We Have the NATO Spending Debate Upside Down:
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President Trump’s suggestion that other NATO countries boost defense spending to 4% -- twice the currently agreed figure – misses the point, Peter Beinart argues in The Atlantic. It’s not that allies should be spending more, it’s that America needs to spend less.
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“The threat of Russia actually invading the Baltic states is very small. And Russia poses basically zero military threat to larger NATO members like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The far larger threat to Europe is ideological. It’s rising authoritarianism,” Beinart writes.
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“What American liberals should be saying is not that Germany’s defense spending is too low but that America’s is too high. Plenty of Democratic voters, after all, desperately want the kind of welfare state that Germans already have. They want to check in to the hospital without risking bankruptcy and to attend college without going into debt. Higher defense spending means less money to achieve those goals.”
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The Hypocrisy of Trump’s Trade Victim Card:
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There’s a problem with President Trump’s regular complaints that the United States is being taken advantage of by other countries, The New York Times editorializes: America is no trading angel, either. Look no further than the President’s complaints about Canada.
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“American dairy quotas and tariffs are so restrictive that the vast majority of the milk, cheese and butter families in the United States buy is made domestically. In fact, dairy producers in Wisconsin and other states sold $792 million in products to Canada in 2017, while Canadian producers sold just $149 million of dairy to the United States, according to the Brookings Institution,” The New York Times notes.
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“Trump thinks that it’s in his interest to paint America as a victim of cunning foreigners. That much is clear. It’s far less obvious why he believes that countries he has subjected to such baseless attacks will negotiate favorable trade agreements with a president who has shown he can’t be trusted.”
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President Trump’s suggestion that other NATO countries boost defense spending to 4% -- twice the currently agreed figure – misses the point, Peter Beinart argues in The Atlantic. It’s not that allies should be spending more, it’s that America needs to spend less.
.
“The threat of Russia actually invading the Baltic states is very small. And Russia poses basically zero military threat to larger NATO members like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The far larger threat to Europe is ideological. It’s rising authoritarianism,” Beinart writes.
.
“What American liberals should be saying is not that Germany’s defense spending is too low but that America’s is too high. Plenty of Democratic voters, after all, desperately want the kind of welfare state that Germans already have. They want to check in to the hospital without risking bankruptcy and to attend college without going into debt. Higher defense spending means less money to achieve those goals.”
.
---------------------------------------------------------
.
The Hypocrisy of Trump’s Trade Victim Card:
.
There’s a problem with President Trump’s regular complaints that the United States is being taken advantage of by other countries, The New York Times editorializes: America is no trading angel, either. Look no further than the President’s complaints about Canada.
.
“American dairy quotas and tariffs are so restrictive that the vast majority of the milk, cheese and butter families in the United States buy is made domestically. In fact, dairy producers in Wisconsin and other states sold $792 million in products to Canada in 2017, while Canadian producers sold just $149 million of dairy to the United States, according to the Brookings Institution,” The New York Times notes.
.
“Trump thinks that it’s in his interest to paint America as a victim of cunning foreigners. That much is clear. It’s far less obvious why he believes that countries he has subjected to such baseless attacks will negotiate favorable trade agreements with a president who has shown he can’t be trusted.”
