Political Quotes

“Madam President, let me just say briefly that I have gotten a lot of calls about Egypt as well. Look, I understand it. We look at what is happening over there, we look at some of the wild things that are happening in the streets, certainly tragedies as well. We see the oppression of religious minorities, and we wonder: Why do we continue to give aid to a country that does that? I think that is a very important question. I think the problem we face is we in this place are sometimes put into a position between two absolutes, when there are other options available to us. The choice before us is not to cut off aid to Egypt or to continue aid to Egypt. I think the opportunity we have now is to restructure aid to Egypt in a way that furthers our national interest. What is our national interest in Egypt? Our national interest is to have a secular, stable, democratic government that provides security so their economy can grow, a government that lives up to the Camp David Accords, that cooperates in counterterrorism, that prevents discrimination to religious minorities. Our foreign aid should be restructured--not simply canceled but restructured--so that it fits and fills that aim that we have for that country and for our national security interests in that country.…”