Tim Ryan: “It is the war intelligence that no one here has asked any questions on. It is what is going on with the ports. It is the…”

“It is the war intelligence that no one here has asked any questions on. It is what is going on with the ports. It is the amount of borrowing that we are doing; this $3 trillion in new debt this Republican Congress and the Republican Senate and House and White House has incurred on the American people and, just like in our own houses, we have to pay interest on that debt, that money that we borrow. What we are having happen now, because of the reckless and fiscally irresponsible behavior of the Republican majority, it is impossible for us to make the kind of investments that we need to make here, Mr. Speaker. Every single family fundamentally understands the importance of education; yet here is what we have to fund because of all this borrowing. We pay this much on our interest on the debt, not even buying the debt down, but just paying the interest on it, Mr. Meek. We have to pay almost $230 billion in the 2007 budget. These little blocks down here, these are the investments that we have to make in education, in homeland security, for veterans. Look how small they are compared to the interest on the debt.”