Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022
Floor Speech
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues from Colorado and Alabama for a very interesting and robust debate, but I would like to change the subject slightly. Germany
Mr. President, Germany and America are dear friends, and friends tell each other the truth.
On the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany plans to continue supporting Ukraine ``as strongly and as long [as possible and] as necessary.''
I regret to observe that based on where we are today, that would certainly be a change of pace. By all measures, Germany's so-called strong support is more lamb than lion. The numbers don't lie. Germany's current spending to help Ukraine by share of gross domestic product--if you compare the spending of one country to another, it is not fair to use raw numbers because some countries are wealthier than others. So if you look at the current spending by our friends in Germany to help Ukraine, by share of gross domestic product, Germany wouldn't even be in the top 10 nations in terms of financial support for Ukraine. And those are just the numbers.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom have all outspent Germany by share of gross domestic product. Our neighbors in Canada have outspent Germany, too, both in raw dollars and by share of GDP. And the same is certainly true of the American people. The American people have spent roughly double--double--what our friends in Germany have spent in Ukraine, fighting for freedom, by share of domestic gross product.
With an entire ocean and most of Europe between America and Ukraine, Americans are wondering why the United States and Canada have dug deeper to deter Russian aggression than Germany has. That is a fair question.
Germany, as we all know--and I am very proud of them for this--is the economic leader of Europe. Germany has the fourth largest economy in the world. Germany has the fourth largest economy in the world. But the fact is--friends tell friends the truth--that Germany is failing to pull its weight in Ukraine. And if we look back on the past year, it is very clear that Germany's support of Ukraine has been heavy on words and short on action. And I hate to have to say that.
Somehow, Germany's leadership has lost the urgency it had when Putin began his march into Ukraine. At that time, if we think back a year, Germany could not have been in a more vulnerable position. The Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, were dilapidated.
At the end of the Cold War, Germany had nearly 500,000 soldiers. Roughly 3 percent of its spending by GDP was allocated to Germany's defense. When Putin invaded Ukraine, Germany's military was roughly one-third of that size, about 183,000 soldiers, and spending on defense by our friends in Germany had plummeted to 1.3 percent of gross domestic product.
Its airplanes couldn't fly. Its tanks were unusable. Its bloated military bureaucracy appeared to be the only thing the German Government properly maintained.
Were it not for the United States of America, Putin would be in Paris. But we stepped up, and so did others. God bless them.
It wasn't just Germany's armed forces that were unprepared for Putin's invasion. Germany's energy grid relied on Russian natural gas, as we both know, Mr. President. For several decades--this goes back many years--Germany became increasingly reliant on Russia's energy. Germany appeared to believe, foolishly--``naively,'' maybe, is a better word--that its energy trade with Putin would yield friendship. Instead, it yielded dependency.
In this trade, these weren't some cupcakes that friends were exchanging as neighbors. What we are talking about here is the very security and dependability of the fourth largest economy in the history of the world--or, rather, in the current history of the world--and its power grid. Germany placed its power grid in Russia's hands, and Putin knew that. Putin knew that Germany's energy dependency would make it a lot easier for him to march into Ukraine, not harder. Everybody knew it.
Now, with winter coming, I want to give our friends in Germany a lot of credit. Germany did have some urgency in correcting its energy. Germany built LNG terminals to expand its gas reserves. The United States sold energy to our friends in Germany. We were happy to do it.
Germany expanded its renewable energy efforts. It still has not embraced nuclear energy, as I hope it will, but Germany did expand its renewable energy efforts. It has now as a goal reaching 80 percent renewable by 2030, and that is good.
But there is just one problem. Even that effort could leave Germany exposed to reliance on an adversary because, according to a report from the International Energy Agency, China is on track to be responsible for 95 percent of the global production of solar panels. China currently makes up 80 percent of the world's supply. If it is not careful, Germany may realize the new boss is the same as the old boss.
But that same urgency that our friends in Germany showed to address the power grid is nowhere to be found on the military front--nowhere.
In the wake of Putin's rapid invasion, Chancellor Scholz made big promises. He called it a turning point in German history. He said defense spending is going to increase to 2 percent. He said he was going to create an extra military fund valued at $107 billion. He said his military was going to increase by 30,000 women and men by 2025. I regret that Germany's urgency seems to have disappeared.
Military spending has barely nudged above 1.5 percent, still short of the 2 percent commitment that Germany made to NATO.
Germany did purchase 35 American F-35 fighter jets. Do you know when they are going to be ready? 2027.
Experts much smarter than me doubt that Germany will reach its 30,000 promised new troops by the date that it said it would.
The truth is--the cold, hard, unvarnished truth--since the invasion began, Germany has been slow to provide weapons to Ukraine. Friends tell friends the truth. Germany only agreed to send its Leopard 2 tanks after weeks of haggling with President Biden, during which Chancellor Scholz refused to send the tanks--his own tanks--unless the United States also committed to sending its M1 Abrams, after all we had done and will continue to do. Even when offering up so little, the German Chancellor demanded the United States of America do more.
One year ago, as Putin's invasion commenced, Chancellor Scholz vowed to ``invest much more in the security of our country'' and ``guarantee a secure energy supply.''
On the energy front, Putin turned off the gas, and our friends in Germany, demonstrating extraordinary ingenuity, managed to pivot. But on the defense front, Germany has failed to show any serious steps to grow its military. The fourth largest economy in the world has fallen short in its support for Ukraine.
Promises to recruit more troops, spend more money, and reinvigorate its Bundeswehr--they are nice, but those are only words. Germany seems to acknowledge that the barbarians are at the gate. I don't know how it could be any clearer. So why aren't our friends in Germany willing to act? I just don't understand it.
In every way--in every way--Putin poses a larger threat to Germany than he does to the United States. That is saying a lot because Putin poses a threat to the United States. But he is a much larger threat to our friends in Germany. Yet the United States of America, the people of this country, have outspent Germany sevenfold in helping our friends in Ukraine. It is not right.
Mr. President, you and I both know that what you do--not what you say, what you do--is what you believe, and everything else is just cottage cheese.
Talk is cheap, and, in this case, it is literally cheaper than funding the Bundeswehr. But Germany's natural gas was also cheap, and that didn't end very well.
If Germany wants to be a leader in Europe--and, gosh, I hope they do--it needs to lead. That starts with footing the bill for its own defense--we are willing to share that burden, but the American people can't do it alone--and it starts with helping Ukraine.
We have wasted a year. It is long past time for our friends in Germany to step up and meet the defense promises it made when Putin invaded.
I end as I began: Germany and America are dear, dear friends, and friends tell friends the truth.
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