Obama: Climate change will harm national security
President Barack Obama is framing the challenges of climate change as a matter of national security that threatens to aggravate poverty and political instability around the globe and jeopardize the readiness of U.S. forces. “Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” the president says in excerpts of a commencement address prepared for delivery Wednesday at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. “And so we need to act and we need to act now.” The president in recent months has pressed for action on climate change as a matter of health, as a matter of environmental protection and as a matter of international obligation. He’s even couched it as a family matter, linking it to the worry he felt when one his daughters had an asthma attack as a preschooler. His speech to the cadets, by contrast, is focused on what the Obama administration says are immediate risks to national security, including contributing to more natural disasters that result in humanitarian crises and potential new flows of refugees. Further, the president sees climate change aggravating poverty and social tensions that can fuel instability and foster terrorist activity and other violence. Obama said the cadets would be part of the first generation of officers to begin their service in a world where it is increasingly clear that “climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip and protect their infrastructure.” His prepared remarks said climate change “is not just a problem for countries on the coast or for certain regions of the world. Climate change impacts every country on the planet.” As for the impact in the U.S., Obama pointed to streets in Miami and Charleston, S.C., that flood at high tide and to military bases across the country already feeling negative effects. “Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increasingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base,” Obama said of military facilities in Virginia. “In Alaska, thawing permafrost is damaging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on.” With the Republican-led Congress indifferent to Obama’s entreaties, the president has been doing what he can to combat climate change through executive orders to cut greenhouse gas emissions and through the powers of persuasion. But his climate change agenda has drawn strong political opposition and a number of legal challenges. Many of the GOP presidential candidates for 2016 have said that taking unilateral steps to address climate change could hurt the U.S. economy. Obama’s appearance at the Coast Guard Academy was to be his second and last commencement address of the season after speaking earlier this month at a community college in South Dakota. The president traditionally delivers a commencement address every year to one of the service academies. Later Wednesday, he was visiting Stamford, Conn., for a Democratic fundraiser at a private home, with about 30 supporters contributing up to $33,400 each. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Aerospace, automotive industries driving healthy business outlook for state
The message from Gov. Robert Bentley and the Alabama Department of Commerce is that Alabama’s business sector is thriving. According to figures released Tuesday, more than 70 new companies announced facilities in Alabama this past year and more than 300 companies expanded operations. The combined boost to Alabama’s economy, according to their data, was as many as 18,000 new jobs and nearly $3.4 billion in new investment. In 2013, the total was 16,847 jobs and $4.4 billion invested. “Job creation has been my top priority, and we have worked diligently as a team across Alabama to target well-paying jobs and projects that can make a difference in the lives of our residents and in the communities where they live,” Bentley said in a written statement. “It’s been a successful formula, and we are going to make it even better with new recruiting tools and fresh ideas on improving workforce development.” The 2014 New & Expanding Industry Report credits the growth to expansion in the automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing sectors in Alabama. For example, Science and Engineering Services launched a $70 million expansion of its Huntsville facility last summer and Mercedes-Benz also announced plans to expand its Tuscaloosa operation. Tuesday’s announcement follows a visit last week by President Barack Obama’s chief official on international trade, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, and a discussion on the importance of exports for the state economy. During his visit, Froman warned that high tariffs in foreign markets for two Alabama’s strongest sectors – automotive and manufacturing industries – could jeopardize growth in the state’s overall economy.
Chris Christie calls for new government surveillance powers
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered a vigorous defense of post-Sept. 11 surveillance tactics on Monday, backing existing programs and calling for an expansion of intelligence-gathering capabilities even as Congress seeks ways to rein in the programs. Christie, who spent seven years as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey before he was elected governor, said that he had used provisions of the Patriot Act in pursuing terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks and argued that the country must not weaken its anti-terror and surveillance laws. “We need to toughen our anti-terror and surveillance laws to give our services the legal mechanisms to do their job,” he said in a foreign policy-themed speech. A likely candidate for the Republican GOP presidential nomination, Christie took specific aim at former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who in 2013 leaked thousands of documents to journalists. Among Snowden’s revelations: NSA had for years been secretly collecting data about millions of Americans’ landline telephone calls. “When Edward Snowden revealed our intelligence secrets to the world in 2013, civil liberties extremists seized that moment to advance their very own narrow agenda,” he said. “They want you to think that there’s a government agent listening in every time you pick up the phone or Skype with your grandkids. They want you to think our intelligence community are the bad guys — straight out of the ‘Bourne Identity’ or some other Hollywood thriller. They want you to think that if we weakened our capabilities, the rest of the world would somehow love us more. “Let’s be clear, all these fears are exaggerated and ridiculous. When it comes to fighting terrorism, our government is not the enemy,” he said. Last week more than 300 House members voted to end the NSA’s bulk telephone records collection program, replace it with a system to leave the data with telephone companies, and allow the NSA to search the data on a case-by-case basis. The supporters of ending the program include Democrats and Republicans, and even the NSA doesn’t object to having private companies store the data. Independent reviews have found that the bulk collection program did not foil a single terrorist attack. Christie, however, slammed those pushing reforms as “intellectual purists” and insisted law-abiding citizens had nothing to fear from the surveillance efforts. “The vast majority of Americans are not worried about the government listening in on them, because it hasn’t happened. They are worried about what happens if we don’t catch the bad people who want to harm our country,” he said. Christie, who has said he will announce his White House plans by the end of June, spoke on the bank of the Piscataqua River, with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the distance behind him. Throughout his speech, he painted himself as an antidote to what he described as President Barack Obama‘s weak leadership abroad. He argued the case for a more active U.S. presence overseas, bolstered by a larger military and increased defense spending. He also criticized president’s approach to the Islamic State militants and the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, as well as Russia’s backing of separatists in Ukraine and China’s encroachment in the South China Sea. “All these things are happening because American power is in retreat and we’ve backed away from the principles that made us a source of strength and stability,” Christie said. “No one understands any longer whom America stands with or whom we stand against. No one understands exactly what we stand for and what we’re willing to sacrifice to stand up for it. The speech is the third Christie has delivered in recent weeks in the early-voting state as he lays the groundwork for an expected campaign. His previous speeches focused on overhauling Social Security and reducing taxes on individuals and corporations. Christie has been working to re-establish his place in the top tier of likely candidates after the fallout from the George Washington Bridge scandal. He’ll hold his fifth town hall event in the state Monday evening. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Attorney General Luther Strange says U.S. Supreme Court shouldn’t rule on same-sex marriage
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange says America’s founders would not have approved of the current members of the Supreme Court making decisions on issues such as same-sex marriage. Strange questioned the Northeast upbringing and Ivy League backgrounds of many of the justices, arguing Saturday that they are not representative of Alabama citizens, AL.com reports. Strange spoke at the Madison County Republican Men’s Club monthly breakfast in Huntsville. “Who’s going to make the decisions for the citizens of this country?” he asked. “Is it going to be the citizens or nine people?” Strange said later he was not questioning the court’s legitimacy, but trying to point out its power. Strange, a Republican, filed a brief with the Supreme Court last month asking it to leave in place a lower court’s decision letting several states continue defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman. He said he is among 27 conservative state attorneys general who are acting as a “last line of defense” against President Barack Obama, who he said has exceeded his authority by signing executive orders on immigration and EPA regulation for coal plants, among other issues. Strange received a standing ovation after his speech. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
GOP presidential prospects in Iowa agree to get tough with terrorists
Republicans wooing Iowa’s most active party members called Saturday for a stronger presence in the world but ran the gamut in tone and just how tough to get with America’s enemies. On Armed Services Day — and a day the Obama administration reported killing a senior Islamic State leader in Syria — most of the nearly dozen GOP presidential prospects at a state party dinner called for a more confrontational stance toward Iran. Former Sen. Rick Santorum‘s answer for handling Iran, one of four countries on the U.S. list of nations accused of repeatedly supporting global terrorism, was to “load up our bombers and bomb them back to the 7th century.” Earlier in the day, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised U.S. commandos who had reportedly killed the ISIS leader, described as the head of oil operations for ISIS. Bush gave no credit to Obama, whom Bush accused of allowing the rise of ISIS by pulling back U.S. forces from Iraq. “It’s a great day, but it’s not a strategy,” Bush told reporters in eastern Iowa. Although Bush joked lightly about the confused statements he made in recent days about whether he would have ordered the attack in Iraq in 2003, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told the GOP gathering Saturday night that it was a “valid question” to ask presidential candidates whether they would have invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein. “We have to question: Is Iraq more stable or less stable since Hussein is gone?” said Paul, who espouses some of the hands-off foreign policy of his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tried to reject any assertion that the existing problems in Iraq were the result of the Republican president who ordered the invasion, Bush’s brother George W. Bush. “The person I blame is Barack Obama, not George W. Bush,” said Graham, who criticized Obama for keeping a campaign promise to withdraw combat troops from Iraq. Of George W. Bush, Graham said, “He made the best decision he could.” Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as did others, accused Obama of not taking the threat of Islamic State militants seriously. Perry pointed to claims by the militant group, disputed by terrorism experts, that it was behind the assault on a Texas cartoon contest that featured images of the Prophet Muhammad. “You see ISIS showing up in Garland, Texas,” Perry said. “You realize this is a challenging world we live in.” Aside from the nuances on Republican policy toward Iran and ISIS militants in Iraq, the GOP presidential prospects were united in taking jabs at Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. They linked Clinton to Obama and mocked her for not fielding more questions during her campaign events. Former business executive Carly Fiorina said that if Clinton is going to run for president, “she is going to have to answer some questions.” Paul joked about whether Clinton “ever takes any questions.” Earlier in the day Bush said he had taken between 800 and 900 questions, compared to a handful by Clinton. In one of the more specific broadsides against Clinton, Fiorina said the former first lady must not be president because “she is not trustworthy, she lacks a track record of leadership and her policies will crush the potential of this nation.” Others who spoke at the Des Moines event, which about 1,300 Iowa Republicans attended, were former surgeon Ben Carson, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former New York Gov. George Pataki, businessman Donald Trump and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Walker, who appeared at an afternoon fundraiser for a Des Moines area county official, called for a stepped-up fight against terrorism. Having recently visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Walker called the Obama administration’s foreign policy to “draw a red line in the sand and allow people to cross it.” Instead, he suggested that the United States “take the fight to them.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Obama, First Lady Thinking About Life After White House
Presidential library? Check. Future home? TBD. The decision by President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, to build his presidential library in Chicago scratches one item from their to-do list for life after the White House. Remaining decisions aren’t as pressing as where to put the library and likely will come near the end of his term or after he leaves the building in mid-January 2017. Mrs. Obama says that’s a good thing because “we still have a lot to do in these two years, and it’s hard to do this and think about the next steps. I think the time will come when it will feel right to start thinking about what’s next, but until now it’s really about solidifying the work that we’re doing here.” It’s also about not appearing more focused on the future than on their day-to-day responsibilities, says Anita McBride, a veteran of three Republican administrations. “You’re president and first lady for eight years, not six years and five months,” she said. Some of the decision-making that lies ahead for the Obamas: NEW HOME Obama has said daughter Sasha “will have a big vote” in where the family ends up when his term ends, partly because the soon-to-be 14-year-old will still be in high school. (Big sister Malia is expected to be away at college.) Some recent ex-presidents have their homes and libraries in the same city: George H.W. Bush (Houston) and George W. Bush (Dallas). Obama still owns the Chicago home he lived in with his family before he became president, but it’s unclear whether he would return there permanently. Obama spends Christmas in his native Hawaii, but it appears it won’t be his home post-presidency. The White House said Obama was not behind the recent $8.7 million purchase of a Hawaii beachfront home by his friend, Chicago businessman Marty Nesbitt. Nesbitt is chairman of the Barack Obama Foundation, which is raising money to build the library. BOOKS/SPEAKING CIRCUIT Publishing houses will pay millions for the memoirs of the first black U.S. president and first lady. Former President Bill Clinton received a reported $10 million advance for his memoir, “My Life.” His wife, former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, is said to have received $8 million for her book, “Living History.” Both Obamas are already published authors. Obama wrote “Dreams from My Father,” “The Audacity of Hope” and “Of Thee I Sing,” a children’s book. Michelle Obama is the author of “American Grown,” about her garden on the South Lawn. Obama agreed in 2004 to write the children’s book as part of a three-book deal with Random House that included “Audacity.” He remains under contract for a nonfiction work that would not be his memoir, to be delivered after he leaves office. Speakers’ bureaus are also likely to court the Obamas. FUTURE CAREERS Obama will be 55 when he leaves office and Mrs. Obama will be 53. Obama has talked about returning to teaching and to the community organizing work he did before politics. (He once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.) Obama also says he’ll stay involved with a support program he started for boys and young men of color. He recently announced that a new foundation will continue the program after he leaves office. “I’ll go back to doing the kinds of work that I was doing before, just trying to find ways to help people – help young people get educations, and help people get jobs, and try to bring businesses into neighborhoods that don’t have enough businesses,” Obama said. “That’s the kind of work that I really love to do.” Mrs. Obama plans to stay engaged with her four major initiatives: reducing childhood obesity, helping military veterans and their families, encouraging high school students to attend college or technical school, and educating girls around the world. “I do not have a one- or two-year horizon for this work,” she told a health summit earlier this year. “I have a rest-of-my-life horizon.” FRESH AIR After leaving the White House, Mrs. Obama looks forward to “getting in a car and rolling down the window and just letting the air hit my face. I’m going to spend that first year just hanging out the window.” It’s been years since she’s ridden in a car with the windows down and the “windows in our house don’t open” either, she said. The Secret Service agents who will remain with the Obamas will probably keep the windows shut. Reprinted with permission from the Associated Press.
Mo Brooks leads U.S. House GOP to strip immigration language from defense bill
U.S. House conservatives on Thursday voted down a nonbinding provision aimed at helping young immigrants without permanent legal status enlist in the military, angering some fellow Republicans and handing Democrats a political issue heading into an election year. The vote was 221-202 to remove the measure from Congress’ annual defense policy bill. Some 20 Republicans voted “no” but couldn’t overcome conservatives who threatened to oppose the overall bill if they didn’t get their way. “This Congress should support and represent Americans by voting to stop military service opportunities from being taken from struggling American families in order to give them to illegal aliens,” GOP Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, who led the fight, argued on the House floor ahead of the vote. The handful of Republicans on the other side of the issue struggled to round up votes. Their job was made harder because Democrats had already decided to vote against the defense bill for unrelated budgetary issues, giving Brooks and his supporters leverage to bring down the bill if they didn’t prevail. “This is a mistake,” said Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a freshman Republican from Florida. “It sends the wrong message to the country. I assure you that the overwhelming majority of Americans are for allowing young people who were raised in this country, who love this country and want to serve it, to have that opportunity.” Democrats wasted no time in jumping on an issue that could help them mobilize Latino voters heading into a presidential election year. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and her top lieutenants held a news conference to denounce Republicans over the issue, and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton also got in on the action. She issued a prepared statement from her political director, Amanda Renteria, saying: “If these courageous young men and women want to serve, they should be honored and celebrated, not discriminated against.” The debate revived the simmering partisan dispute over executive actions President Barack Obama took this past fall to defer deportations for millions of immigrants in this country illegally, including expanding protections for those, known as Dreamers, who arrived in the United States as young children. Many Republicans argued that supporting the provision included in the defense bill would have validated the actions Obama took, which have been challenged in court and are on hold pending a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “The House should not take action to legitimize the president’s unconstitutional overreach,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican. Other Republicans argued that the $612 billion defense policy bill, which covers a multitude of military issues, was not the place for a debate on immigration. The measure by Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona would have expressed the House’s view that the Pentagon should study whether military enlistment should be opened to Dreamers. It was added to the defense bill during a marathon committee session last month, with the support of six Republicans. But several Republicans asserted Thursday that it shouldn’t have been included in the first place, suggesting that perhaps it only was because the debate occurred so late at night and people were not fully focusing. “It went for 18 hours, late in the process one of our members offered an amendment to insert the immigration issue into this bill, it was unfortunate and it was inappropriate,” said Alabama Rep. Bradley Byrne. Gallego disputed that argument, saying his amendment was offered about 10:30 p.m., which he asserted was not overly late. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
Bill would open more of Gulf to oil and gas drilling
U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi are supporting legislation to expand energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. The Republican lawmakers are co-sponsors of a bill that will also provide additional revenue for Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas. The legislation, introduced by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, would amend a 2006 law to open parts of the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas exploration. It would redefine President Barack Obama‘s Eastern Gulf of Mexico drilling moratoria to open access to energy resources in areas 50 miles from the Florida coastline. Cochran and Wicker say the legislation also raises the revenue sharing cap to $700 million annually from the current $500 million, allowing the four coastal states greater say in the use of their offshore drilling revenues. “Offshore energy exploration is important to boosting the Gulf Coast’s overall economy,” Wicker said in a news release. “America thrives when our Gulf Coast thrives. This bill would provide precisely what Mississippi needs to prosper — an increase in jobs, revenue, and use of our natural resources.” Cochran said Mississippi’s energy industry is diversified and growing, making it important for job creation and meeting national energy goals. “Our energy policies should be geared toward greater U.S. energy and economic security, and that means responsibly maximizing our own energy resources. This legislation would move us in that direction for the benefit of our nation and Mississippi,” he said. Cochran said a 2014 study by Quest Offshore estimates that developing oil and gas operations in the eastern Gulf of Mexico could, by 2035, produce nearly 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and contribute more than $18 billion per year to the U.S. economy. Republican U.S. Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas are also co-sponsors of the legislation. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton won’t run for President
John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and one of the Republican Party’s most prominent national security hawks, has confirmed that he will not run for president. In a media conference call and separate video to supporters, Bolton said he would work through his political action committees and PACs to influence the 2016 elections by pushing candidates to promote aggressive foreign and military policies. “I believe I can make the strongest contribution to our future by continuing as a clear and consistent advocate for a strong, Reaganite foreign policy that values peace through strength,” Bolton said in the video. But, he told reporters, his own campaign “was not feasible,” saying that an established “political class in this country” makes it harder for lesser-known candidates to compete seriously for the presidency. “I’m not complaining,” he said, adding, “I’m a realist.” A leading foreign policy voice in the George W. Bush White House, Bolton spent recent months testing his muscular foreign policy message in early voting states. He often lashed out at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as Republican rivals – Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in particular – who favor a reduced U.S. military presence in the world. He blasted Clinton again Thursday, calling her tenure as President Barack Obama‘s first secretary of state a “failure.” “Republicans need to make sure they don’t allow her to skip away with using national security as an issue that works in her favor,” he said. Bolton said he has no immediate plans to endorse any Republican. Bolton’s decision not to run is somewhat surprising in an election season in which more than a dozen ambitious Republicans may pursue a run for the nomination. Declared candidates include Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former technology executive Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson. A slew of current and former governors, including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, are expected to announce their plans in the coming weeks. Despite saying a campaign wasn’t “feasible,” Bolton insisted that “funding would have been there in an adequate amount.” He noted that his political organizations spent about $7.5 million on House and Senate races in the 2014 midterm elections. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
Martha Roby blasts Robert McDonald, President Obama over VA missteps
U.S. Rep. Martha Roby said Thursday that Veterans’ Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald and the Obama administration “need to spend less time on political posturing and more time correcting the ongoing mismanagement of VA health care systems.” Roby, a Republican who represents Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, in a news release cited a recent memo Jan R. Frye reported in The Washington Post that portrayed an atmosphere of “lawlessness and chaos” surrounding the VA. Frye wrote in a memo addressed to McDonald that about $6 billion of taxpayer money was lost to what Roby called on Thursday “waste, fraud and abuse.” Roby also teed off on what her office called “independently refuted” accusations from President Barack Obama that recent problems with the Veterans’ Administration — a problem especially acute in parts of Roby’s district, which includes the Wiregrass region as well as parts of metropolitan Montgomery — stemmed from budget cuts pushed by the GOP-led House of Representatives in her statement, below: “While Secretary McDonald was falsely accusing House Republicans of cutting funding for VA healthcare, his department was responsible for billions in waste, fraud and abuse. “While President Obama was threatening to veto our appropriations bill over $1.4 billion in funding, the VA was blowing through four times that annually in misspent funds. “I have been told by senior VA officials in no uncertain terms that problems at systems like the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System are ‘not about money.’ Today’s report further demonstrates that the rhetoric from the White House and Secretary McDonald was absurd, insulting and shameless. “They need to spend less time on political posturing and more time correcting the ongoing mismanagement of VA health care systems that is preventing our veterans from receiving timely, quality care.” Roby said in a news release she is preparing to advance legislation that would compel the VA Secretary to take over VA systems that perennially fail to meet certain standards.
Technology revolutionizes voter registration for 2016
When President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, only two states offered a website where citizens could register to vote. By the 2016 presidential election, it’s possible that a majority of states will offer that service, helping to cut down on errors resulting from bad handwriting and reducing time spent by voters in line on Election Day, according to data released Wednesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The nonpartisan public policy group says states have spent an average of $249,000 to build and implement new online voter registration systems. But states also are recouping costs because clerks don’t have to process paper registrations. Here’s a look at what’s changed since the last U.S. presidential election: Arizona and Washington were the only states that offered online voter registration in 2008. Now 20 states do, and seven others have passed or are considering laws that would authorize a new online registration system. Five states now allow residents without a state identification or driver’s license to register to vote online: California, Delaware, Minnesota, Missouri, and Virginia. Several states are tweaking their registration sites with smartphones in mind, offering mobile friendly features. States are analyzing that data. Colorado, for example, notes the number of new registrations in a certain time period and updates to old ones. That can help states identify trends in voter registration. States are doing more to accommodate people who struggle with English or have disabilities. One example of those efforts is text-to-speech software for blind people. Online registration has changed dramatically since 2008, but the U.S. is likely a long way from letting people vote online because of security concerns. When the District of Columbia experimented with an online voting system in 2010, hackers broke in and changed votes to go to fictional characters. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Marco Rubio promoting strong military as part of foreign policy
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is outlining a foreign policy doctrine centered on aggressive use of U.S. power, boosting military spending, and protecting the rights of minorities around the world. The Florida senator, who has staked out hawkish views on world affairs, is also directly warning Russia, China and Iran against “attempts to block global commerce,” according to excerpts of a speech scheduled Wednesday afternoon at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. In a wide-open Republican primary field, Rubio has been touting his foreign policy experience and using it as a way to set himself apart from his competitors. The first-term senator serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee, and he has become a sharp critic of President Barack Obama‘s handling of international issues. In his first major policy speech as a presidential candidate, Rubio details a three-pronged foreign policy doctrine that he says would guide his potential presidency. Rubio, 43, argues that the government must “adequately fund our military,” even in times of peace and stability. Earlier this year, he introduced a budget amendment to increase defense spending, but the measure failed. It’s unclear whether Rubio will call for specific spending levels Wednesday. Rubio also calls for using “American power to oppose any violations of international waters, airspace, cyberspace or outer space.” He singles out attempts to cause economic disruption either through direct invasions or by blocking transit through the South China Sea or the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran recently seized a Marshall Islands-flagged ship. “Gone will be the days of debating where a ship is flagged or whether it is our place to criticize territorial expansionism,” he says in the excerpts. Seeking to look beyond sheer military power, Rubio says he would support the spread of economic and political freedom, resist efforts by large powers to control smaller neighbors, and advance the rights of women and religious minorities around the world. “The American people hear their cries, see their suffering, and most of all, desire their freedom,” he says. The senator has been particularly critical of Obama’s thaw with Cuba, the communist island nation his parents left in the 1950s. He’s argued that the president’s overtures to Havana are a premature reward for a nation with a repressive government and dismal human rights record. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
