As the Greek parliament voted today (amid public riots) on the austerity bill required for continued bailout money from the EU, President Obama held a press conference in which he chided American legislators for vacationing while the U.S. faces a similar debt crisis. The deficit talks in Washington are almost entirely discussed in the context of domestic spending programs that will need to be cut in any sensible budget comprise. The BBC’s Justin Webb reminds us that the deficit crisis is not just a matter of U.S. domestic politics, it also has important implications for the U.S. role in the world:
This is a story of debt, delusion and – potentially – disaster. For America and, if you happen to think that American influence is broadly a good thing, for the world. The debt and the delusion are both all-American: $14 trillion (£8.75tn) of debt has been amassed and there is no cogent plan to reduce it. The figure is impossible to comprehend: easier to focus on the fact that it grows at $40,000 (£25,000) a second. Getting out of Afghanistan will help but actually only at the margins. The problem is much bigger than any one area of expenditure. The economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, is no rabid fiscal conservative but on the debt he is a hawk: “I’m worried. The debt is large. It should be brought under control. The longer we wait, the longer we suffer this kind of paralysis; the more America boxes itself into a corner and the more America’s constructive leadership in the world diminishes.
Much of what we discuss here on this blog as well as the FPA in general (alliances, hard power, soft power, diplomacy) is endangered by our out-of-control debt. If we don’t take this issue seriously we may soon discover that we can simply no longer afford to be a superpower. I was impressed with the BBC report because it offers a look at this “domestic issue” from an international perspective and the author suggests that there is something in our American culture that may blind us to the real threat posed by the deficit. I hope that our elected leaders can prove him wrong.
Photo Credit: The Christian Science Monitor/AP
