[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 118 (Friday, July 13, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H6193]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              EUROPE SHOULD PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE FOR NATO

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, ``This is no NATO for deadbeats,'' 
to quote Wesley Pruden of The Washington Times.
  Some of our NATO allies are beside themselves over President Trump's 
calling out our NATO friends for not helping pick up the tab of 2 
percent in military spending.
  As a member of the U.S. NATO Parliamentary Assembly, I have been 
befuddled for years how some of the countries make excuses for not 
paying their committed share of NATO defense--defense against the 
Napoleon of Siberia, Putin.
  Our ever-proper European friends may not remember that American 
teenagers went to war and shed blood two times in the last century to 
help save Europe. Well, Madam Speaker, Americans have not forgotten the 
American sacrifice in those lands over there.
  It is time for all NATO countries to be as concerned about European 
defense as America is. If President Trump's comments irked the 
sensibilities of our allies, well, they should just get the message. It 
is time for NATO to buck it up and keep their word and help pay for our 
common defense.
  And that is just the way it is.

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