[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 6, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S415-S417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Supplemental Funding
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, in December, President Zelenskyy came
here to Congress. He came to us because he is fighting for his
country's future and for his citizens' lives. This supplemental
spending bill, the portion for Ukraine, will fulfill our commitments to
our allies, defend democracy, and save innocent lives.
Let's be absolutely clear about that. Ukrainian civilians will live
or die based on what we decide to do here in the Senate, in this
Chamber. Are we going to ignore the requests, the pleas, the cries for
help from our fellow champions of democracy in Ukraine?
President Zelenskyy has told us that Ukrainians will continue to
fight with or without us. By that, he did not mean that they don't need
us. No, they need us more than ever. With our help, they have pushed
back against the Russian invaders. Without our help, they will run out
of ammunition to hold back the Russians.
Our White House has conveyed this message:
We are out of money--and nearly out of time.
That is our government speaking. Our White House has warned us that
``while our allies around the world have stepped up to do more, U.S.
support is critical and cannot be replicated by others.''
Putin himself told us the deadly stakes. He said:
[Ukraine] will only have a week to live when the ammunition
runs out.
And Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.
Now, the United States could choose to stop funding, but the
Ukrainians can't choose to stop fighting--nor would any of us if war
came to our hometowns. If you had to defend your home, if you had to
defend your family knowing that, if you stopped fighting, that death
would fall from the sky as bombs and rockets obliterated your
communities; that as Russian soldiers marched down your quiet street,
your neighbors would be tortured, raped, your children stolen, your
family executed, would you stop fighting even if you ran out of
ammunition?
And those actions are what Russia has already done in the cities and
towns they ran over in Ukraine. We know it will continue to happen if
they run over other cities.
So the Ukrainian people really are fighting for their lives, and we
are here debating whether we are going to abandon them. This is a
conversation I can't believe we are having. I can't believe, with all
of the foreign engagements we have been involved in, that when a fellow
Republic which has repeatedly pushed hard to be out from under Russia's
thumb, which had the Orange Revolution, which threw a President out of
their country who wanted to betray them, who are now fighting in the
streets against this Russian invasion--I can't believe we are having
this conversation here in the Senate with so many colleagues ready to
abandon Ukraine.
But this is certainly a critical debate. Ukraine is not some regional
conflict on a faraway map. Putin himself put it this way in October. He
said:
This is not a territorial conflict or even the
establishment of a regional geopolitical balance.
He continued, and he said:
The question is much broader and more fundamental: We are
talking about the principles on which the new world order
will be based.
[[Page S416]]
That is Putin. And what are the principles that Putin champions in
that new world order? Well, we know what they are: the end of freedom
of speech; the end of freedom of assembly; the end of freedom of
religion; the end of citizens, through the integrity of democratic
elections, choosing their own leaders and their own futures.
And there is another principle that is very much embedded with Putin,
and that is the continuation of vile crimes against humanity--of rape,
torture, and execution.
And Putin is not the only authoritarian in the world with this set of
principles. We have got the Ayatollah in Iran to Xi Jinping in China
who share his vision, who have closed ranks behind him in this fight,
this fight in which they evade sanctions, legitimize tyranny, undermine
the precious values of human rights, freedom, and democracy.
They are watching the United States very closely. They are watching
to see if Senators in this Chamber are going to vote to abandon
Ukraine. They are going to see if Senators in this Chamber are going to
abandon our partnership and alliance with NATO in support of the people
and the republic in Ukraine. They are watching to see if they can
outlast our fickle political attention span. They are watching to see
if they can invade their neighboring countries, execute the citizens in
that country, and take over those adjacent nations, all for more power
and more profit.
It is so important that democracy stand shoulder to shoulder in this
fight. We know that is what we need to do. That is how we won the Cold
War. And before that, it is how we won World War II when we defeated
another axis of authoritarians bent on repression and conquest.
It was in 1940. Germany and Italy signed a pact to support each
other. Back then, many Americans believed that we could stay out of war
in Eastern Europe by hiding behind the slogan of ``America First.'' And
then the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor.
The war in Europe then, like the war in Europe today, isn't some
regional conflict that we can ignore, not some regional conflict that
doesn't affect us. It is a universal struggle about whether people in
Ukraine and here in the United States have the right to live in freedom
and peace or whether repressive authoritarians can conquer democracies.
And the authoritarians in Europe and Asia then, like the
authoritarians in Europe and Asia today, were dictators who viewed
democracy as a threat--a threat to their power, a threat that must be
destroyed. Dictators do not stop. Dictators must be stopped.
Putin has ruled Russia for a quarter of a century, and he wants even
more time to continue his establishment of those principles against
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, the
principles of crushing dissent. Putin has ruled with total and
merciless control and power, and he wants even more power. What makes
us think that ceding some of Ukraine will be enough to placate him?
We have seen this story before. The last time the world naively tried
to placate a murderous madman was when British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain went to Munich in 1938. In Munich, Chamberlain told Hitler,
like some colleagues in this Chamber today want to say to Putin, that
he could have a slice of an adjacent country--in that case,
Czechoslovakia--and England would look the other way and declare
``peace in our time.'' But that appeasement of Hitler didn't produce
``peace in our time.'' Instead, that appeasement encouraged his
appetite, made him stronger, set the stage for the unimaginable horrors
of World War II.
Appeasing Putin today is as wrong strategically and morally as
appeasing Hitler was 86 years ago. Think of the lives we could have
saved and the incalculable destruction we could have prevented had we
stopped Hitler in 1938.
Well, we have that same question before us right now. Every student
of history, every student of politics, if they could go back in time,
would tell Chamberlain: Do not appease Hitler. That will not work.
For the same reason, every student of history and politics today is
telling us: Don't appease Putin.
Appeasing Putin would be a mistake of the same magnitude, one that
future historians will condemn as the mega-mistake of the 21st century.
We must say here in this Chamber--we must say no to another Munich
moment. We must say no to appeasement. We must say no to the Neville
Chamberlains of our time.
Some of my colleagues asked the question: Can we afford to defend
democracy?
Munich and Pearl Harbor teach us we cannot afford not to defend
democracy. A threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to democracy
everywhere.
Experts estimate that Putin is spending some 30 percent, and possibly
quite more, of his government budget to fight this war. We here in the
United States, we are spending 1.5 percent of our government budget to
support Ukraine. That is pennies on the dollar. A penny and a half of
our Federal budget, that is all we are asking.
The Ukrainians are fighting and giving with their lives and their
injuries to save their democracy. All they are asking of us: 1.5
percent of our Federal budget.
We are not putting Americans in harm's way in the process. We are
just being asked for 1.5 percent of our government budget. But that 1.5
percent, that is so important. It is that 1.5 percent combined with the
European partnership that is supporting the people in Ukraine. It is
those pennies, that 1.5 percent, that is ensuring that Ukrainian
soldiers don't run out of artillery shells. It is those pennies, that
1.5 percent, so that Ukrainian soldiers won't run out of air defenses.
It is those pennies that will ensure Ukrainian soldiers will not run
out of ammunition.
If Putin conquers Ukraine like Hitler conquered Czechoslovakia, if he
sees the United States will not stand with this democratic ally, where
will his attention turn next? Where will his attention turn to his next
project? He is a frustrated KGB agent who saw the dissolution of the
USSR, the Soviet Union, as the biggest calamity of his life, and he
wants to do everything in his power to take back as much as he possibly
can in his lifetime. That is his mission.
So anyone who thinks you can appease Putin the way Chamberlain tried
to appease Hitler, you are just wrong. Imagine the costs when Russian
tanks roll up to the border of Poland or Estonia or Latvia or Finland.
All NATO members are sworn by a treaty to defend each other, and that
includes not just our money but our soldiers.
It makes so much sense to stand with Ukraine today and stop Putin in
Ukraine rather than to hand over Ukraine and then defend the rest of
Europe from his aggression that will surely follow.
And think about the message that we are sending to China regarding
Taiwan. China is watching this very closely. China says: If Putin can
outlast the United States and Europe in Ukraine, well, we can certainly
outlast them when we attack Taiwan.
So standing with Ukraine today is the right stance if you want to
deter China from attacking Taiwan tomorrow. We could have stopped
Hitler in 1938, just like we can stop Putin today.
This is a war between democracy and authoritarianism, and this Senate
floor, the battlefield, is right here, right now, this week. The
decisions that we make this week about funding Ukraine may be the most
consequential of our careers. The United States, in this fight, is the
only truly indispensable nation.
If we are leaders of the free world, if we are the last best hope for
democracy, then we have to actually be that hope for democracy. We have
to heed the lessons of history. We have to stop dictators like Putin in
their tracks, and we need to do it now.
When President Zelenskyy was here before Congress in 2022, he said:
This struggle will define in what world our children and
grandchildren will live, and then their children and
grandchildren. It will define whether it will be a democracy
of Ukrainians and for Americans--for all.
He continued:
This battle cannot be frozen or postponed. It cannot be
ignored.
My friends, defending Ukraine is not some charitable operation where
we can decide to give a little more or a little less and feel good
about it. Defending Ukraine is global and national security.
[[Page S417]]
Putin and his authoritarian allies want to show the world that
democracies don't work. We here in the U.S. Senate, need to show the
world that democracies do work. The Senate should debate the
supplemental security spending for Ukraine this week in this Chamber;
the Senate should vote on this supplemental security for Ukraine this
week in this Chamber; and this Senate should pass this emergency
funding supplemental for Ukraine here in this Chamber this week for
Ukraine's democracy and for our own.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kelly). The Senator from Oregon.
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