[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 17, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H5372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         AMERICA DOES NOT HAVE SOLUTION FOR EVERY WORLD PROBLEM

  (Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, President Kennedy said in a 
famous speech at the University of Washington in 1961:

       With only 6 percent of the world's population, we cannot 
     correct every adversity or right every wrong and that, 
     therefore, there cannot be an American solution for every 
     problem.

  Today, we are less than 4 percent of the world's population, and we 
have a national debt of a mind-boggling $17.6 trillion. We simply 
cannot keep sending megabillions to corrupt governments all over the 
world.
  We should have trade and tourism with other countries, cultural and 
educational exchanges, and, of course, diplomatic relations; but the 
people in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to have to solve most of their 
problems themselves. We cannot do everything for them and still do what 
we should do for our own country and own people.
  Let me repeat those words of President Kennedy:

       There cannot be an American solution for every world 
     problem.

  This is not isolationism, Mr. Speaker. It is common sense.

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