Ronald Dellums: “First, let me say, Mr. Chairman, that with respect to premature expansion of NATO I would tend to agree with the…”

“First, let me say, Mr. Chairman, that with respect to premature expansion of NATO I would tend to agree with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, but I would remind my colleague that in the context of H.R. 7, Contract for America, there was a great deal of very poignant, strident remarks with respect to the issue of the expansion of NATO, and it is slightly disingenuous to make that attack at this point when those remarks were contained in the Republican sponsored H.R. 7. Second, I tried to listen very carefully to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, who pointed out that they could purchase a missile, a national missile defense, from between $2 and $3 billion. That is not the missile defense system that is contained in the freestanding piece of legislation that will come to the floor over the next several days. As a matter of fact, as I understand it, the Congressional Budget Office, in costing the potential of the freestanding piece of legislation dealing with nationalistic defense, would more approximate $8 billion, and that is if we just keep it on the ground. If we go into space with Brilliant Pebbles, et cetera, we could be talking about a missile system well in excess of $30 billion, maybe approaching even $40 billion. So this $2 or $3 billion does not square with the reality.”