Richard Gephardt: “I urge a large bipartisan vote for this amendment. We have had burdensharing amendments in the past and I am afraid they…”

“I urge a large bipartisan vote for this amendment. We have had burdensharing amendments in the past and I am afraid they have not gotten the result that all of us want. The progress that we have made in this area has been not enough in my view. This is a new amendment that we have worked on in a bipartisan way. It broadens the traditional approach that we have taken to burdensharing. We are asking our allies not merely to pay more but to do more, to play an active role in their own defense and in their region's affairs. This bill is intended to increase burdensharing in four critical areas: financial support, defense spending, participation in multinational military operations, and foreign aid. We believe it gives the President the leverage he needs to achieve that goal, and it gives the Congress the information it needs to take action unilaterally if our allies do not rise to the challenge. I believe this amendment is a much better approach than the one that we have used in the past. We will not simply reduce over presence overseas if our allies do not do more, because in some cases that hurts us more than it hurts them. Instead, we will provide the incentives to make it in our allies' clear interests to play a greater role, as they should. If that fails, we can take serious unilateral action. And, believe me, we should do that if we do not get the result that we have been asking for. The new world order demands a new world partnership.”