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Summary
The United States' huge national debt, now topping $13 trillion, is becoming a major threat to US security and leadership in the world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.The United States must be strong at home in order to be strong abroad, Clinton said in remarks on the Obama administration's new national security doctrine, which was made public on Thursday. We can not sustain this level of deficit financing and debt without losing our influence, without being constrained in the tough decisions we have to make, Clinton said, adding that it was time to make the national security case about reducing the deficit and getting the debt under control. The new Obama security strategy joins diplomatic engagement with economic discipline and military power to boost America's standing, and pledges expanded partnerships with rising powers like India and China to share the global burden. Clinton emphasized controlling the budget deficit, saying it was personally painful for her to see the yawning US spending gap after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, ended his second term in 2001 with budget surpluses. That was not just an exercise in budgeteering. It was linked to a very clear understanding of what the United States needed to do to get positioned to lead for the foreseeable future, far into the 21st century, she said.
