Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH 17th) is no stranger to delivering some powerful speeches on the floor of the House (previous examples here and here) and today was no exception:
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Download Ryan: "This administration wants to talk about anything but the war and the economy. They want to change the debate whenever they can"
He was on fire today as he brought up all the problems going on with Iraq and how the White House refuses to acknowledge them. He finishes with providing a break down of the costs of the war in Iraq, right down to the hour - which is $11.5 million/hour.
(rough transcript below the fold)
Let's be honest here, Mr. Speaker, this is a joke, OK?
Because this is about 84% of Americans saying that we're losing the war in Iraq. This is about all of these generals that we've been showing night in and night out saying there's no plan to get out of here; there was a bad plan to get in; there was a bad plan to start with; and there was no plan; bad information; bad intelligence; nothing was right. Look back at everything they said about using the oil for reconstruction money; about being greeted as liberators; about all of this nonsense that we heard before.
This is an opportunity for this administration, Mr. Meek, to try to change the subject. And all of a sudden, we're talking about a few political prisoners--and it has enormous ramifications--but the bottom line is this: this administration wants to talk about anything but the war or the economy.
They want to change the subject when they get a chance to and now we've got this debate about military prisoners and I'm not saying that it's not important, but my God, you got millions of people living in poverty. You got seniors and you threaten them with their Medicare. And you have 40 million people without health insurance. You have stagnant wages. You have gas prices going up, you have health care going up, you have tuition going up, you have poverty rates going up and you have veterans' benefits going down. And you want to talk about this little sliver to change the subject?
And you're coming up with new phrases again, fascism and all of this stuff. $8.4 billion per month; $1.9 billion per week in Iraq; $275 million per day in Iraq; $11.5 million per hour in Iraq. If this is the legacy of the Bush administration, you know what? If I was in the White House, I wouldn't want that talk about this either.
