Tim Ryan: “Well, it's interesting that one of the gentlemen, Mr. Speaker, that was down here complaining about earmarks just…”

“Well, it's interesting that one of the gentlemen, Mr. Speaker, that was down here complaining about earmarks just minutes ago prior to our getting down here, and we are not here to play gotcha but we are here to reveal what has happened here, in this bill loaded with earmarks, loaded with all this pork, one of the gentlemen down here, Mr. Speaker, had requested 20 earmarks worth $38 million but turns around and comes to the House floor and is critical of the Rich Center for Autism in Youngstown and dam safety projects and after-school programs and some of the other districts that are here and calling it pork and in one of the instances was trying to in some way disparage the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) in his project that he had that was named after him and the same gentleman is now supportive of the Thomas Road Improvement Program that is now under way that his predecessor, Representative Bill Thomas, submitted with his own name on it for the project but yet comes down and is critical. So our point is not to play gotcha. Our point is to say that Members of Congress should be able to direct a certain amount, and it's only a small percentage of the budget. I don't even know if it's .5 percent of the entire budget.”