Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced an effort to pull the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
According to the bill, “While the United States continues to subsidize European security, European NATO members are disincentivized from forward movement on burden shifting in the European theater.” Furthermore, the United States’ membership in NATO is “inconsistent with the national security interests of the United States.”
“Consistent with Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, done at Washington April 4, 1949, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall give notice of denunciation of the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of withdrawing the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” the bill adds, further stating, “No funds authorized to be appropriated, appropriated, or otherwise made available by any Act may be used to fund, directly or indirectly, United States contributions to the common-funded budgets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the civil budget, the military budget, or the Security Investment Program.”
“NATO is a Cold War relic. We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries,” Massie said of the bill. “NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over thirty years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars. Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket—especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”
