Tim Ryan: “And it is a total lack of leadership. If you look, this is quite significant. In the first 224 years of the country, we…”

“And it is a total lack of leadership. If you look, this is quite significant. In the first 224 years of the country, we borrowed $1.101 trillion from foreign interests. In the last 4 or 5 years, we have borrowed more than that. $1.05 trillion under President Bush and the Republican Congress. Look at this. They have managed to accomplish more in the last 4 or 5 years than all previous Presidents combined. And at the same time, as we are borrowing this money and we are paying it back in interest to China, taking more of our money from our budget here to pay the interest, I find it peculiar that in 2004, 8 percent of graduating seniors carried student loans of more than $40,000. That is up from 1.3 percent 10 years prior to. More kids are incurring more debt to go to college at a time when the economy has totally shifted from industry to knowledge based capitalism, knowledge based economy.”