Despite the fact that Democrats secured the votes Wednesday to ensure the Iran deal would survive efforts to kill it, the GOP used their weekly address to blast the Obama administration’s controversial deal, calling it “very dangerous.”
“I can tell you unequivocally, this deal is very dangerous,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who delivered the GOP address. He urged Americans to call their senators and representatives and demand that they vote against the deal. “It’s not too late to save America from this disaster,” he said.
“What’s at stake here is nothing less than the possibility of giving hundreds of billions of dollars to the world’s largest and worst state sponsor of terrorism, and ultimately paving the way for this outlaw regime to obtain nuclear weapons,” said Toomey. “This deal is very dangerous. It will make America, and the rest of the civilized world, less safe.”
Toomey said the deal will allow Iran to keep its industrial-scale uranium enrichment capacity and important underground facilities open.
The deal also “allows Iran to engage in further nuclear enrichment research and development,” said Toomey. “A country that is uninterested in nuclear weapons doesn’t need any of that. This deal ends up legitimizing Iran’s nuclear program, not stopping it.”
“We know that Iran cannot be trusted,” said Toomey, who points out that Americans are currently being held hostage in Iran. “We know the Iranian streets are filled with chants of ‘Death to America,’ and their leaders openly threaten to ‘wipe Israel off the map.’ This deal doesn’t address any of that.”
Because Iran sponsors terrorism in Iraq, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, it is foolish to remove sanctions up front and give Iran a “cash infusion” they will use to funnel weapons and cash to terrorists. The economic sanctions are our “greatest leverage,” said Toomey.
A “growing bipartisan consensus against the deal” points to its problematic nature, Toomey said. He concludes by saying that “several leading Democratic senators and members of the House have joined Republicans in opposing the deal.”
Congress has until Sept. 17 to approve or disapprove the deal. If Congress disapproves the deal, President Obama has said he will use a veto measure, and the Senate would then need 67 votes to override that veto.
