Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, I appreciate the gentleman's passion on the issue, and I think he is absolutely right. There is not a plan. Basically what we are talking about and what the President last hinted for sure is he wants private accounts. He has made that perfectly clear. He has made it clear that privatization, throughout his career, since the time he ran for Congress in the seventies, he has been advocating these kinds of plans, where the private accounts go. Somehow, through a lot of fuzzy machinations, he figures out a way to say that will somehow shore up the system. What I want to do is basically paint the picture of where we are now, because you cannot say we are going to implement this ``option two'' of the commission's plan or the blueprint that the President has insinuated or indicated portions of. But we know he is for the private accounts, and many on the other side are for the private accounts as well. But we cannot just do it. My point is this: Here is a graph of the annual deficit that we have in the United States of America as of 2004. Now, the debt is the overall deficits all added up over time. We just raised the debt ceiling last year, I think it is over $8 trillion. Or the majority did. They raised the debt ceiling to $8 trillion. But here is what is basically happening. Here in 1989, we had a deficit in 1989 of about $153 billion for that year. It continued to slide. You remember President Bush-1 said ``Read my lips, no new taxes,'' and then he ended up putting some taxes on and cut some spending and put some caps on some programs. Then, in 1993, we still had in 1992 a $290 billion annual deficit. All these numbers are adding up to create our national debt. Then the Democratic House, Democratic Senate and President Clinton in 1993 passed the budget, and it was after that budget that we started to begin to reduce the deficit. Then we had all the economic growth, 22 million new jobs because of the balanced budget, low interest rates, and we all remember what it was like in the nineties, until we got to a $236 billion surplus. To make a long story short, since 2000-2001 with the decline, now here we are with over a $400 billion deficit for 2004; red ink as far as the eye can see. So right now we have to borrow over $400 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund, the Chinese and Japanese primarily, the same China that is cleaning our clock in manufacturing. So we are borrowing this money from the Chinese. Now, the President's plan, and let me just show real quick, that is the deficit, this is the debt, which is all the deficits added up. In 2004, the Republican House, Senate, and President Bush raised the debt ceiling to $8 trillion, and the projection by the Congressional Budget Office is by 2014 the debt will be $13.6 trillion. That is a heck of a debt to have as a Nation, very unhealthy for our economy. So right now we are borrowing over $400 billion. The President's proposal, what little of it we have about the private accounts, the gentleman and I, should we choose to access one of these private accounts, would take a part of the money, a percentage of the money we put into Social Security, the 6.2 percent we put in, and we will divert that over into a side account, which leaves a gaping hole for our parents and grandparents in the Social Security system. So we have to borrow, if we do the private accounts, which the President has said he wants, $1.4 trillion, with a ``t,'' $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years. Because everyone has thrown their money in these side accounts, we have to plug that hole. So we do not have, as evidenced from this chart here, we do not have the money, because we are already borrowing $400 billion. If we were in surplus we would be having a different debate right now, but we are not. We are borrowing $400 billion now. Then we are saying over the next 10 years you have to borrow another $1.4 trillion, and over the next 20 years we have to borrow $5 trillion to pay for private accounts. We cannot afford to do that. We cannot afford to borrow $5 trillion. And if one thinks we are going to be able to run this scheme and our taxes are not going to go up, then you are missing the point. You are not being responsible to what the facts are. What happens is as the government is going out and borrowing money in the international market from China, there is less money for the private sector to go and get, which will raise interest rates for average citizens who want to buy a house or a car. That is kind of the background of where we are right now.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The blueprint.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding to me, and I would like to say how much I enjoy this as well. And those of us who ran for these positions and had to ask 700,000 American citizens to give us their blessing to come here and represent them, there is nothing better than having a vigorous, honest debate about an issue that faces the whole country and do it in a way that is not personal. I am sure the President in many ways thinks that his plan is the best plan, and we in many ways think it is not and in the long term it will end up hurting many of these 48 million people, the 48 million people that this program lifts out of poverty. I would like to take this opportunity tonight here in Congress to talk a little bit about the situation that the country is in right now. I do not think we can have this Social Security debate in a vacuum, just saying here is the little program and it has no effect on anything else that is going on around it. So we have some charts here that many of our colleagues have been using, and I think they are going to be very important to impress upon the American people exactly where we are fiscally in the United States of America. So I have this chart here that talks about the deficit that we are in, and then we will get into the plan later, and we will discuss the different approaches.

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

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I appreciate the comments, and I have just got to say it is stunning. We are down here a lot and we get wrapped up and frustrated and upset about this; but I mean, when we take a step back, this is stunning what we are doing. It is absolutely stunning that we can somehow expect the American people and the veterans that are sitting at home tonight who make $22,000 a year, who struggle and many people in our community in northeast Ohio who have lost their steel jobs or their rubber jobs and have moved into the VA health, they have moved into VA health because they do not have anything else. But they made the sacrifice. When the bell rung, they were there.

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

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

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would just like to say that that would not be the least embarrassing thing about this war.

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

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Maybe he did not send it to you.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think that is it. Basically we are going to bet the ponies, and we do not have any money in our pocket, so we are going to put it on our credit card at 21 percent. We have to pay the Chinese back because they issued us the credit card. It is a dangerous game.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, this is a real pattern of behavior. I think when we are talking to the young students out there, the 20- somethings and 30-somethings, and we look at the track record of the last 4 years, weapons of mass destruction, oil money for reconstruction, American taxpayers are not going to have to pay a dime. Mr. Wolfowitz testified $5 billion was all the Americans were going to have to pay, and now we are $300 billion in; and that we would be greeted as liberators, and on and on and on. None of that was true. Then we went to the Medicare bill. It was $400 billion. Two months later, it was $550 billion. And today, and it is funny, if it was not so sad, it would be hilarious, $1.2 trillion. We went from $400 billion when we voted on this thing, to $1.2 trillion. So this is clearly a pattern. So when they come to us with this proposal, how are we supposed to believe them? How are the young people supposed to believe them?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is absolutely right that we should have a debate about this. To e-mail us, it is 30something dems@mail.house.gov. We have some charts here that kind of play out President Bush's scenario with four younger people. The one we have here is 18-year-old Ashley. We wanted to get a woman in there. These are the benefits under current law, what Ashley would get when she retires in 2052. Under the current benefit, she would get $1,628 if we do not do anything. Under President Bush's good blueprint, which is the best case scenario, but we have to factor in tax cuts, the 20 percent you have to give the investors, the borrowed money, everything else, the risk is probably not included in here, Ashley would get $1,099. So you are talking about a $529 difference. This is our system that we have today, and the Ponzi scheme which has been proposed. That is Ashley. Now we have Eric. Eric is 28 years old, lives in Miami, Florida. He retires in 2042. Under current law, when Eric retires in 2042, Eric would get $1,478 a month. In 2042, under the President's best case scenario, which we call the good blueprint, Eric would get $1,098 which is a $380 difference per month, just doing the math quickly. Clearly, under the current system, Eric at age 28, if you are listening and you are 28 and we keep things solvent, maybe make some minor adjustments to keep the system going, you get almost $1,500 a month and under President Bush's plan, $1,100 a month. Last we have Jennifer. Jennifer is from Ohio. She is 38 years old. She retires in 2032, a little closer. Under the current law, she will get $1,343 a month. Under President Bush's scheme, $1,099. There is still a $250 a month cut because there is less money going in. People are putting money in private accounts. There is an increase in taxes because you have to borrow $2 trillion and you have to pay your investors their 20 percent for making the deals for you. So even someone 38 years old retiring in 2032 is still going to see under President Bush's plan a cut of $250. All we are saying is, we have a guaranteed benefit. The system is working. No one is going to hit the lottery on this system; we understand that. But it was not meant to hit the lottery. It was meant as a social insurance program. Fifty percent of the beneficiaries, if they did not get Social Security, would live in poverty; and we are going to flip this system upside down and go borrow $2 trillion from the Chinese, who are cleaning our clock economically anyway. It does not make a whole lot of sense.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, so we are going from a guaranteed benefit for Social Security recipients to a guaranteed payment for those Wall Street investors. No matter what happens, whether the investments or the portfolios they are negotiating go up or down, they are going to get paid, guaranteed. Why would you shift that from the beneficiaries?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentlewoman will yield, I think that is a tremendous point that we have overlooked, and that is why we get an hour to do this, to make all our points. This benefit that we have now is guaranteed. It is inflation adjusted and guaranteed. No matter what, you get your benefit. I think what the gentlewoman from Florida is saying, what happens if in 2000 or 2001, when you open up your 401(k) one day, it is cut in half and you were planning on retiring and it takes another 10 years to get back to where you once were, all this risk for no real gain overall? Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the gentlewoman.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, this is really the first thing that we need to do. No matter whether we are talking about Social Security or the budget or whatever, first thing we need to do in this country is plug the hole, balance the budget immediately, and stop borrowing money from Japan and China, now. We need to do this immediately.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back with the 30- Something hour. I think it has never been more crucial to our generation than the debate that we are having here on Social Security. Let me first say, before I get into the Social Security debate, that I believe that Social Security is just one of the major issues that this Congress is facing and one of the main issues that our generation is facing. But while this debate is going on and while you watch the news and we are talking about Social Security or we are talking about the war in Iraq, the President has submitted his budget to Congress. And if you want to talk about generational fairness, like our good friends who were here earlier in the first special order hour, talking about generational fairness, just look at the budget that was submitted to this Congress if you want to talk about generational fairness. We are going to increase the Pell grant by $100 a year for 5 years when tuitions all over the country have doubled over the past 4 or 5 years. That is not generational fairness. Cutting food stamps, which primarily go to children, is not generational fairness. Cutting Medicaid, which goes to poor children, is not generational fairness. So we can have this debate, we can bring our talking points here and march the party line and say exactly what we are told to say when we come to the floor and when we go on the talk shows; and you can hear it over and over. Our colleagues on the other side are good, not always accurate, but good. But when you hear generational fairness, think about cuts to Medicaid, think about cuts to food stamp programs, think about the miserly increase in the Pell grant program, $100 a year. I think if we wanted to make young people a priority in the Congress of the United States, we would increase Pell grant more than $100 a year if we wanted to be fair to every generation. So while this debate is going on here with Social Security, there is this other thing happening with the budget, and I urge our friends at home to pay close attention to what is happening. One of the gentlemen over there said that it has been 70 years since Social Security; 70 years ago Elvis was born, 70 years ago, which was my favorite, the Great Depression was here. And I thought that was kind of funny because here we are having a debate about putting the Social Security system into the stock market, and one of our colleagues is quoting how much the world has changed since the Great Depression. Well, I am sorry, but if you had your money in the stock market, you had your Social Security in the stock market and we had another Great Depression, there would be a lot of issues that we would need to talk about. But before we get into the Social Security, I want to kind of lay a little bit of a foundation on how this whole thing works and what the generalities are of the President's proposal, because we do not know all the facts just yet. What is happening here is, in order to run the Social Security system, the worker puts in a little over 6 percent of their wages and the employer matches that 6.2 percent, and it goes into the Social Security trust fund. Now, what the President is saying he wants to do is for the worker to take that portion, and that portion of the 6.2 that the worker puts in is debatable as to what that side is agreeing on should happen, but they all agree that they want to put a portion of that 6.2 percent into the side private accounts that would go into the stock market. I think on the face of it, when you hear it and you are 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 years old, it sounds like a good idea. Here is the problem we face when you do that: The money that you would normally be putting into the Social Security system, your 6.2 percent that you are now diverting over into a private account, that means that your money you are normally putting in is not going into the Social Security system for your parents or your grandparents. In other words, the system will not have the money in it to handle. So the number that is floating around just for the transition cost to go from the system we have now to the personal accounts system is $2 trillion. Now, we are already running a $500 billion deficit this year. So we are going out and borrowing money and paying interest on it because we are spending money we do not have. Now we are saying that if we implement this Social Security program, you will have, the government will have to go out and borrow at least $2 trillion, with a ``t'', $2 trillion, from China and Japan which is where we are borrowing our money from now to fund the $500 billion. We have to go out to China and Japan and get another $2 trillion and pay interest on that. You are going to have a tax increase because we are going to have to borrow $2 trillion in addition to the $500 billion that we are already running with our deficit this year. So there will be a tax increase in order to fund this system, the transition costs, and that is if the numbers are right, if the $2 trillion numbers are right. Now, we know that before with the war we were told weapons of mass destruction, we were told we would be greeted as liberators, we were told that we would use the oil money for reconstruction. It will not cost the taxpayer any money. That never happened. We are $300 billion into this. Then, with the prescription drugs, we were told it was only going to be $400 billion; then 2 months later it was $550 billion. Then we find out today $1.2 trillion is the real number. So we do not even know if $2 trillion is the real number to do the transition costs of the system. We are borrowing money, $2 trillion, increasing taxes; and that is not enough to keep the system going. There will also be a 40 percent benefit cut because all this money is starting to go. I am 31. If I stop putting my money in, that is less going in. My mother will have a benefit cut or people in my mom's generation will have a benefit cut of 45 to 50 percent because of that money that is not going in. I am getting my taxes raised; we are borrowing money from China and Japan. Our benefits will be cut for my mom and her generation and my grandparents and their generation. In addition to that, if this is not enough to convince my colleagues this is a bad proposal, the investors on Wall Street that are running your personal account, they are not going to do it for charity. They are not going to do it for free. They are going to charge, and what they charge in Chile where they have a system just like this is 20 percent. So any benefit you may get in your personal account will be eaten up by a tax increase, by benefit cuts, and by the user fee that you are going to have to pay to the investor who is going to invest your money, all the while risking the greatest social insurance program in the history of the country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of House Resolution 23, honoring the contributions and academic excellence of Catholic schools. The week of January 30-February 5 has been designated ``Catholic Schools Week'' by the National Catholic Educational Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to honor the educators, administrators, and over 2.5 million students at Catholic schools across the country for their continued dedication to the educational process. Catholic Schools Week began in 1974, and has annually promoted a different theme to guide its message. The theme for this year's Catholic Schools Week is ``Faith in Every Student,'' which demonstrates parochial educators'' commitment to melding the invaluable process of learning with the guiding principles of Catholicism. And as important as the intellectual development is, it pales in comparison to the lessons of compassion and service to others. As a beneficiary of a Catholic education, I deeply appreciate the role that the schools play. My Catholic educational experience gave me the desire to learn, the willingness to adapt, and the moral compass by which to lead. This education gave me the basis for the beliefs that continue to guide me today. Children in Catholic schools receive a good education from highly-qualified teachers and strengthen it with a daily commitment to faith, both in school and after the final bell rings. I wish our nation's Catholic schools continued success, and pledge my support as they continue their ongoing commitment to quality education.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, my remarks today are to pay tribute to the life of my friend, McCullough Williams Jr. of Youngstown, Ohio. Mr. Williams has long been active in service to the community. He served as Third Ward Councilman, Housing Coordinator for the City of Youngstown, and President of the Youngstown City Board of Education. He was appointed by the Governor to the State of Ohio Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers where he served as President. Mr. Williams was also a member of the National Board for Funeral Directors. As well as being the founder of the Sterling-McCullough Williams Funeral Homes of Warren and Youngstown, and the former owner of numerous other businesses, Mr. Williams was a member of the Centenary United Methodist Church, where he served as trustee, the Roberts Deliberating Club, Youngstown State University Penguin Club, Charter Member of the Youngstown Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Rising Sun Masonic Lodge No. 90 A&FM, Member of the National Parliamentarian Association, and Life Member of the NAACP. Mr. Williams has been awarded the Buckeye Elks Community Service Award, the U.S. Small Business Administration Ohio Minority Advocate of the Year, the Ohio Expo Businessman of the Year, the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Leadership Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Recognition Award, the YWCA Man of the Year Award, NAACP Ebony Man of the Year Award, the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame, the Ebony Life Hall of Fame, the YSU Alumni Relations Distinguished Citizen Award, and the Ohio Governor Bob Taft Award for 50 Plus Years of Marriage and Community Service. Mr. Speaker, I had the honor of attending Mr. Williams' funeral service. It was obvious to everyone who heard his family speak that McCullough Williams was an extraordinary individual who's caring and commitment to the community guided his life of service. His family is a great testament to his life. They will keep his values and passion alive. In short, our community and our country are better off because Mr. Williams lived. My prayers are with Mr. Williams and his family, and we honor his life here today.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, my remarks today are to pay tribute to the Warren G. Harding High School ``Raider'' Marching Band from Warren, Ohio. On November 25th, Thanksgiving Day, 2004, the ``Raider'' Marching Band represented Ohio's 17th District as it marched down Broadway in midtown Manhattan during the 78th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The ``Raider'' Band was one out of 10 bands to be selected nationwide out of approximately 500 applicants annually. With 201 members strong, the band played ``On Broadway'' as it stopped in Herald Square to showcase its talent for the millions of onlookers and viewers at home. The event was aired live on NBC Thanksgiving Day. Lynn G. Marlin is the Director of Bands at Warren G. Harding High School. A graduate from the Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music in Youngstown, Ohio, and Marygrove College in Detroit, she has been leading and instructing the band for 10 years and has been teaching for 30 years. Richard J. Rollo is the assistant Director of the Bands and also the head of the jazz department where he has been teaching for 22 years. He is an alumnus of Youngstown State University and Vandercook College of Music in Chicago. The percussion instructor is Mr. Kevin Kifer, majorette instructors are Nicole Horner and Amy Namola, and the ``Raider'' flag line instructors are Erika Campolito and Nikki Wynn. In addition to outstanding musical accomplishment, the ``Raider'' Marching Band shows great strides toward high academic achievement. This year's winner of the Bob Hope/Macy's Foundation Band Scholarship is Aaron Baer, a senior at Warren G. Harding High School. Each band in the parade selected one student who best represented all of the great qualities of Bob Hope including leadership, musical talent, humor, and activeness in community service. Mr. Baer was selected by the ``Raider'' band and represented Warren G. Harding in the scholarship competition, winning a $5,000 scholarship based on an essay he submitted. The Bob Hope/Macy's Foundation also donated $5,000 to the ``Raider'' Band. Students who participated in the 78th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Tanasha Alexander, Noora Alie, Alicia Allen, Ariel Austin, Aaron Baer, Doug Baker, Beth Balas, Loryn Baldwin, Desa Banish, Kristen Banks, Ashlee Barksdale, Sarah Beitzel, Terrance Belser, Tern Belser, Taryn Benson, Jessica Benson, Amy Binko, Leracia Blalock, Joanna Bland, Rheadus Bland, Carin Boros, Frank Bosak, Daniel Bozek, Shala Brantley, Jazzmon Britton, Tim Brogdon, Jessica Brown, LaSheana Brown, Ashley Browning, Jessica Browning, James Brutz, Jordan Butler, Brittany Caimona, Vicki Capranica, Monique Carducci, Christopher Cargill, Justin Cargill, Samuel Carr, Jamie Carter, Meghan Caswell, Brieanna Catheline, Megan Chambers, Ryan Chambers, Stephen Chappell, Daniel Clever, Joey Cluckey, Bethany Clucky, Ashley Coleman, Kendra Coleman, Lamar Coleman, Angela Collazo, Amanda Comanescu, Chelsea Comanescu, Greg Dailey, Avery Danage, Zack Darno, James Davis, Matthew Davis, Dominique DeSanti, Savontae Diggs, Brittany Dowe, Stephen Drake, Dennis Drummond, Chris Dudley, Elissa Dukes, Matthew Dukes, Shani Dukes, Jessica Dunewood, Marcella Economos, Dillon Fishel, Megan Fishel, Gina Fisher, Meranda Gedded, Alycia Geddes, Gerry Gianoutos, Lindsey Glenn, Rickisha Goliday, Ciearra Grubbs, Autumn Hall, Chasity Hall, Patricia Hampton, Aron Hamrick, Courtney Harrel, Brian Harris, Krystyne Harris, Pasha Harris, Wil Harris, Mandy Hawkins, Camille Heller, Jordan Hice, Stephanie Horkey, Alicia Howard, Kaitlynne Hummel, Mark Hummell, Sara Hummell, Brittany Jackson, Jeremy Johnson, Tiara Jones, Alysha Joseph, Brittany Joseph, Tommy Kearns, Janelle Kellar, Brandon Kingery, Angela Knepper, Deanna Kuzenko, Justin Kuptz, Caritta Lewis, Amanda Lichty, Alexandria Limperos, Ebony Liptrot, Ricky Logan, Victoria Lopez, Ray Marchek, Thomas Mason, Jasmine Mauzy, Kellie McAllister, Tyecchia McBride, Marc McCarty, Brittany McDaniel, Jessica McDougal, Robert McIver, Meghan Mckenzie, Tabbitha Merten, Kiera Moore, Tonya Mocella, Sarah Moreton, Elizabeth Mosly, Donald Motley, Justin Mullet, Tabbitha Murphy, Vinitra Murray, Tzoulie Niforos, Nicole Oller, Ayla Oliver, Caullen Owens, Anna Patsy, Gino Pennachio, Kristie Perricellia, Justin Peters, Brittany Phillips, Josh Phillips, Christina Pingley, Tori Piper, Keisha Pugh, Robert Ragland, Adam Reed, Sarah Riffle, Cory Rihel, Andy Rodgers, Melissa Rodriguez, Tiyauna Rudd, Megan Rupert, Rashanna Russ, Samantha Schaab, Michelle Seawood; Melissa Seawood, Charles Seay, Sophia Sebben, Krysta Simpson, Kelly Smith, Kayla Sparks, Sara Stainislaw, Brittany Stargell, Rachel Starr, Angela Stawiski, Anne Stewart, Erin Straniak, Maureen Sweet, Caleb Tatebe, Kiwanna Taylor, Michael Thomas, Kaycee Thompson, Matt Thompson, Carrie Turner, Rochelle Vinson, Alexandria Walker, Greg Walker, Jacque Walker, Dan Westover, Cara White, Gary White, Carie Whoreton, Daivon Williams, David Wilson, Alyssa Wolcott, Peter Wyndam, Tiffany Wynn, Yang Xu, Collin Yarnel, Mark Yauger II, Annette York, Christopher Younger.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate James R. ``Dick'' Adgate of Warren, Ohio for receiving Ohio's Outstanding Older Worker Award. Mr. Adgate was born in 1921. He started working in the 1930's during the Depression at his father's greenhouse where he grew cut flowers and sold them to retail florists in the city. He liked the business but wanted to be on the retail side, so his father built a small shop, Elm Road Florist, in front of the greenhouse. From these beginnings, Mr. Adgate's business grew until he owned and operated, with the help of his wife Betty, a chain of stores throughout the area. He retired in the early 1990's. Soon after he retired, increased competition and changes in the client base made it difficult for the floral shop to compete. Mr. Adgate came out of retirement and took over the business again, working to make it more efficient. He continues to look for new ways to stay competitive. Mr. Adgate is a veteran of the Coast Guard as well as a member of the Rotary Club, Old Erie Lodge No. 3F and Howland Community Church where he serves as trustee. He also volunteers for Mobile Meals, plays tennis every week, swims and square dances. Mr. Adgate was honored by the Prime Time Awards Program, a year-long initiative to recognize the tremendous accomplishments of working seniors. The program's goal is to break down the barriers to hiring, training and retaining older workers. Nominations for Outstanding Older Worker are received from across the country and a panel of volunteers in each state selects the most distinguished honoree. Mr. Speaker, once again I wish to extend my congratulations to Mr. Adgate. I believe that he is an inspiration for all of us and it is with great pride that I honor him for being named Ohio's Outstanding Older Worker.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I rise in opposition of this bill, but I would like to clarify something. We are not trying to scare kids. This President's foreign policy is what is scaring the kids of this country. And people have said today, why are people believing this? Why are people believing this big Internet hoax? It is the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11; the same people who told us Saddam Hussein had something to do with weapons of mass destruction; the same people who told us we would be able to use the oil for reconstruction money; the same people who told us we would be greeted as liberators, not occupiers; the same people, the same President who told us the Taliban is gone; the same President who told us that Poland is our ally 2 days before they pull out; the same President who tells us Iraq is going just great; the same President who tells us the economy is going just great; the same people who told us the tax cuts were going to create millions of jobs; the same people who told us that the Medicare program only cost $400 billion when it really cost $540 billion. So please forgive us for believing what you are saying. Please forgive the students of this country for not believing what you are saying. Not one thing, not one thing about this war that has been told to the American people or that has been told to these college students has been true. Not one thing. Bremer says we need more troops. The Pentagon says we need more troops, and this President cannot get them from the international community. There is only one option left. Let us be honest with the American people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it has been a very interesting time in the past couple of years. I have come to this floor on many occasions to talk about what is happening in Afghanistan. The truth and the reality I think is becoming more apparent to all of us as American citizens; and as the Presidential debates and the Presidential contest and the election of this year coming up in the next few weeks is coming to a close, this issue is becoming more and more relevant. I think it is becoming more and more relevant, Mr. Speaker, because it illustrates that the foreign policy of the United States of America has attention deficit disorder. After 9/11, in which we were attacked by Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, housed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, an international coalition went to Afghanistan and said to the world that we are together in the fight against terrorism. Unfortunately, several months after that, the United States, pretty much by itself, even though the President said the other night, well, we have Poland with us; well, now Poland is withdrawing its troops and its support from the battle in Iraq. So we shift our focus from the battle in Afghanistan, and the international coalition that we had, to Iraq. The satellites that were focused on Afghanistan trying to find Osama bin Laden, trying to find exactly what was going on with the drug trade and opium production in Afghanistan, the satellites turned and began to face Iraq. Troops that we had in Afghanistan went to Iraq. Interrogators that we had in Afghanistan went to Iraq. Funding that should have gone to Afghanistan went to Iraq. Now, the President said several weeks ago that the Taliban is gone, that the Taliban does not exist anymore. That is completely and utterly false. The Taliban is still in existence. They are still fomenting problems in Afghanistan. They are still controlling some of the attacks that are going on in Afghanistan. And the quotes in today's paper were saying, a quote from a high-ranking official in the Taliban, the quote was, we are going to kill anyone who goes and tries to vote in Afghanistan elections, anyone who wants to run for office in Afghanistan, and anyone who would otherwise participate in the elections in Afghanistan. Why? Because Karzai is a puppet to the United States of America. We have 17,000 troops in Afghanistan. We have 130,000 troops in Iraq. We cannot find Osama bin Laden. And today in the newspapers all over the country, stated from Afghanistan officials who are working with the United States, United States officials, that the trail to Osama bin Laden is cold. Cold. We have nowhere to go, we have nowhere to look; we do not know where he is. We dropped the ball, we outsourced the project to people in Afghanistan instead of giving it to the best, most highly trained, highly skilled units in the world, because we have attention deficit disorder, because we had to go to Iraq, we had to drop $200 billion, and everything this administration said to us before the war has proven not to be true. We are going to be able to use the oil in Iraq for reconstruction: not true. We have spent $200 billion; the taxpayer has spent funding this debacle in Iraq. We were told we were going to be greeted as liberators. Now we are greeted as occupiers. It has gotten so bad in Iraq, the Italians are now paying $1 million to get hostages back. So the Italians are paying $1 million to the insurgents in Iraq to fund the insurgents against us. It is ridiculous. This has been a debacle from the get-go, and it is time we square things around before we have a narco-state in Afghanistan on our hands.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for 5 minutes.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to extend the remarks of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) where he talked about what this Congress has been doing. I think we also should be afraid of what this Congress is not doing. I would like to talk this evening for just a few minutes about an Inspector General's report which has been issued that looked at the behavior of the FBI and their translation of intelligence tapes that they were gathering since September 11. Now, we found out on September 10, 2001, the day before the horrendous attacks in New York and Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, that a couple of conversations that were intercepted by the National Security Agency had a couple of messages. One said ``Tomorrow is zero hour.'' Another said, ``The match is about to begin.'' The problem, Mr. Speaker, is that these messages were not translated into English to be analyzed by the FBI until several days later. So this Congress and this President decided to slightly increase the funding for interpreters and linguists to be able to help gather some of this information because if we were able to gather the information and translate it, we would know what the enemy was thinking. So the FBI Inspector General did a report analyzing where we are today, several years later. Checked us out. Mr. Speaker, 120,000 hours of tape, of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings, have not yet been translated. Now potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings means languages associated with terrorism, 120,000 hours not even looked at. A computer, several computers, supposedly systematically erased some of al Qaeda's recordings. We are erasing them before we even look at them. There is 500,000 hours for all languages not yet translated. That is 30 percent, and 20 percent of the total of the 120,000 hours of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings. The rule at the FBI is that audio recordings related to al Qaeda must be reviewed in 12 hours. We obviously learned from what happened on September 10 and September 11 and made this rule that within 12 hours we want all of this translated. The fact of the matter is after the IG's report, 36 percent of al Qaeda recordings were not translated within 12 hours. In fact, there are 50 cases where we missed the deadline of translation by a month. Why is this important? Obviously because of what we learned on September 10. This President and this Congress says that the central battle, the central front on the war on terrorism was Iraq, and we are stuck in a quagmire with over 1,000 dead soldiers, thousands of wounded soldiers, thousands of dead Iraqis, innocent Iraqis. But another component of this major war on terror was that we were going to overhaul governmental translation capabilities and we have not done it. Those of us who did not think it was a good idea to go to war were saying spend $200 billion securing our ports, securing our airports, making sure we check the cargo that is going in the planes, make sure we hire enough linguists, make sure we are translating all of these tapes. And we are not doing the job in the United States of America. This is not brain surgery. They are communicating with each other over faxes, e-mails, telephone conversations, cell phones. Why would we not hire enough FBI agents to figure out what they are saying? Because this President had to go to war. This was not glamorous enough for this President, in the trenches, doing what it takes, day by day by day. One hundred twenty thousand hours of tapes that were not even translated. We spent $48 million trying to increase the number of people we hired, and we only hired 300 more, but we have $1.3 billion spent every week in Iraq. Our priorities are screwed up.