Violeta Chamorro's presidential victory in Nicaragua brought elation on Capitol Hill on Monday but also heightened Congress' problem of finding foreign aid money for new democracies. ``We must provide her new government with aid, and let's not kid ourselves _ it will take big bucks,'' said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan. ``She needs our help and she deserves it.'' ``Nobody said democracy was cheap,'' added Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Dante Fascell, D-Fla. House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., while not mentioning a specific aid figures, said the United States might start by sending amounts similar to past aid to the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels. Estimates ranged from $100 million to $300 million as the U.S. share of a multilateral package that could provide $1 billion for Nicaragua. But others cautioned that with a growing line of potential new foreign aid recipients _ Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Panama and others _ it would be difficult to promise new money when the budget already is falling short. ``It's not realistic to expect the result of all this is going to be a tripling of foreign aid,'' said Rep. Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., the senior GOP member of the foreign aid subcommittee. ``The American people aren't going to support it.'' This year, the United States will send about $9.8 billion in military, economic and development aid to several dozen friendly countries around the globe. The lion's share, $5.1 billion, goes to Israel and Egypt as a reward for entering into the Camp David peace process. The Bush administration has asked for a slight increase in the total, to $10.1 billion, for 1991. Rep. Stephen Solarz, D-N.Y., said he hoped the United States could come up with $200 million to $300 million as a contribution to a billion-dollar international emergency aid program for Nicaragua, similar to those aiding the Philippines and emerging democracies in Eastern Europe. The money should be taken out of the U.S. defense budget, he said. Dole used the occasion of Chamorro's win over leftist Sandinista President Daniel Ortega on Sunday to renew his proposal to alter the nation's foreign aid priorities, beginning with the two largest recipients, Israel and Egypt. ``The only way we're going to pay for new aid to Nicaragua, Panama, Czechoslovakia _ is to look to the foreign aid budget that now exists, and make some tough calls,'' Dole said in a Senate floor speech. But that proposal has so far met with stiff opposition, and Foley cautioned that Nicaragua should not automatically be given priority over current recipients of U.S. aid. Lawmakers overwhelmingly supported President Bush's call for a speedy lifting of trade sanctions, and many called for the immediate sending of a U.S. ambassador to Managua. The sanctions were imposed in 1985, and the American ambassador was sent home in 1988. Many of the legislators observed that Chamorro's win had accelerated an already breathtaking downfall of communism around the world. Asked his reaction, Edwards said, ``It was astonishment... It's happening from one end of the world to the other, the tyrants are being swept out.'' ``It is yet another example of the desire for democratic government that is being courageously expressed by people throughout the world living under totalitarian regimes,'' said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. Several members of Congress also noted that the demise of the Sandinista government could have an added benefit in nearby El Salvador, where leftist FMLN guerrillas fighting the elected government have relied on Managua for weapons and support. At the same time, the lawmakers warned that Chamorro faces a difficult road in rebuilding her nation's economy, moving her country out of war and maintaining her political coalition. ``Much remains to be done before democracy can be said to have been established in Nicaragua,'' said House Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-Ill., ``but this victory is a splendid beginning.'' From the other side of the political spectrum, Rep. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn., called the outcome ``an amazing step forward for the Western Hemisphere'' and long overdue. Gejdenson, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, attributed Chamorro's victory to her call for an end to the military draft; the country's economy, devastated by a decade of civil war and U.S. economic sanctions, and a popular belief that she could best demobilize the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels.
