[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22527-22528]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   AMERICA NEEDS TO STAND BY HER WORD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I wish to address the issue of credibility 
that is so critical. And I want to follow up on what my friend was just 
discussing with regard to Social Security. These seniors would be flush 
with cost of living increases; the money would be there if we did one 
thing, the one thing that has not been done in the entire history of 
Social Security and, that is, put the tax that provides for Social 
Security into the Social Security Trust Fund. It has never been done. 
It has always had IOUs go in. As the money comes in, it goes out the 
other door. That ought to stop.
  And what it would create is the need to control the outrageous 
spending that's been going on, the $770 million we passed for wild 
horses, the $25 million for rare dogs and cats in foreign countries, 
the $25 million for rare cranes, 80 percent of which are in other 
countries. Those are the things that would need to stop.
  When it comes to the issue of our Nation's credibility, you can go 
back historically to 1812. There were banks and merchants in England 
that had loaned the United States money. When we went to war with 
England in 1812 as a nation, we made the commitment that we will still 
stand good for our word because even though we'll be at war, our word, 
our credibility, is too important to do otherwise.

                              {time}  1315

  That opened the door for the United States to become an economic 
powerhouse because people around the world said this is a Nation that 
can be trusted; their word is good.
  With the way Vietnam ended under President Nixon and the Carter 
years, our credibility around the world was devastated, as we went back 
on commitments we had made. And it took the years of President Reagan, 
former President Bush, former President Clinton, former President 
George W. Bush to build our credibility back among the other nations, 
that you may not like our position, but when we give our word, we're 
going to stand good for it.
  Now in 9 months' time that is all in jeopardy again. We heard during 
the campaign the noble promises that we will not go it alone on 
anything. We will not be that arrogant. We will consult with the other 
nations. And we had an agreement with Eastern Europe with regard to 
missiles and a missile defense shield, and there are leaders in Eastern 
Europe that took great political risk, and it cost them politically in 
mighty ways to work an agreement with the United States. But they did 
it because they believed they could trust the United States at its 
word.
  Whether you believe in the propriety of the missile defense shield in 
Eastern Europe, that's one thing, but to unilaterally go against the 
word that was provided that we will not do that, that we keep our 
agreements, and unilaterally announce we're going back on our word on 
the missile defense shield shatters credibility even to those who 
didn't care about the missile defense shield but who are thinking about 
reaching agreements with us.

[[Page 22528]]

  After the U.N. speech yesterday, all of the promises that have been 
made by this administration, both before and after its election, that 
that was the critical war we could not afford to lose, we're going to 
stand with them, now after the speech yesterday people are wondering, 
wow, are they going to back out and go against this Nation's word yet 
again already in this 9-month period? It's not just the Afghans 
wondering. Can we trust these people when they say they're going to 
help us? This is our Nation's credibility at risk. That affects 
everything.
  There were pledges made to Israel during the campaign by the people 
inhabiting this administration, and now we're telling them you're going 
to have to go back to the lines the way they existed before 1967 
because you cannot occupy land that you achieved during warfare. My 
goodness, we're going to have to give back California. We're going to 
have to give back Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming.
  This is ridiculous. We are hurting our credibility nationally. 
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the prior 
administration, please do no more damage to this Nation's credibility.

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