Sam Gibbons: “I have come before this body over 150 times to talk to my colleagues and the American public about what I see are some…”

“I have come before this body over 150 times to talk to my colleagues and the American public about what I see are some of the important issues that this country faces. Oftentimes my colleagues on the other side have repeatedly accused the Republicans of leading a 'do-nothing' Congress. In one sense, I am very sorry to report that they are correct. This Congress has done nothing about our Nation's vulnerability to ballistic missile attack. Congress has failed to begin building a national missile defense system, a failure that is so inexcusable I will have to agree with my liberal Democratic colleagues, at least on this one point. The United States has a policy of deliberately remaining vulnerable to a missile attack. Instead of building a national missile defense system, we place our faith in a piece of paper called the ABM Treaty. Our national security depends, therefore, on tyrants, dictators, and international thugs to respect that piece of paper.”