Hillary Clinton says deficit sends message of weakness

WASHINGTON (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 [snip]

[SNIP]

"So the challenge is how we get out of (it) by making the right decisions, not the wrong decisions," she said.

'NO FREE LUNCH'

Clinton, beaten by Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, noted that in her current job she is "by law out of politics" and said the challenges ahead would need a bipartisan "detente" on key issues including a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

"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," she said.

Continues @ Reuters

=========================

That is one clear succinct message.  She is an excellent communicator and she knows how to communicate to all ends of the political spectrum.