By Nick Smith
Gongwer News Service
Gongwer News Service
The nation needs to modernize its national security focus to include economic security as well as setting up a strong industrial policy and going on offense in protecting the public from cyber threats, U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin said Friday.
In a speech delivered at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Slotkin, D-Holly, said: “the old playbook isn’t working, and we don’t yet know what the new playbook looks like.”
Slotkin raised three points. First, economic security must be treated as national security, she said.
“The existential threat to the United States is not coming from abroad. It’s the shrinking middle class here at home,” Slotkin said.
Second, the United States needs to win the technology race, which China is currently dominating as the country’s top adversary. Finally, the country needs to rethink how it works to protect residents from tech threats to the public as well as to infrastructure.
She took a swipe at the economic policies of President Donald Trump, who she often disagrees with on national security and economic policies.
“My experience with Trump is that he’s usually got the wrong answer for the right question,” Slotkin said. “He’s picking up on something that’s very real in the country, this issue with the struggling middle class.”
She acknowledged that he won the election because it was an election focused on economic anxiety.
“He successfully won that campaign because he said he was going to lower costs,” Slotkin said. “I challenge anyone to tell me what part of your budget has gone down and not gone, in some cases, up precipitously.”
On economic security, she said residents have become angry because they cannot afford what previous generations were able to afford including their own homes.
“They feel shame, and they start looking for someone or something to blame,” Slotkin said. “That’s how we begin to tear each other apart from the inside, and how voters end up jumping into bed with anyone promising change.”
Slotkin added the country needs a strong industrial policy and to ramp up production of critical resources, including pharmaceuticals and rare earth minerals. She also called for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund to invest in technologies as well as efforts to stockpile critical minerals.
Touching on her national security background, she said the post-9/11 playbook is becoming outdated.
“We need a new vision of homeland security, updated from my era of 9/11 with new playbooks, new authorities and new capabilities to protect Americans from digital warfare,” Slotkin said. “We have the most sophisticated hacking tools in the world. So instead of being scared to use them, we need to fight back and hit our enemies where it hurts.”
The senator said if a foreign country targets part of the United States’s power grid or shuts down water systems in a community, it should be treated like a military strike and be subject to retaliation, such as knocking out the server from which the attack was launched.
As to the policies of the Trump administration, she said there is an opportunity to chart a new course.
“Trump is indeed burning everything down, but instead of snapping back to the old way of doing things, we have to build something new out of the ashes,” Slotkin said. “I am not naïve. I know we have real problems right now, but a real lack of leaders that are focused on the future is a problem. If leaders are able to rise above their partisanship, America still has a really good hand to play.”
In a speech delivered at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Slotkin, D-Holly, said: “the old playbook isn’t working, and we don’t yet know what the new playbook looks like.”
Slotkin raised three points. First, economic security must be treated as national security, she said.
“The existential threat to the United States is not coming from abroad. It’s the shrinking middle class here at home,” Slotkin said.
Second, the United States needs to win the technology race, which China is currently dominating as the country’s top adversary. Finally, the country needs to rethink how it works to protect residents from tech threats to the public as well as to infrastructure.
She took a swipe at the economic policies of President Donald Trump, who she often disagrees with on national security and economic policies.
“My experience with Trump is that he’s usually got the wrong answer for the right question,” Slotkin said. “He’s picking up on something that’s very real in the country, this issue with the struggling middle class.”
She acknowledged that he won the election because it was an election focused on economic anxiety.
“He successfully won that campaign because he said he was going to lower costs,” Slotkin said. “I challenge anyone to tell me what part of your budget has gone down and not gone, in some cases, up precipitously.”
On economic security, she said residents have become angry because they cannot afford what previous generations were able to afford including their own homes.
“They feel shame, and they start looking for someone or something to blame,” Slotkin said. “That’s how we begin to tear each other apart from the inside, and how voters end up jumping into bed with anyone promising change.”
Slotkin added the country needs a strong industrial policy and to ramp up production of critical resources, including pharmaceuticals and rare earth minerals. She also called for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund to invest in technologies as well as efforts to stockpile critical minerals.
Touching on her national security background, she said the post-9/11 playbook is becoming outdated.
“We need a new vision of homeland security, updated from my era of 9/11 with new playbooks, new authorities and new capabilities to protect Americans from digital warfare,” Slotkin said. “We have the most sophisticated hacking tools in the world. So instead of being scared to use them, we need to fight back and hit our enemies where it hurts.”
The senator said if a foreign country targets part of the United States’s power grid or shuts down water systems in a community, it should be treated like a military strike and be subject to retaliation, such as knocking out the server from which the attack was launched.
As to the policies of the Trump administration, she said there is an opportunity to chart a new course.
“Trump is indeed burning everything down, but instead of snapping back to the old way of doing things, we have to build something new out of the ashes,” Slotkin said. “I am not naïve. I know we have real problems right now, but a real lack of leaders that are focused on the future is a problem. If leaders are able to rise above their partisanship, America still has a really good hand to play.”
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