Tim Ryan: “I have a couple of e-mails that I would like to share from last week. We asked everyone 2 weeks ago to e-mail us in what…”

“I have a couple of e-mails that I would like to share from last week. We asked everyone 2 weeks ago to e-mail us in what they thought their priorities were in the country. If it was Social Security, they could say it was Social Security. If not, tell us what you think the real crises are in the country. We have Jim Munroe and Nancy Grover from Albuquerque, New Mexico: ``The number one priority has to be turning the deficit around while making the tax system fair and equitable.'' Mari Howells from Erie, Pennsylvania, a 30-something Dem who saw us a couple of weeks ago: ``Health Insurance! Our health care system is awful. It is bringing the whole country down. Number 2: the war. What a mess. Number 3: poorly funded schools.'' I am going to take a minute here to read a beautiful e-mail that we received a couple of weeks ago from a man who saw us three on C-SPAN. He was laid off on September 11, 2002, from a Fortune 500 company in Dallas, Texas. Informed that his position had been dissolved, ``and since I was one of the highest paid, 38,000 a year, on their help desk, that I had to be one of the first ones to go. I was given 2 weeks severance pay and found out through my network that the company had outsourced the help desk to an overseas vendor. I am a proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force where I served 8 years and received an honorable discharge.…”