Pat Ryan: “What you are seeing here before the United States Congress is two clear, different visions of America and where we want…”

“What you are seeing here before the United States Congress is two clear, different visions of America and where we want to go and what we want to do. We know that China is running circles around us. We know they are building islands in the South China Sea. We know Russia is on the border. We know the middle class has been eroded. And we know the Republican philosophy has been cut taxes for the top 1 percent and hope the crumbs fall down to places like Youngstown, Ohio. But what we are trying to do is three things. We want to build the United States, we want to rebuild the middle class, and we want to beat China. But we can't do that if we don't have our greatest weapon. And our greatest weapon during the Cold War and our greatest weapon over the last 50 years has been a strong middle class. That has been our greatest weapon, our greatest strength. We reinvested into the United States, we reinvested into our communities, we invested in the technology, and we dominated the industry: steel, glass, and aerospace. Now, we are hearing from the other side: Shut government down. Don't do anything. We don't want to be an honest broker. Tyranny? What are you people talking about? We are talking about universal preschool, and they have it as a communist indoctrination of the American student. It is insane. We need to pass this appropriations bill. We need to pass the CHIPS Act, because we have got to close the technology gap. The SPEAKER pro tempore.…”