Robert C. Byrd

The question is not whether our defenses should be strong. It is whether our money has been spent wisely.

I am majority leader because my party controls this Senate in response to the people's voice out there from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico.

In light of the commitment of our Nation to care for our deserving veterans, I believe it is appropriate to elevate the Veterans' Administration to Cabinet-level status, which will better serve America's veterans and the American public.

We must attack the plague of drug abuse on two fronts. We have to educate our people to the dangers of drug abuse to discourage the demand side of the drug problem here at home. We have to fight the supply side of the drug war on every…

After hearing Mr. Gorbachev's proposal for a joint effort to send astronauts to Mars the question occurred to me: Why fly men to Mars when millions of American and Soviet citizens need help right here on Earth?

This country was founded on the old virtues and by men and women whose guiding light was the Holy Bible. They were men and women of all faiths.

Perhaps we can have hope that perestroika and glasnost will go beyond the intentions of Mr. Gorbachev and that there can be a renaissance and a new birth of religion someday in the Soviet Union.

The great United States of America, Uncle Sam, in hock to foreign investors, foreign countries buying up assets of this country. How much longer will we be in control of our own house?

The debate should be on our national security, because we must learn that national security is infinitely tied with economic security and that trade policy is the foundation stone of that economic security.

I wanted to put the administration on notice, and I will repeat it here, that this Senate, as long as I am majority leader, is not going to be driven by deadlines with regard to treaties.

The Soviets have declared that they will get out, no matter what. Fine. Let us see how fast they can do it. They do not need our help in getting out of Afghanistan any more than they had it in getting in.

The supreme irony would be that Soviet withdrawal occurs at the expense of American credibility. We cannot put our commitment to the freedom fighters, the Mujahidin, in limbo, in order to entice the Soviets to go home.

We are sent to this body to represent our people and to protect their rights. We are paid to be on hand to register our vote on behalf of our people. We are not paid to avoid the duties of the Senate.

The minority is within its rights when it kills a bill or holds it up. But I submit that the minority does not have a right to deny the Senate a quorum by deliberately not coming to the floor.

It seems to me that every Senator has a responsibility under the Constitution to be here and to vote.

Let us remember that glasnost is not freedom of the press and freedom of speech as the Western World understands those freedoms.

Let us recognize the fact that Mr. Gorbachev is a new type of leader; that he is trying to change his system. But let us be careful that we do not fall prey to our own wishful thinking.

We are better armed against our own inclinations toward wishful thinking and our own inclinations to feel that the other fellow's values are the same as our own, if we will read history.

The decisions are not made by the people of the Soviet Union. The decisions are made by a small clique of individuals who did not have to run for office like Senators have to run for office.

I say we ought to work with the leaders in the Soviet Union and always be ready to take advantage of any opportunities that are in our own good interests.

Mr. President, the picture of those crippled Afghan children should be the picture remembered longest by Americans and by people all over the world.

We cannot allow this money chase to continue as it is going. It is going ever upward into the stratosphere already, and public trust is going to continue to erode. Mark my words.

Let us stop the money chase. Let us stop the perception that this Senate is the fortified castle of special interests, the stronghold of special interests. The American people are the special interests that we Democrats are interested…

The sad state of our system of financing Senate campaigns is not a Democratic debacle. It is not a Republican debacle. It affects all of us.

I said it on the trip and I say it again here, I have been somewhat mystified to see Mr. Gorbachev in the polls ranked as highly as our own President, almost. I would urge the American people that what we are seeing is a man who is very…