Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the ``Belarus Democracy Act'' reauthorization. This title of this bill would have amused George Orwell, as it is in fact a U.S. regime-change bill. Where does the United States Congress derive the moral or legal authority to determine which political parties or organizations in Belarus--or anywhere else--are to be U.S.-funded and which are to be destabilized? How can anyone argue that U.S. support for regime-change in Belarus is somehow ``promoting democracy''? We pick the parties who are to be supported and funded and somehow this is supposed to reflect the will of the Belarusian people? How would Americans feel if the tables were turned and a powerful foreign country demanded that only a political party it selected and funded could legitimately reflect the will of the American people? I would like to know how many millions of taxpayer dollars the U.S. government has wasted trying to overthrow the government in Belarus. I would like to know how much money has been squandered by U.S. government-funded front-organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republic Institute, Freedom House, and others meddling like the old Soviet Union in the internal politics of a country that has neither threatened nor attacked the United States. It is the arrogance of our foreign policy and we call it ``democracy.'' We wonder why we are no longer loved and admired overseas.…”