Hillary Clinton says deficit sends message of weakness
WASHINGTON | Wed Sep 8, 2010 1:33pm EDT
(Reuters) - The huge U.S. budget deficit poses a national security threat and projects a "message of weakness" internationally, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday as she urged Democrats and Republicans to tackle the problem.
Clinton, in a speech heralding a new "American moment" in U.S. foreign policy, said the Obama administration's policy of greater engagement with the world has brought dividends such as a united front against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
But she again stressed the corrosive effect of the mounting U.S. debt, which she said threatened the United States' ability to chart its own course in the world and sends "a message of weakness internationally."
"It poses a national security threat in two ways: it undermines our capacity to act in our own interest, and it does constrain us where constraint may be undesirable," Clinton said in response to a question after her address to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
The U.S. budget deficit is projected to hit $1.5 trillion this year and has become a campaign issue ahead of November's congressional elections in which President Barack Obama's Democrats are trying to prevent big losses to Republicans.
