Kendrick Meek: “Mr. Ryan, I think it is important that we realize that the President is talking about the economy in Iraq and is talking…”

“Mr. Ryan, I think it is important that we realize that the President is talking about the economy in Iraq and is talking about infrastructure, yet ignoring infrastructure here at home; talking about boosting oil production in Iraq while ignoring soaring energy costs here that have, in some cases, risen three times more than what Americans spent last year. He went down to New Orleans and gave a speech saying that we are going to build New Orleans back and it will be a shining example and it will be a city we can all be proud of because I will make sure, meanwhile the State legislature is trying to figure out how it is going to pay its share of the money that the Federal Government is saying it has to pay. And it literally has no economy right now. We have children now within this budget that they will not have free and reduced lunches, but meanwhile, the children of Iraq and the people of Iraq have universal health care. We have mayors now trying to figure out how they are going to meet their budgets. They are laying off workers, which equals fewer services for the people that pay taxes in those local cities and governments, because they have to pick up some of the Federal responsibility, where we have cut programs and opportunities for cities like the COPS program and many other programs like it. There are issues as relates to making sure that we secure our airlines and have a national transportation plan as it pertains to security.…”