Problems that Ohio Faces
PROBLEMS THAT OHIO FACES -- (House of Representatives - July 20, 2004)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for the opportunity here tonight and for taking the leadership to put this together for us for the Ohio delegation.
We have suffered unlike any other State, I think in the country, as far as job loss goes. The one statistic that former Secretary Reich shared with us last week was that one in five of the jobs in the United States of America that were lost have been lost in the State of Ohio. One out of every five. And so if there is any constituency, if there is any State that has something at stake in the upcoming election, I think it is the great State of Ohio.
I would like to shift gears a little bit, not too much, but to talk a little bit within the same context of job loss and talk a little bit about China.
Ohio has had over the years an extremely strong manufacturing base in a variety of sectors, an opportunity to really grow our economy over the last 30 or 40 years and to provide a great opportunity for immigrants who have moved into the State of Ohio an opportunity to have a good wage and a pension and health care benefits and be able to send their kids on to school. We are now competing with, really, the great country as far as manufacturing goes that is China. We cannot deny it any longer. In many ways we have let this happen, but we have to deal with the facts as they present themselves today.
I was going through Wired Magazine last week, and I want to share with the American people and the citizens of the State of Ohio some statistics and some pie charts here. I do not know if they can read them at home so I will share them with them, but they can get this at Wired Magazine. I do not know if it is on their Web site or not, but their last publication had these, or maybe it was two publications ago, had these statistics in there. I want to share them with the American people because I think they are very indicative of the situation we are facing, the critical situation that we are facing in the United States of America.
Let me just say, first, that this is not an issue that we can deal with 10, 20, 30 years down the line. This is not an issue where we can say, "We're just going to wait. We're the United States. We're the superpower, the only superpower. We're going to wait and we'll deal with that later. We've got to deal with Iraq, and we've got the budget deficits."
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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And staggering, staggering in the sense, and the gentleman has been here a lot longer than I have, but he will remember, every trade agreement that we have signed, from NAFTA on, the great phrase, the permanent normal trade status that we have granted to China, at one point it was most-favored-nation, and Singapore and Chile and then Australia and now Morocco later this week.
In each instance, when we were talking about this, we were told that the high-wage jobs were going to stay here and that we were going to give the lower-paying jobs, the jobs that Americans did not want, we would let them go to China. We were told that all this new high technology, all these new high-tech jobs that we were going to be creating here in the United States of America would stay here, so our people would benefit with the jobs and health care and everything else.
I want to just share with the American people these pie charts. This is the top five exporters of electronics in the billions of dollars in 2002. Top five exporters of electronics, one of the industries that we thought when everyone was talking about these trade agreements, we could keep here.
Who is actually exporting these electronics? The United States of America in 2002, $2.5 billion; China exporting electronics, $8.8 billion worth. The United States, $2.5 billion; China, $8.8 billion. That was in 2002, top five exporters. Then it goes on, it has Italy is at $5.9 and Germany and the Republic of Korea.
Then we get to the top five exporters of telecom equipment in the billions of dollars in 2002. United States of America, $21.6 billion; China, $36.4 billion. In electronics, in telecommunications equipment, we are getting our clock cleaned. Wake up and smell the Starbucks.
Next pie chart. I will start over here. The top five exporters of assembled computers. When we were hearing NAFTA and GATT and permanent normal trade, these were the jobs. We are going to start making computers in the United States of America. You are going to go from making steel to computers. It is going to be great. You are going to make good wages. You are going to be able to move your community forward and increase your tax base.
Top five exporters of assembled computers, United States, $2.4 billion; China, $3.8 billion. They are cleaning our clock in the computer industry as well. Ireland, $4.6, Mexico, Malaysia.
So the point is well taken. Electronics, telecommunications equipment, assembled computers, we are getting our clock cleaned by China.
And so the point I want to make is, it is easy to sit up here and say, what do we do? We are getting beat up. We look like Rocky Balboa at the end of Rocky I. We have the bloody eye and we cannot see. We have the Band-Aid and our nose is broke. That is how the United States looks as we are competing with China.
And so what do we do? It is easy to make that analysis. The only thing that we can do is invest in education in the United States of America, and we have not done it.
This is a staggering statistic that I want to share with the American people that will explain and illustrate why we are having the problems that we are having today with China and why, if we do not fix this problem, we are going to continue to have these kinds of troubles.
Top five sources of engineering graduates: United States of America, 59,000 in 2001; China, 219,563 engineering graduates.
If we want to create the new economy, if we want to compete in electronics and computers and telecommunications equipment, if we want to start exporting, we need to have engineers graduating from universities in the United States of America who are going to go out into our economy, who are going to create jobs, start businesses, work for American companies. There are not many Americans that want to move to China. There just are not that many. That is not a jingoistic statement. That is not slamming the Chinese. The Chinese have a proud culture, as they should, as every country does in some capacity.
But quite frankly, I was not elected in China. I was elected in the United States of America. And when you see a problem like this, a problem that can be fixed, 219,000 engineers in China graduating every year compared to 59,000 in the United States of America, that is something that the United States of America can fix. We can make it a national priority. We can fund Pell grants. We can lower tuition costs around the country. We can provide incentives for people to graduate in math and science and engineering and the different kind of technological industries that we need them to graduate in.
We need to fund No Child Left Behind. We need to start at the beginning and we are not doing the job here in the United States of America.
There are a lot of problems here that we cannot fix. There are some problems that you hope, you say your prayers at night that the problems get fixed. This is not one of them. This is a problem we can fix. The unfortunate thing is, as I go through these educational statistics here, title I, underfunded by $7.2 billion. The No Child Left Behind Act that was passed by this administration and the Congress, the last Congress, just in Ohio, the No Child Left Behind Act with all the Federal mandates in Ohio, Ohio local school districts are underfunded by $1.5 billion this year, $1.5 billion.
Pell grants, in the 1970s when they started, they accounted for 80 percent of a person's college tuition. Now they account for 40 percent. Student loans being run by the banks. The banks are in on the deal now. We have to worry about making sure the banks make their cut instead of making sure students have the opportunity to go to school. There are 250,000 people that are college eligible that do not go to college because they cannot afford it, 250,000.
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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thought the economy was doing great. Did I miss something?
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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I welcome our good friend from Lorain, who is here.
A couple of points. We are, talking about how the wealthy are doing very well, and I think most Americans would say
George Bush is an all right guy, and this is not a personal debate that we are having here. These are statistics that we have. These are facts that we are presenting to the American people and let them make the decision that they need to make in the fall.
But I really think that this administration, very similar to the first President Bush's administration, has really gotten out of touch with average American families.
The gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) was just saying $600 for a hotel room. For people in my district, that is 2 months' rent. They are spending it for one night in a hotel room. I mean, that is out there. But I think this President has really become out of touch, and a couple of examples, one in particular, that I want to use.
Last year, last Labor Day, the President came to Ohio, and all the problems that we have talked about tonight, all of the issues that we have talked about with all the different cities in our communities and Youngstown, this President on Labor Day, the most job loss since Herbert Hoover, goes to Richfield, Ohio, which is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the State. He does not go to Toledo or Youngstown or Lorain or Akron or Cleveland or Steubenville. He goes to Richfield. I mean, if one really wants to empathize with the people who are suffering in our country, one does not go to the suburb. Go to where the people are hurting.
And two times ago when he came to Ohio, he was in a very small little county that had the best unemployment rate in Ohio. In the city of Youngstown, the unemployment rate is almost 17 percent. In the city of Warren, it is 14 percent. He goes to an area that is doing okay and says the economy is really turning around.
So I think that this administration is clearly out of touch. They are not understanding that we have lost 14,000 jobs in the State of Ohio just in June. This was not over the last year. Just in June we lost 14,000 jobs. Tuition has gone up by 10 percent. We are getting our clock cleaned by China. So I think all of these issues tell me, as a new Member of Congress, that this administration is not really getting the point.
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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, when the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) was talking about Timken and all the issues with China and how it really has tilted the playing field to benefit really the top 1 or 2 percent of the people who can benefit from the increase in stock prices and the increase in their own personal wages because they have to pay someone 50 cents an hour, as opposed to $50 an hour with health care benefits and all that, I think what we are trying to say here, beginning to wrap up, is all we are trying to do here is to create a system where everybody gets to play along.
It is like there are only certain kids that can get into the sandbox, and if you are not born to the right gene pool or you are not born in the right hospital or in the right neighborhood or belong to the right church, somehow you do not get to play.
All we are saying is, there are ways that the government throughout the history of this country has played a role in moving these people along.
We mentioned earlier with the Title I funding, which deals with at-risk youths who need help, Title I funding, the 2005 President's budget underfunded it by $7.2 billion. $7.2 billion.
So we could talk about China, and we are getting our clock cleaned, and the top 1 percent is really benefiting. The question the American people are asking and the people in my district are asking is, how do we help those people who are not able to play along? And the answer that we always have come up with in this country is to make sure everybody is educated, that everybody has health care, that everybody has a shot. You may not finish the same, but you should start the same at the beginning.
All I am saying is, we are trying to argue that if the system does not help everybody, the system is not working; and this system is not working. The threat when people do not move along with everyone else is, the whole system collapses.