Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hillary Clinton remarks on US debt hint at possible presidential run in 2012

The Obama administration and the Democrat controlled Congress have singularly failed to tackle the ballooning deficit problem. This year it may reach $1.5 Trillion. Indeed the Chinese have expressed grave concern at the massive US debt problem. China is becoming increasingly unwilling to fund the deficit. Now enter Hillary Clinton who in a speech today made several pointed remarks which can only be interpreted as an implicit criticism of President Obama. It is important to remember that Bill Clinton as president balanced the budget. Now of course the GOP controlled Congress forced Clinton to move along the path of financial orthodoxy. Nevertheless there is a strong contrast between the Clinton and the Obama Presidencies. Hillary is hinting that a Hillary Clinton presidency would tackle the deficit problem a la Bill Clinton.
The following remarks are apposite:
"It (US Debt) 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,"
"It is fair to say that we fought two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) without paying for them and we had tax cuts that were not paid for either, and that has been a very deadly combination to fiscal sanity and responsibility,"
"So the challenge is how we get out of (it) by making the right decisions, not the wrong decisions...... "Whether one is a Republican or a Democrat, a conservative, a progressive -- whatever you call yourself -- there is no free lunch and we cannot pretend that there is without doing grave harm to our country and to our future generations,"
Clinton has always believed that she was unfairly deprived of a run at the Presidency in 2008. No doubt she is watching the collapse of support for Obama in the polls and is subtly staking out new ground for a possible run in the primaries in 2012 if support for Obama continues to bomb.

No comments: