Political Quotes

“The problem, my colleagues, is that we apparently have not convinced the Russians that the cold war is over. We see a continuing drive to modernize their strategic systems, which costs them billions and billions of dollars, to do other things with respect to chemical systems and biological warfare systems, which again cost them in the hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. And in light of that, in light of that continued expenditure of hard dollars by the Russians, the question we have to ask is does it make sense for us to subsidize the Soviet Union to the tune of some $300 million, which is what the full committee passed, or $327 million, which is what the administration asked for, without requiring certain certifications that the Soviet Union is slowing down this drive to modernize its systems and to build this deep, underground complex, which is bigger, incidentally, than the District of Columbia, and which could be used by the Russians to carry on weapons activities after a nuclear attack.”