On the recordJanuary 12, 2015
Mr. Speaker, it is truly astonishing that President Obama is asking Congress and the American people to applaud and reward the Castro regime for releasing 53 innocent people from its gulags today while ignoring the fact that over 1,000 were arrested last year. These individuals were imprisoned for expressing their basic rights as human beings, and for seeking reforms on the island based on the universal and fundamental principle of freedom. What a pathetically low bar President Obama has set. This administration has shown, time and again, that it is more willing to appease tyrants than to fulfill America's role as the defender of freedom, of democracy, and respect for human rights. President Obama's concessions to the Castro regime further illustrate that he is willing to abandon American core principles of liberty and justice in order to placate a dangerous regime. ____________________
