Political Quotes

“I just want to say this is an appropriate amendment for the gentlewoman to have come forward with and get unanimously approved as she ends her very distinguished tenure here, because she really, more than anybody else, began to call people's attention to it, and we need to continue to work on this. Mr. Chairman, we cannot read a study of the economic success of the tigers of East Asia without learning of the essential contribution of free American military protection to their economies as an element in their economic development. Our European allies continue to scale down. We are in a situation now where we are responding as we see fit for an emergency in the Middle East and many of our European allies who are the beneficiaries of our largesse are nowhere to be found in our support. One of the most important mistakes we make today, to our own misfortune, is to continue to subsidize at the cost of tens and tens of billions of dollars a year the wealthy nations of Europe and the increasingly wealthy nations of Asia. This is an important reaffirmation of that. It is appropriate that the gentlewoman from Colorado be the one once again to bring this to us. But we have a lot more work to do. This is a very good step. It will show what we know to be the case, the enormous disparity between what the American taxpayers put forward and what is put forward by nations in Europe and Asia that could very well afford to do more.”