[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2367-H2368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       USA CAN'T POLICE THE WORLD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, President Kennedy, in a 1961 
speech at the University of Washington, said:

       We must face the fact that the United States is neither 
     omnipotent or omniscient--that we are only 6 percent of the 
     world's population--that we cannot impose our will upon the 
     other 94 percent of mankind--that we cannot right every wrong 
     or reverse each adversity--and that therefore there cannot be 
     an American solution to every world problem.

                              {time}  1045

  The major difference now than when he spoke in 1961 is that we are 
only 4 percent of the world's population, and

[[Page H2368]]

we are over $17 trillion in debt. President Kennedy was right then, and 
we should carefully listen to his words today.
  Many people are trying to prove that they are great world statesmen 
and are supporting policies that will commit us to spend billions we do 
not have on Ukraine. We don't need to be sending billions to Ukraine, 
and we especially should not escalate this situation into some type of 
military confrontation.
  We should have trade and tourism and cultural and educational 
exchanges with other countries and help, to a limited extent, during 
humanitarian crisis; but we cannot be the policemen of the world.
  The Ukrainians are going to have to solve most of their problems on 
their own, and we need to start taking better care of our own country 
and our own people. In fact, Mr. Speaker, we are long past the time 
when we need to start putting our own people first and stop trying to 
run the whole world, creating a lot of resentment toward the U.S. in 
the process.

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