Cornyn: Growing Debt Giving Rise To China
By Philip Bunnell
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) made the case for passing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution today by highlighting the link between the growing U.S. debt and China’s military rise.
Cornyn highlighted the potential danger of China’s holdings of American debt, currently estimated to be around $1.1 trillion. “Some folks say there’s no cause for alarm,” Cornyn said. Yet he then noted how a former Chinese general said that “dumping U.S. bonds,” would be an appropriate response to antagonizing U.S. policy.
China, aside from its holdings of U.S. debt, has also become a belligerent security force in the Asian region and is “unsettling its neighbors,” through the conducting of military excercises, Cornyn said. China has claimed the South China Sea, is increasing tensions on its disputed border with India, and is “an enabler of North Korea,” Cornyn warned.
Cornyn criticized President Obama for not accepting Taiwan’s letter of request to buy F16 fighter jets from the U.S. This reflects, Cornyn said, the fact that “China has intimidated US foreign policy.”
A number of Senate Republicans are launching a push this week to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that he would like a vote to occur by the middle of July. With all 47 Republicans on board, the effort carries some weight, though actually amending the Constitution would require subsequent ratification by two-thirds of the states.
Cornyn pounced on a quote from then-Senator Barack Obama, who warned in 2006 of the consequences of a growing national debt. The quote, Cornyn explained, was meant to “point out the hypocrisy… and lack of leadership,” coming from Obama on the debate to raise the debt limit again later this summer.
China, Heritage Foundation, debt, john cornyn, security in Congress
9-11 Commission Warns U.S. Still Vulnerable 10 Years After Attacks
Seven members of the 9/11 commission accused lawmakers Wednesday of leaving the U.S. vulnerable to attacks by failing to implement the recommendation the commission made in 2004.
“We are safer but we are not as secure yet as we can or should be,” Chairman Thomas Kean told the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington, D.C.
The commission’s original report contained 41 recommendations to improve US security. Due to insufficient progress, however, the committee issued a new report Wednesday detailing nine commission recommendations that remain unfulfilled and are causing a gap in the country’s security.
Among those failures was the stubbornness of Congress.
“Reformation of congress was a frustrating thing to ask but we still asked for it,” Commissioner Fred F. Fielding stated. “However, they did not make the bicameral committee we requested and instead are maintaining the status quo.”
One lawmaker, however, responded by accusing the administration of dragging its feet on cracking down on so-called “lone-wolf” terrorists operating inside the U.S.
“I am troubled that the White House has not named a lead federal agency to coordinate disparate efforts to combat homegrown terrorism,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. “I urge the Administration to establish a unified front against this important and evolving threat.”
Commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton related that the nation’s detection system falls short in critical ways. While the US has improved its security check on those who arrive in the country, there is still an ineffective system that monitors who leaves the country or remains in the country with expired visas. Hamilton revealed that this is exactly how two 9-11 attackers were able to escape capture.
Another failure of the commission that all panelists agreed upon was their inability to place full control of the entire intelligence community in the hands of the Director of National Intelligence.
Overall, panelists revealed that there are still many communication issues within the government, ambiguity with how to deal with detainees, under developed cyber security and ineffective research and testing performed by Transportation Security on explosive-detection equipment.
“The commission laid out recommendations in a functioning reality,” Hamilton deplored, “and I have no idea why it has not been done.”
While the report seems very grim, panelists did agree that the US is extensively safer than it was 10 years ago.
“We have definitely seen progress but we can’t pat ourselves on the back too strongly,” Hamilton warned. “We haven’t solved the problem and this is great criticism of the US government.”