FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 15, 2004)
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, when President Bush was campaigning for office, he said that if we were humble and treated our allies and other nations with respect, that they would relate well to us.
I chaired the Helsinki Commission of this Congress from 1985 to 1995 and have served as the ranking member until this past year when I became the whip. I will tell my friend from Indiana, I went to country after country after country and said to them, you need to accept election monitors, because you need to ensure that the world is confident that your elections are honest and aboveboard.
I will tell my friend from Indiana that I believe America's elections will be aboveboard, but our Nation, I tell my friend from Indiana, ought to be too big, too confident, too proud to say to somebody, you cannot come to the United States and see for yourself. Because if we ask of others that they accept monitors, are we too proud, too arrogant, too self-satisfied to say to the world, but you cannot come to America, the freest, most open, most democratic land on the face of the earth?
I say to my friend from Indiana, I hope my colleagues reject this amendment, not because as some here will assert there is wrongdoing in America but because America ought to be proud to invite all of the world to come to America and see how democracy works.
Do we make mistakes? We do. But are we proud of our democracy? We are.
Come to America. See us act. See our democracy. Be proud.