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Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. It is always a pleasure to join you as we talk about the important issue of getting our fiscal house in order. 

Coming out of this recent election, the American people spoke and they spoke boldly, and the one thing they said was they want a new direction. A part of that new direction is to be fiscally responsible and to make sure we are spending the taxpayers' money wisely.

I want to talk about several aspects of this today, one of which I want to start off by talking about the aspect of our foreign borrowing. That is one of the most dangerous areas in which we are moving.

As you well know, we now are borrowing more money from foreign governments and foreign banks, foreign financial institutions. In the last 5 years, we borrowed more money from foreign interests than we borrowed in the whole history of this country up to 2001.

I want to make that clear because I know the American people are sitting there and saying, is he saying what I think he is saying, that since 1789, at the birth of this country, through all the way up to 2001, we have borrowed less money from foreign governments than we have borrowed in the past 5 years? That is a dangerous situation for us to be in. It is dangerous to the future of our country, and we must move to correct that.

When we look at Japan, we are borrowing nearly $700 billion from Japan. We are borrowing $368 billion from China, and we are borrowing $117 billion from Taiwan. We are borrowing over $200 billion from the OPEC nations. When you look at the Asian Basin and you look at the Middle East, you also find another occurrence that is troubling, and it presents some of the most unstable regimes and countries in our world today. It is a terrible situation for us to be in.

At home, we must act more responsibly by making sure that we are spending our money and putting our priorities where they count the most. The American people are looking for help in terms of getting more of this money into their pockets, being able to help them with critical issues of education. 

So, for a little bit today, I want to talk about what we are doing as Democrats, and I thank God because this is the first time that I am standing and you are standing in this floor on the House of Representatives with this debate when we can say to the American people as Democrats, thank you, thank you for giving Democrats an opportunity to lead this Congress. We are grateful and we are humbled because we understand the levity and the seriousness of this responsibility that the American people have given us to lead. Nowhere is that more crucial than in taking care of their money and taking care of our fiscal responsibility and being responsible for it.

So I think it is very important that as we talk this afternoon about this responsibility to let the American people know where we are going to work quickly to make sure we are paying attention to their needs, and one of the first places that we are going to start is to raise the minimum wage.

Why is that important, people say, the minimum wage? It is more than just a symbolic gesture. It is a timely gesture. We have had the minimum wage since 1938. There has never been as long a period where we have not adjusted the minimum wage as in the period since the last raising of the minimum wage. So it is important for us to show the American people, at least they will see, they are paying attention to us. Yes, we will pay attention to the world; yes, we are very much concerned about what is happening in the world; but we must immediately send a message to the American people that we care about you. We care about America first. That is why the importance of raising this minimum wage is so important. It sends that message. The American people say, oh, okay, I think they get it.

You are absolutely right, and it is so important I think as we talk this afternoon that the American people are well aware that they are in good shape with Democrats in control of the Congress.

Let me go on from the minimum wage. I mean, that is important. We are going to get that done and we are going to do it in a bipartisan way. We will reach out to the Republicans. We will work with Republicans. That is another thing that the American people want to see us do.

I can't tell you the number of times on the campaign trail that people will come up to me and say, Congressman Scott, for goodness sake; can you all stop the bickering? Can you just get along? To paraphrase our friend in California, can we just get along? And we are going to do that. 

So we find common ground on the minimum wage and quickly pass that. Then we can find common ground, and let me just say something about the minimum wage as we go forward so people will know. We are talking about pay-as-you-go; we are talking about keeping financial and fiscal responsibility in and making sure we are accountable. This minimum wage is totally absorbed by the private sector, by the employment sector. We are simply making the adjustment to give a due raise to go in line with inflation and the other needs to bring the minimum wage up to the standard that we have.

And I will tell you why I am so pleased with our leadership and Leader Pelosi and STENY HOYER, JIM CLYBURN, and all of our great leaders. They have said that before this Congress gets another raise in pay, we will raise the minimum wage for the American people. That is leadership that the American people can be proud of.

As we move from the minimum wage, another area that we are going to work on very quickly: we know the high cost of education, we know what it costs for a young person to go to college. We have found a way in which we can get common ground. The Democrats will lead the way in cutting in half the interests that students will have to pay on their student loans. That is the kind of tax cut for middle-class America that is needed. It impacts everybody to have that. And we pay for it as we go. We can afford that, because that money that is saved is stimulated and goes right back into the economy. When you are able to get money back to the consumers and to the American people, they are able to use that money in every area; but it is recycled, it continues to go back into the economy to help the greater productivity of this country.

Mr. Speaker, it is very important that we put this in context because as we move forward with pay as you go, we at the same time must respond to the needs of the American people. But we are doing so in a very fiscally responsible way. Check the minimum wage, no Federal expenditure. It will be absorbed by the private sector, and indeed stimulating that private sector to produce more.

The movement to bring down prescription drugs by having the Secretary of Health and Human Services be able to negotiate using the bulk number of 55 million recipients of Medicare to be able to bring down the cost that accrues to us.

And just now with the release of the Iraq Study Group report, and Mr. Israel and I share as cochairs of our Democratic group, as cochairs on national security, that we have been examining these issues. He is absolutely right. We must take better care of our military. The American people are expecting our expenditures to go there. And one of the great, I think, recommendations of this study group that is headed by Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Baker that was just presented to the President yesterday is the realization, number one, we have to make some changes in this Iraqi situation because of the terrible drain that it is doing to our military. If we don't correct that, surely the security of our country goes down.

The other area that we talked about with regard to fiscal responsibility is the matter of halving the interest rate that our students pay on their student loans. That is money that goes back into the economy and a savings to our middle-class families.

Now the other area that we are going to move on in our first 100 hours is to begin to deal forthrightly with our problem of energy, our problem of energy dependence on the Middle East, that most volatile region. We are making great strides. One of our first efforts is to increase the incentives to go into renewable energy.

I just came back with a group of other Congressmen who are members of the Agriculture Committee. We went to Brazil. The reason we went to Brazil and South America, is because we realize here in this country we don't have all of the answers. But I will tell you one thing; they are doing something very special down in South America. We need to hurry up and do it here.

For example, in Brazil, 85 percent of their new automobiles that they are putting out in the market this year are flex fuels so that they will be able to use ethanol as well as regular gasoline.

I asked the Minister of Industry in Argentina and Brazil this one question about their trade relations with the Middle Eastern countries and what percentage of their energy they were getting from abroad: Argentina and Brazil, absolutely none. They are almost at the point of being energy independent because they had the foresight to move on this area.

I am so pleased with our leadership on the Democratic side to say among our first efforts will be to increase at a rapid rate our preparedness, our infrastructure, so that we can develop ethanol in this country from the primary two sources that we have, granular corn and soybeans, as well as cellulosic.

Absolutely. Again, energy and becoming independent is a reachable goal. It is a doable goal, and we can reach that conclusion within a matter of a few years with the kind of leadership we are putting forward.

I am proud to say we will be putting research grants into that to spur our country to move very rapidly and develop that infrastructure.