Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I join the chairman of the full committee in opposing this amendment, but I must say if the House gave an award to the most improved amendment writing, the authors of this amendment would certainly win that award. It is a vast improvement over the burden sharing amendments of prior sessions. But it still has the same fundamental flaw. It proceeds from the notion that our forces stationed and deployed abroad are there in defense of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Belgians or someone else. They are there in the interests of the national security of the United States. They are not mercenaries. The amendment is totally simplistic in seeking to say, in effect, we will unilaterally define what fair share burdens will be. You will pay it or otherwise sanctions will be imposed. How are we going to determine that Portugal should be paying the same share as a France or Germany? The amendment simply does not have a practical underpinning to support it, and should be resisted.”