Political Quotes

“I thank Congresswoman Lee for her constant leadership on this issue. When I was born in 1975, the embargo with Cuba was already more than a decade old. I never knew a time when Americans could go to Cuba or legally import goods and products from Cuba. Growing up, I remember the end of the cold war, when the Soviet Union fell. The last real excuse for the treatment of Cuba was that they were allied with the Soviet Union during the cold war. Well, the Soviet Union fell, Soviet subsidies and support for Cuba ended, and I really began to wonder why we continued this failed cold war policy of an embargo--travel embargo and trade embargo against Cuba. Presumably, it was designed to bring Fidel Castro's regime down. Now, again, this policy predates my birth by 10 years. It actually means that he is the longest-serving head of state in the entire world. Obviously, it didn't work. It didn't work. Are we going to keep doing the same thing? Maybe a different path would have worked, and that is what the President has now proposed. For more than 50 years, we have isolated our southern neighbor, restricting trade, travel, commerce, as well as the flow of ideas, discussion, cultural exchange, the very things that can lead to a change and more support for human rights within Cuba.…”