Kendrick Meek: “Mr. Ryan, you are talking fact, not fiction. Anyone who wants to talk about balancing the U.S. budget, the Democrats are…”

“Mr. Ryan, you are talking fact, not fiction. Anyone who wants to talk about balancing the U.S. budget, the Democrats are the only party in the House, Madam Speaker, that have a right to say that we have done it. We have actually done it. You have a lot of folks saying, well, we are going to try to cut it in half, and maybe we will get it to a quarter or whatever on the Republican side, the Republican majority with all the power, control of the House, control of the Senate, and control of the Presidency. It should be a smooth-sailing process. If someone wants to call Democrats names and point fingers, call the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives a name. Call him a liberal. Call him someone who is irresponsible, if you want to name- call. And I challenge Members to come down here and talk about what is good about owing foreign countries money, not because they did something to us, but because this Congress gave the whole country a self-inflicting wound of debt. They have been saying we are going to spend your money irresponsibly, and then we are going to allow these other countries to own a piece of the American apple pie. Mr. Ryan, you did an excellent closing. I want to thank you, sir, for coming down to the floor. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the Democratic leadership for allowing us to have this second hour. ____________________”