At National Journal’s National Security Expert Blog, Heritage Senior Research Fellow James Carafano reacts to the new director of national intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair’s recent claims that the worldwide economic crisis is the single greatest threat to the national security of the United States. Carafano writes:
Sure the economic troubles have “implications” for national security. After all, the world gets less not more safe in troubled times. Right before World War I, tariffs were sky-high and open trade was under assault on every front. The economic woes of the 1930s precipitated and accelerated the political developments that led to World War II.
On the other hand, and it’s a big hand, labeling everything from a bad day at the stock market to bad mortgages a “national security” issue…let alone a crisis, is a really, really bad idea.
Making every global challenge a security issue trumps free markets and limits personal freedoms. The concept of national security needs to be put back in the box, reserved for moments of peril in dealing with people (either states or non-states) who threaten through the use of violence to take away the political freedoms that governments are supposed to protect. We need to put an end to national-security proliferation.
Not to mention national security proliferation becomes a first class excuse to divert resources from national security instruments, like defense, to politician’s pet projects. For example, not sure what the logic is when the White House pushes for multi-billion dollar stimulus package to “create jobs” and then guts the Pentagon’s buying budget (eliminating well-paying jobs for make work in the process).
Arguing over the meaning of “pork” is a waste of time and unproductive. Pork was intentionally included to distract us from the serious policy changes and new and expanded government programs intended to change us from a capitalistic republic to a socialist country.
The housing bubble burst was caused by do-gooder democrats forcing lenders to make loans to people who could not afford to repay them. Not letting a misfortune go to waste, this administration hyped a “crisis” and plotted massive policy changes hidden in their 1400 page $1.3 trillion “stimulus” bill estimated to cost $3.4 trillion.
Policies such as creating medical cost effectiveness standards for physicians (wake up seniors) or gutting the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill deserved an open American dialog. But the President, who hyped urgency, allowed it to sit on his desk four days ONLY because this administration did NOT want anyone to read it before passage.
Now Congress was presented the President’s budget which again includes expansion of governmental control including socializing medicine. The administration’s cost estimates are pure conjecture based on funny math. His estimates of our country’s economic growth in the near future are fictional because of the punitive tax measures on small businesses.
Congressional Democrats might have been fooled once, but if they are fooled twice into voting for European socialism they are Socialists themselves.
Cybersecurity had best be everyone's concern.
You make a good point on cybersecurity. We have been looking at that area a lot.