A bad vote on test ban treaty, Deseret News, Oct. 17, 1999. A bad vote on test ban treaty Any time a vote as important as the one to ratify the test ban treaty ends up following strict party lines, Americans can be sure the interests of good public policy did not carry the day. Perhaps we should expect nothing less in an age where the president now seems completely devoid of credibility and the ability to lead.
Few issues ought to command more attention than the global spread of nuclear weapons.
Yet the Senate hurried through its vote last week with hardly any time for real debate, and without any hint of an alternate plan to the one it rejected. The defeat of the treaty was stunning. Senate rejections like this are extremely rare, and it came despite the fact Russia and China were watching carefully to build their own nuclear policies accordingly. The United States simply cannot rely on its own military superiority to defend itself against an every-widening group of nuclear states. As of yet, no nation has found a defense against these weapons.