David Stockman | NATO -- The Case To Get Out Now | January 29th, 2025

Introduction by Chairman John Henry

Tonight’s speaker is well known to you all. This is David Stockman’s third salon before the Committee for the Republic. We’re honored to have David here again. David is the model citizen of our constitutional republic. His is the march of the mind rather than the march of the soldier.

Tonight’s topic -- NATO’s central role in perpetuating America’s global ambitions – couldn’t be more timely, nor could it be more relevant to the Committee’s mission which is to restore the constitutional balance that comes from Congress deciding whether our country goes to war.

From the first, President Washington warned of the clear and present danger of entangling alliances. Make no mistake — as David will make clear -- NATO is the alliance that entangles us most. The treaty recognizes the war power rests with Congress in Article 5. Predictably, American presidents have repeatedly mischaracterized Article 5 to claim they – not Congress -- can take us to war. At the Senate’s ratification of the NATO treaty in 1949, Senator Robert Taft — whose wisdom and judgment was not matched by his colleagues -- warned that the treaty conferred de facto war-making power on the president. Here are Taft’s own words:

“Why did I vote against the Atlantic pact?... It obligates us to go to war if at any time … anyone makes an armed attack on any of the 12 nations. Under the Monroe Doctrine we could change our policy at any time. We could judge whether perhaps one of the countries had given cause for the attack. Only Congress could declare a war in pursuance of the doctrine. Under the new pact the President can take us into war without Congress.”

In 75 years, NATO has grown -- like bamboo - almost tripling in size from 12 to 32 members. David will take you through the seven waves of expansion since the Soviet Union’s dissolution. As the Ukraine war turns in Russia’s favor, American NATO apologists continue to insistent on NATO membership for Ukraine. David will explain how alliances entangle America in fights that have nothing to do with our security. I ask you to recall the unmatched arrogance of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “[i]f we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future.” The “indispensable nation” myth drives the impulse to expand NATO.

David is preeminently qualified to make the case for withdrawing from NATO. His deep understanding of politics and money comes from a four-decade career spent in Washington and Wall Street: as a Michigan congressman, Office of Management & Budget director and a Salomon Brothers and Blackstone partner. He publishes a daily blog called David Stockman’s Contra Corner — and has the unique distinction of being a member of SDS, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a believer in the gold standard. Now that’s a man who thinks for himself!

As many of you know, David first gained notoriety during the Reagan administration, when at the age of 34, he was appointed OMB director. He was impossibly tasked with carrying out Reagan’s promise of tax cuts and budget surpluses without spending cuts. David confided to the Washington Post that Reagan’s budget was all smoke and mirrors which earned him a trip to the woodshed where he was flayed unmercifully for failing to worship at the altar of “voodoo economics” as he recounts in his memoir: The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed.

Always described as an alliance that promotes Western values and peace, NATO lies at the heart of our overburdened alliance system which, at last count, binds the United States to defend more than 70 countries comprising more than a quarter of the people on earth. Our worldwide system of alliances runs counter to the American tradition of neutrality under a constitutional republic.

It’s important that we don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees. It isn’t important that you agree or disagree with David on NATO withdrawal. If Congress was doing its job, David would be testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because Congress is missing in action, you are the beneficiary of David’s arguments. The Committee for the Republic always goes where the silence is loudest and no one is better at breaking that silence than David. David is what a citizen looks like in a constitutional republic. If we only had more David Stockmans, we would be much closer to restoring our beloved republic.

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