Jeff Flake: “just 2 days ago, we witnessed a transition of power in Cuba. It is no surprise that the new government in Cuba looks a…”

“just 2 days ago, we witnessed a transition of power in Cuba. It is no surprise that the new government in Cuba looks a lot like the old. It's time for a get-tough policy on Cuba. It's time to end the isolation that has been both a friend and an enabler to decades of oppression. This isolation has given the Cuban Government a convenient scapegoat for the failure of socialism. We should not give Raul Castro the same benefits that we gave his brother Fidel. We cannot continue to be the Goliath to their David. For too long, U.S. policy toward Cuba has missed the island by about 90 miles. Our Cuba policy, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, has been more about Florida than about Cuba, more about securing votes in Miami than securing the right to vote in Havana. Madam Speaker, we are too great a country than to deny Cuban American families the right to visit family members in Cuba. We are too great a country than to deny our own citizens the right to travel to the island and to give aid and comfort to those who have endured decades of oppression. Freedom in Cuba is a worthy goal, a goal that would perhaps be more easily achieved if we practice a little more of it ourselves.”