[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 82 (Monday, June 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               BUILDING A NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, there are a few issues which separate 
liberals and conservatives in dramatic fashion. Taxes, of course, is 
one, and crime is another. But defense and national security issues 
also illustrate two sharply different visions, different world views, 
which distinguish conservatives from liberals.
  Liberals just love arms control agreements. They put almost boundless 
faith in a piece of paper between America and countries which are 
hostile to everything we hold dear, and they take great comfort in the 
ability of these agreements to keep America safe. Conservatives, on the 
other hand, look at all human history and are skeptical of such 
agreements, instead placing greater faith in a strong and secure 
defense.
  Given these two world views, it is time to reexamine our current 
vulnerability to ballistic missile attack.
  There is a piece of paper that exists to assure us that America is 
safe from ballistic attack. But this deliberate policy of vulnerability 
to ballistic missile attack is foolish, and dangerous. It is time that 
conservatives act with prudence and demand that Americans be protected 
by building a national missile defense system.

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