Quality to grant. Sunday night on cspans q and a. From washington journal, this is 20 minutes. Congressman tim ryan is back at our desk. Hes from a region particularly hard hit from the Opioid Crisis. And President Trump last week declared the Opioid Epidemic a Public Health emergency. What will be the impact of him doing that on the ground . Its welcome, but theres no money there. If you look at some county, portage county, my district, you need money. Money on the ground for law enforcement, money for the First Responders addressing a lot of these issues. And mostly you need the money for treatment. This is not alcohol addiction. These drugs are very potent, a 30day or 60day stay in rehab is not enough. You need maybe three, four, five months to get yourself off of this and get yourself well. And i think sometimes a lot of people just dont understand the level of devastation in some of these communities. Youre talking money nation would, how much would you like to see going to this crisis . We sent a letter to the president to fully fund all the programs and comprehensive recovery act we passed a few months ago, it was a bipartisan bill. We had democrats and republicans working on it. We need about 10 billion i think just to fund those programs. This is national epidemic. And in the midst of conversations were having now with tax cuts and what the budget looks like, moving in the wrong direction. Is any of that money come from the president s Opioid Crisis report that the president commissioned on the Opioid Crisis led by chris christie. I think they have some recommendations in there. I sent a letter asking for a lot more money, but at the ended of the day if you dont have it in the budget, if you dont put it in the Public Health account for a public emergency, theres not going to be any money on the ground for people trying to work back in west virginia, ohio, kentucky, some of these really hard hit areas. A Business Insider chart showing the deaths per 100,000 people when it comes to opioid overdoses. West virginia in the mid30s range. Ohio where youre from just over 120,000 people, kentucky just below that. Pennsylvania, those are some of the highest rates in the country. How much of your time back home do you spend on this issue . I literally have two staff people working almost fulltime on the opioid issue because theres so many meetings, theres so much grassroots activity. Plus here in washington, d. C. Chairing the Addiction Treatment recovery caucus, were spending a lot of time here on the legislative side, through the budget, through legislative activities to try to deal with this issue. So were spending a good deal of time trying to address this issue. Just for an example, my district director who runs our district offices in ohio sends our staff a text, you know, a couple of weeks ago of right across the street from him in a nice neighborhood, decent neighborhood, an ambulance there, a woman across the street. And this is happening in all of our neighborhoods regardless of wealth, regardless of income, regardless of color. Its dominating whats happening in our communities. Drug deaths in 2016 expected to exceed 60,000 in record when the final numbers are available. Can you say its Getting Better . No. No, not at all. I mean thats just to give people perspective, thats more people than we lost in the vietnam war. In one year. So we have a vietnam war happening every year now. And no end in sight. More fentanyl, which is more potent than heroin. More carfentanyl, which is more potent than fentanyl is. Even trying this stuff dekill you, its important to get that message out to them. Congressman tim ryan here for about 15, 20 minutes taking your calls. Independence, 2026260253 this morning. Want to hear your thoughts, your questions for him. He is the cochairman of the congressional Addiction Treatment and recovery caucus. Well give you john first from wisconsin. Line for democrats. John go ahead. Okay, i just have one thing to say. You know, nobody talks about the law and how its implemented on people that are selling drugs. And i think that if they put more teeth into the law, that tmd stop a lot of people from selling drugs. They would not be available. And that includes the drugs that are coming across the border. You know, its the same thing. We dont need a wall down in mexico between there and texas, we need better laws hadch and there isnt any politicians around that are talking about the law and how it pertains to illegal drugs. Thats my question. Congressman. Well, there are laws on the books now. Im working with tom rooney, whos a republican out of florida on making it easier for us to bus people who are pushing fentanyl, which a lot of that is coming in from china. So weve got to work the Mexican Government and the Chinese Government on the heroin piece out of mexico and the fentanyl piece out of china. Its important to deal with this globally. But when you look at these local communities, they dont have the resources for these First Responders, for these cops on the beat in eroded towns. Again, this gets back to this economic issue in this country today where we dont have the where with all to push back on these things. Is it having the bodies to deal with this . Is it having the treatment and lifesaving drugs . Whats the treatment crisis right now . Well, its hard to pick. You need more boots on the ground in the United States in these local communities. Theyre getting dominated with rescue efforts, resuscitating people who have overdosed, saving lives. One night a few weeks ago we had 18 overdoses, we had two or three deaths. Thats in large part the First Responders show up with narcan to resuscitate people. Theres a burn out with our First Responders. We have issues once you do bust somebody, getting the lab work process quick enough to make sure what we found is heroin or is fentanyl or is x, y or z. In ohio theyre not getting the information back to the local prosecutors three, four, five months later. A lot of people are getting off at that point. Theyre back on the streets selling. Thats what im saying. The Public Health emergency, the rhetoric is fine, but its got to be backed up with some money so we can get this process going. Samuel in new york. Line for independence. Go ahead. Hello . Go ahead, samium, youre on with congressman ryan. Youve got a problem here with drugs because youve got so many on the streets. Youve got to cut the supply off. And to cut the supply off we need to secure our borders. And until we secure our borders youre going to continue to have problems with drugs. The area i live in, were saturated with Illegal Immigrants who bring with them a lot of these illegal drugs. And they dont pay taxes, and they could care less about our drug problem. So a couple of things, i agree with you. I think Border Security is important when were talking about drugs coming over the border. Now, in contrast to building a wall, most drugs, 90 of the drugs are coming through the port of entries. Theyre in cars. Theyre in backpacks with people just driving through the United States. So we have to up the security. When youre thinking about these drugs, you know, they come over in very small amounts. In fentanyl, a synthetic drug, its difficult to identify it even with dogs because of its nature. So thats important. Another issue thats really scary is how much how much of the stuff comes through the mail. It actually gets shipped through the mail into the United States. And its so hard because we get millions and millions of packages that come in and out of the United States every year to identify where the stuff is coming from. And again, thats a resource issue if were going to really trying to push back on this stuff. Bonny is in pennsylvania, line for republicans. Bonny, go ahead. Yes, i just wanted to speak on some things that could be done that dont take a lot of money. And that is letting these addicts who do survive continue on with their lives, letting them have their drivers licenses back, possibly having their fines reduced so that when they do get a job, they can pay them off. And if they cant drive, they cant go to work. Letting them vote again is a good thing to make them feel part of society. And one other thing is hard to come by at times. Its difficult for an addict to get to a clinic or get the correct paperwork or what they need. Make it more readily available so they can move on with their lives. I think some good suggestions. The suboxone, too. In reintegration, thats an important point you made. But prior to the reintegration we must see the treme. And what were seeing right now coming out of washington with both the House RepublicanHealth Care Bill and the senate Health Care Bill, its throwing 20 Million People off of their health care. So in the state of ohio thats about 200,000 people getting Addiction Treatment now through the Medicare Program primarily is losing their coverage. So theres no getting their drivers license back, no getting back into the work force if you dont have a robust treatment agenda in the United States that can help get these people better. Just a few minutes left for tim ryan of ohio. Clayton in is ohio, line for democrats. Go ahead. In the va system, i worked there, i see a lot of people that have to wait years for their surgery. I have to say hes one of the lucky ones. Five years ago he was on opiates for the past five years. Again, hes one of the lucky ones. I see this day in and day out. People who should have had this Service Years ago, but our government keeps pushing those drugs. Is there any way you can take care of that . Were working on it. The secretary of the va is focused on this as well, and i think hes done a pretty good job in moving in the right direction and finding ways to manage pain. And theres a lot of other ways to do it other than just the strict prescribing and overprescribing of the opiates. Theres acupuncture, mindfulness based techniques that are helping people deal with chronic pain. So theres other ways to do it before you jump straight to the opiates. And the va is starting to pursue some of those now. And i think its important to do that not just in the va but in this country. We did get into the culture over the last 20 plus years of Pain Management primarily through these prescription drugs, and the prescription drugs have become stronger and stronger. And thats kind of what led to where we are now. You mentioned the assessment of the head of the va. I wonder if you could give me a sense of the head of your party, your Democratic Caucus. Weve talked before about your effort to challenge nancy pelosi for leadership of the Democratic Caucus. Do you think she would win leadership election today . Well, were not having one until next year. So she is our leader, and we are united in our attempt to win back the house in 2018. I think donald trumps, not only his behavior but his agenda, the republican tax bill, for example, which is going oo be a complete give away to people who have done extremely well over the last 20 or 30 years, those are the things throwing people off health care as i just mentioned those are things uniting democrats around the values that we have. Just to give you one example. Over the last 30 years since we had tax reform the last time, 96 of Income Growth has gone to the top 10 . So in 30 years, 96 of Income Growth went to the wealthiest 10 of the people in the United States. And so the republican tax plan is to give that group primarily a tax cut while people in youngstown and indiana and other places have had these stagnant increases in 20 years. Before we leave the topic of nancy pelosi ay, your you surprised to hear Linda Sanchez say its time to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders in the Democratic Caucus . No, i mean i love linda. I mean everybody has their opinion on things. Obviously i had an opinion and i did what i did. Linda has an opinion and other people do you still have that opinion the. Well, the bottom line is we are not in a position to make any changes. We are locked in with the leadership that we have. I think nancy pelosi embodies in many ways the values that were going to be campaigning on here in the next few months. And so were united. And when you look at what the democrats are trying to stand for and you look at what the republicans are trying to do, its completely opposite of what President Trump campaigned on. I mean he was in ohio talking about expanding health care. Washington, d. C. , both republican bills throw 20 million out of health care. He was talking about increasing taxes for the wealthy and cutting taxes on the middle class. But the bills are increasing taxes on the middle class and line for independence, jane, go ahead. Hi, i just wondered why they dont try to control the opioids the way they do the pseudoephedrine. Where you have to sign for the pills, why cant they use the same system for the opioids . Well, theres a lot of that going on now with recommendations. States have taken the initiative saying you can only prescribe for example, seven days worth of opiates. So limiting the amount that can actually be prescribed, i think thats an important step for us to take. But ultimately the problem is as you have people that are addicted to the pills, and the pills go offline for you personally and say we give you anymore, then people go to the street drugs. Theres someone waiting in the parking lot. Maybe they have a bottle of pill tuesday sell you and say i have 30 more pills, oh, i pay you cash, they give it to them. Heres my number, call me when youre out. They call them back when theyre out, and they say i dont have the pills but ive got other stuff. And they sell them fentanyl or heroin. And thats how it starts. One of the things i want to make sure we mention, too, all these things are important. But i really believe if people have opportunity and they have work and they have rising wages and they have a secure pension and they can have a good, solid middle class income, that theres you can diminish the impact of this stuff. Because you have purpose and you have something that you really are trying to achieve and want to live for. And its not a coincidence in a lot of these areas a lot of job loss, stagnant wages and all the rest and the Opioid Epidemic is a symptom of that. Is that sort of bringing all this together, sort of sounds like the beginning of perhaps a president ial Campaign Platform . Have you considered running for president . Youre not hoeding back this morning, are you . Again, very focused on 2018. I think one tof the achilles heels for democrats is we get so enamored in these president ial races. I will say i want to be a major part of redefining the democratic party, getting us focused back on the wages, pensions, these issues that are bread and butter in places where i come from. So im very interested in being part of that discussion. Where that ends up, im not sure. But i think if we focus on those issues we can win the house back in 2018. I think the next party, the republican or the democrats, that gets their arms around the Economic Issues weve been having economic elections for almost 15, 20 years now. I think bush, i think 04 well, 04 was terrorism. 06, 08 was based on globalization, automation, artificial intelligence, lack of investment, we have venture cap tal in which 80 goes to three states, massachusetts, new york cities imploded, lot of bloat. I think the next Political Party that gets their arm around fixing that is going to be the party thats going to govern for a while. And i want to be an asset and advocate for saying this is what the democrats should do. Congressman tim ryan, democrat from ohio from the akron yun akr akron youngstown area. Thank you so much. Coming up friday morning Bloomberg Tax reporter Laura Davidson and the Washington Post mike devones discuss the tax reform republican bill released today and its potential impact on taxpayers. Live at 7 00 eastern friday morning. Join the discussion. President trump is heading to asia with stops in japan, south korea, china, vietnam and the philippines. In south korea hell visit with troops at camp hum fraez and adra thesz the nation on his japan hell make a stop in hawaii to visit pearl harbor and the uss arizona memorial. Following this weeks terror attack a Justice Department immigration official testified before a house judiciary