in some countries. We are allowed to have high expectations for our leaders in the country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This is not a one-time event.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Iraq.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. No, I think you are being a little hard on him. His press secretary, Kendrick, said he did not know anything about it. Are you saying you do not believe him?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You are saying you do not believe him.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And time and time again you have the act itself, everybody knows what is happening, and then you have the press secretary come out, just like the White House press secretary said Scooter Libby did not know anything. Karl Rove did not know anything. No one knew anything, but the facts say something completely different, Mr. Meek. And it is a shame that this culture of corruption, cronyism, and incompetence is so pervasive throughout the United States Congress and our government.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Together America can do better and a stronger America begins right here at home. 30somethingdems@mail.house.gov. Thirty, the number, somethingdems@mail.house.gov. Thank you, Mr. Delahunt, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Meek, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And the workers are not getting the prevailing wage.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Exactly. And they can do whatever they want to do, take care of their friends, and do it using the taxpayers' dollars.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We have a few minutes, but the majority treats government like it is their own personal sandbox.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You have people getting indicted left and right. You have contractors and administrators in the government stealing money. I will give you one story that is both full of corruption and cronyism. An administrator in the U.S. Government who is in Iraq, who is in charge of $87 million in contracts, gets caught taking kickbacks of a couple hundred thousand dollars. That is corruption. In the 1990s he was convicted of fraud, and they put him in anyway because he was the friend of the proper person he needed to be friends with. That is cronyism, and the whole process of not being able to administer the public dollars in an efficient and effective fashion is incompetence. The American taxpayers work very hard and they send the money down to us, and they trust us to spend that money in a way that will benefit the government and the safety and security of the United States. To put $87 million in the hands of a crook is not only incompetent, but it is wrong and it highlights their inability to govern. They control the House and the Senate and the White House. They have been in charge for years of all three branches. They have had the opportunity to implement their Republican agenda on taxes, on poverty, on college tuition, on foreign policy, on everything. It has been a miserable failure across the board. Quite frankly, I think it is an insult to the American people because we do not live under a dictatorship. We live in a democracy, a representative government. America has always been great, as Leader Pelosi was saying today to the 30 Something Group this morning, because we have these high expectations of what the government should do and what the government should be. I am tired of this body taking advantage of the busyness of the American people. Why is it that just because they can get away with it they do it? That is not right because America cannot lead the world if it is not strong here at home, and these constant tax cuts for the wealthy and cutting billions of dollars out of college tuition, Mr. Speaker, how are we supposed to invest in the country?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Wait a minute. I think you guys are being a little hard on the Governor here, because his press secretary says that ``the Governor had no knowledge whatsoever of Rosemary's receiving that contract.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And incompetence.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. They have been saying this for 5 years about this tax policy. They have.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I look at this like your homework when you are in school, and your teacher gives you some homework. The homework is due next Thursday. You have got to have X, Y and Z done. And, you know what, if it is due on Thursday, most kids will do it on Wednesday. Right? That is just human nature. And I am thinking that maybe we need to tell the Iraqis, your homework needs to be done by May. Okay? And it better be done. If you do not tell them the homework needs to be done by May, then they are not going to do it. So if it is indefinite, there is no end in sight, that is not what the American people want.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We have a quote over here. Victory means exit strategy, said Governor George Bush during Kosovo. Exit strategy. And here we are a couple of years into the war with no exit strategy. And if you ask for an exit strategy, you are helping out the other side. Well, wait a minute. We are spending $1.5 billion a week. We have lost well over 2,000 lives, thousands and thousands of soldiers have been injured. Do we not have a right in the Congress of the United States, the House of Representatives, to at least ask when are we leaving? Is it 4 months? Is it 6 months? Can we at least have a discussion on why we should not talk about it, or is it just my way or the highway? I mean, we have an obligation here to do that.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as we come back on the 30-something Special Order, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.