Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Wow.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is $27,000 for each person. So if you are a baby born today, right now, my nephew, Nicholas, born 3 weeks ago, he owes $27,000 to pay for the debt. Now as we look at the numbers, as the gentlewoman stated earlier, he is going to go to college and have to borrow money, $17,000, $18,000, now an additional $6,000. So this kid before he even gets out into the workforce to have a full-time job is going to owe $27,000 on the debt and $23,000 on student loans. That is $50,000. Run that out 22 years, plus the additional burden we are putting on this young fellow, and what kind of future are we leaving to this kid?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You are now.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is a lot of money.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman from Florida will continue to yield, I think it is quite interesting too that our good friend Jim Wallace, an evangelical preacher, and several others from religious organizations, are stepping up and trying to pressure the Republican Party, who have called themselves Christians and who have utilized the Christian right and the label of the Christian Coalition and yet in the very next breath they cut poverty programs, cut programs for average people. I find that horribly hypocritical.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Sixteen Democrats voted to reduce the fees, eliminate all fees that would increase the cost of receiving the loan. Sixteen Democrats voted for that amendment. Twenty-two Republicans voted against that amendment.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the interesting point that our friends always make is if we tax corporations, then they just pass it on to the consumers. So they raised fees, and it is getting passed on too to the students. As we go through this tonight, let us ask other Members, Mr. Speaker, to pay very close attention. I do not think it is a coincidence that the very programs that are getting cut, student loans, Medicaid, school lunches, these just happen to be by coincidence the programs in Washington, D.C. that do not have lobbyists. There is no one down here greasing the wheels, putting money into the Republican campaign coffers for student loans, for the fees to be decreased. There is no big lobby group out there for that. And there is no big lobby group out there to make sure that poor people have the proper kind of health care that they need. So as we go through this tonight, it is important for all of us to remember that it is not a coincidence that our friends cut programs where there are not big lobby groups and big donors and then they keep the programs that have corporate welfare in them or that the lobbyists want. Then they are off to shakedown street, K Street, which is where all the lobbyists are. They go down to shakedown street, shake down the lobbyists. The lobbyists donate money to the Republican Party, and they keep the system going.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I would also like to welcome our good friend and my colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), who has been a voice for the underprivileged for the past 10 years in Congress. Prior to that, he was a psychologist in prisons, a very dangerous job; and he had many other careers prior to coming to the United States Congress. So we have a heavy bunch here, along with our good friend, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), who keeps us all together and brings a little class and elegance to the whole operation and some sense and some civility and a little bit of grace.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, my two mentors in Congress. Really, just to see you two standing next to each other puts a little lump in the throat. The good gentleman from Massachusetts, who we have been getting e-mails about from folks that say they just love the accent from Boston.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if my colleague from Florida will continue to yield, I just want to get this into the Congressional Record. The speaker on November 11 in Youngstown is going to be Luther H. Smith at the VFW Post 6488's annual Veterans Day program. This gentleman epitomizes what it means to really be a hero. He received his military aviation training at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1942, and he then became a fighter pilot with the all-black 332d Fighter Group. He has said of the Tuskegee Airmen: ``We didn't start out to be heroes, but now we are legends.'' Mr. Smith is credited with destroying two German enemy aircraft in aerial combat and 10 German aircraft in ground missions. So we want to welcome Mr. Smith not only into the Congressional Record but to the VFW Post 6488 in Youngstown, thank him for his service, all Tuskegee Airmen in Youngstown, and all veterans on Veterans Day. So I thank my colleague very much for allowing me to thank our veterans for their service to our country; and with that, I yield back to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for this opportunity to be here with him tonight, as we do every night; and I want to take this opportunity for a couple of minutes here with my colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), who is also here to recognize the impact that the Tuskegee Airmen have had not only in Alabama, where they did the original training, but all over the country and the kind of impact and leadership that they have set out for all of us, quite frankly, to try to achieve. November 11, Mr. Speaker, marks the 51st year we have honored veterans. Memorial Day recognizes those people who have unselfishly given their lives in service to this Nation. Veterans Day honors all those who defend democracy by serving in the Armed Forces. The beautiful thing, Mr. Speaker, about the Tuskegee Airmen, when they were set up during World War II, these black military pilots were trained at a separate air field in Alabama, Tuskegee, Alabama, therefore named the Tuskegee Airmen. The establishment and the training of the airmen was an experiment to prove that blacks were incapable of operating expensive and complex combat aircraft. The true spirit of those men came through, however; and instead of the expected failure, the Tuskegee training program produced 992 graduates, 450 of whom served in combat. They flew more than 15,500 missions, destroyed 260 enemy aircraft, sank one enemy destroyer, and demolished numerous enemy installations. During World War II, the airmen earned 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 744 Air Medals, eight Purple Hearts and 14 Bronze Stars. This is what it is all about. And there is going to be an event on Veterans Day that my colleague from Ohio and I, and even our good friends from Florida, I am sure, will not be able to make, but we want to take this opportunity here on the House floor to honor those men who provided a tremendous example for our whole Nation.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

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

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I think the Republican Party, after they give the $16 billion in subsidies, will head out to shakedown street, K Street, where all the lobbyists are, and they will say, hey, we just gave you $16 billion in public taxpayer money, and average people, middle-class people, people who need LIHEAP, who have high heating costs and everything else, they took that public money, they gave it to the oil companies, the oil companies are going to make tremendous profits and have made tremendous contributions to the Republican Party.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. A good first step, $16 billion in subsidies to them. They have not done anything with trying to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, allow for reimportation, allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate down the drug prices of a $700 billion bill that we were told that night was $400 billion.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Record-breaking spending, record-breaking deficits. The party of fiscal conservatism has become an absolute joke. It has become a caricature of itself. Here is a conservative that we may disagree with on many, many issues, Cal Thomas of the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, a conservative columnist, one of the most conservative in the country who tries to provide a little advice to the Republican majority: ``Here is a suggestion on your budget cuts: Don't start with the poor, start with the rich.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Together we can do better.

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

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Incompetence.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Cronyism.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Corruption.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. $148,000 a year.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. On this march to war, as the drumbeat quickened, it was we are going to destroy anybody in our path that tries to stop us and even if you are a CIA covert agent that has served this country in the intelligence community for years. Now, earlier, my friend from Florida said, Well, how would these CIA agents feel? So I think it is nice for us to give our opinion, but I think we should actually quote a couple that have been in the news recently. One, former CIA covert agent Jim Marcinkowski on ``60 Minutes'' the other night said about exposing the Boston company, exposing that that was a CIA front, exposing Brewster-Jennings, could lead foreign intelligence agencies to other spies. There is a possibility that there were other agents that would use that same kind of a cover. So they may have been using Brewster-Jennings just like her. As you said, this is not just about Joe Wilson's wife. This is about everybody who she came in contact with, who she worked with, who she may have been affiliated with in a CIA front company. And then a former 14-year covert CIA operative. Now, you asked, What do they think? This is what they think. This is what is in the heart of a CIA covert agent right now. This is how they feel. ``Because we're talking about lives and we're talking about capabilities, we do our work. We risk our own lives. We risk lives of our agents in order to protect our country. And when something like this happens, it cuts to the very core of what we do. We're not being undermined by the North Koreans. We're not being undermined by the Russians. We're being undermined by officials in our own government. That, I find galling.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. A former 14-year covert CIA operative, in regard to this whole CIA leak and the administration outing an agent: ``We're not being undermined by the North Koreans. We're not being undermined by the Russians. We're being undermined by officials in our own government.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, when you have that kind of mindset where you think you can get away with everything, when you think you can make these decisions in a box and you can take a country to war, as Thomas Friedman says, ``on the wings of a lie,'' then you end up with all the stuff we are already talking about. They just take it to the next level, and they think they can lie to the American people, lie to the grand jury and obstruct justice.