[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             NATO EXPANSION

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Budget Office has 
estimated that NATO expansion is going to cost U.S. taxpayers at least 
$4.7 billion. Some estimates are much higher, with many analysts 
suggesting that $15 to $20 billion over the next few years is more 
accurate. And these estimates were made before it was announced a few 
days ago that France is not going to pay its share of expansion costs.
  All of this really to obligate us to more Bosnia-type situations in 
the future. Already we have spent many billions over and above our 
regular foreign aid in Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, and other places 
where there was absolutely no threat to United States security.
  If you oppose NATO expansion you are called names like 
``isolationist,'' but name-calling is simply a way to avoid the merits 
or lack thereof. Let us be friends with every nation, but this does not 
mean we should have to pay the bills for every nation. With a $5.5 
trillion debt, we simply cannot afford to do this.
  As columnist Amos Perlmutter said in yesterday's Washington Times, 
the debate on NATO expansion should ``alert the American people to the 
futility, the dangers, and the high cost of this experience designed to 
establish the President as a great foreign policy leader at the expense 
of the national interest.''

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