Economic Populism

Floor Speech

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Mr. RYAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Deluzio, for his leadership on this and for bringing this group together to remind us that as Americans who love this country, we need that strong, muscular economic patriotism to serve my constituents in my district, which is the Hudson Valley of New York State, and across this country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I love this country. I believe it is the greatest country in the history of the world. I believe it is worth fighting for, and we must fight for it now.

I also believe when you see something that isn't working, Mr. Speaker, you stand up and you do everything in your power to fix it.

Our country and our party are at a crossroads. It is up to us, the people who have the incredible honor to stand on the floor of the United States House of Representatives in this Chamber, to forge the path forward.

Unlike some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I won't try to deny the outcome of the election in November 2024.

Too many Americans felt Democrats had become the party of the elites and had stopped meeting people where they are, not understanding the pain that they are feeling in their lives and their families at their kitchen tables when they get up go to work and come home exhausted at night.

Democrats need to learn from their mistakes. This moment is not ideological. It is about who fights for the people and who fights for the elites.

I believe first and foremost that if you are using labels like ``moderate'' or ``progressive,'' you are missing the entire point. I gave former President Biden hell for failing to secure our border. I think that is a nonpartisan issue. That doesn't make me a moderate. I campaigned with my colleague AOC against big corporations screwing over my constituents and polluting the Hudson River in my district. That doesn't make me a progressive.

If the last election made anything clear, it is high costs and economic pain are first and foremost on our constituents' minds.

Donald Trump promised to help with that. He has not unequivocally. In fact, everything he has done in office has helped his billionaire cronies, who, by the way, gave hundreds of millions of dollars to his campaign at the expense of families like the ones that I represent in my district across the Hudson Valley.

Trump's failure to bring down costs is handing Democrats the answer on a silver platter. Our response cannot stop at Donald Trump who works for the wealthy though, which is true. It must go further.

Donald Trump works for the wealthy, and Democrats work and fight for you, the working class and middle class of this country, the economic patriots of the United States of America.

Just over a year ago, I stood on this very floor and ultimately successfully called on the CEO of a local utility monopoly in my district which had been screwing over my constituents, robbing them blind, literally emptying their dwindling savings accounts due to a failure of their billing practices. I called on that CEO to resign, and he was held accountable, and he did. That company ultimately paid $62 million back to my constituents in the form of accountability.

Now, Optum, the healthcare company, which is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, the single largest health insurer in our country and really one of only three companies in the United States of America that controls the entire healthcare market has been buying up medical practices across my district.

Just a few weeks ago, I launched a community inquiry. Thousands of my constituents and my neighbors and friends who have been hurt by Optum have responded detailing horrific stories of declining healthcare quality, erroneous billing, and we are continuing to gather this evidence, the voices of the people, the American people, and to ultimately hold this big corporation who has been making record- breaking profits quarter after quarter accountable.

Here is another example. For months, broadcast companies, big telecoms in New York were in a deadlock fight over streaming rights that left over a million New Yorkers, paying customers, staring at blank screens trying to watch sports games to take their mind off of all the pressures in their lives. Knicks fans and Rangers fans who paid couldn't see games. As one of those fans, I was mad as hell that I had paid and couldn't watch a game while a multibillion-dollar corporation kept raking in more profits and didn't seem to care at all about their paying customers.

Thankfully, under pressure, that blackout has ended, and we are now demanding Optimum, the telecom, the main perpetrator of this, pay back the customers who were harmed.

I have also introduced something called the Stop Sports Blackout Act so if this ever happens again, there won't be a question that a company has to pay and give customers the refunds for games they couldn't watch.

Whether in their utility bills, their healthcare bills, or just trying to watch a sports game, that is putting money back in people's pockets when pressure is so high, and that matters.

In closing, there is so much power now in the voices of our communities, but only if we, their elected Representatives, listen and act and elevate it. That is economic patriotism.

I am proud that as a Democrat our party stands with law enforcement and police officers, stands with small businesses, stands with veterans, stands with hardworking families, with nurses, teachers, and truck drivers. Democrats stand with our constituents, whether they voted for us or not, and, yes, we stand against Donald Trump and his harmful policies, but we stand for so, so much more.

A group of patriots unyielding and unwavering in their dedication to fighting for the people and against anyone who would do them harm, that is the Democratic Party that I am proud to be a part of, and that is our path out of this moment.

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