Political Quotes

“Mr. President, what I said before was, on four separate occasions over just a couple of months, the administration had assured Members of the Senate that it would not use food aid as an enticement to the North Koreans to come to the negotiating table. Here are direct quotations from the State Department, comments such as ``had no intention of rewarding them for their actions that their government has already agreed to take.'' Reaffirmed, ``There are no financial incentives for North Korea to meet the precepts or engage in talks.'' Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, ``To be clear, the Administration will not provide any financial incentives to Pyongyang. . . .'' et cetera, on the negotiations. And further that ``any engagement with North Korea will not be used as a mechanism to funnel financial or other rewards to Pyongyang.'' We also heard media reports and asked them about them. They said no: These media reports are not accurate. U.S. policy toward North Korea has not changed. We have no intention of rewarding North Korea-- And so on. And a mere 3 weeks later, we do exactly the opposite. That is why a waiver for the President to say otherwise does not do any good and why I urge support---- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.”