Republican experts in the know all support the START treaty. Democratic experts in the know support the START treaty. Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Jon Kyl, and Senator John McCain among other Republicans that are attempting to block this treaty have lost their credibility with their objections.
Senator McCain while running for the presidency had the slogan “country first”. Everything he has done subsequently proved that was a meaningless slogan.
The selection of Sarah Palin proved his interest and not the country’s interest came first. His objection to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” even though the skillset of many gays in the military is of utmost national security importance, proved his interest is not country first. His opposition to letting tax cuts to the wealthy lapse to help reduce the size of the budget proved his interest is not country first. His objection to a bill he once supported, the DREAM act, denying functional Americans that would be of material benefit to our country legal status, proved his interest in not country first. Ultimately his objection to the START treaty, an update to a treaty that has never garnered this level of rancor, a treaty that is of utmost importance to our national security, proves his interest is not country first.
Republican obstructionism for simple political reasons can be understood. Democrats do this as well. Obstructionism that has irreversible material impact on Americans is simply immoral and evil.
Country first must mean something. Country first must mean the wellbeing not only of the wealthy but the middle class. Country first must mean supporting policies that ensure manufacturing remains in America and the realization that absent that we are not self-sustaining making the issue a national security threat. Country first means policies that do not penalize work and reward capital to the extent that wealth simply moves from the middle class to the wealthy.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
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Mitch McConnell Announces He Will Oppose New START Treaty
[email protected] | HuffPost Reporting
ASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will oppose the new START Treaty, a bilateral arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia that is one of President Obama’s top foreign relations priorities.
"I’ve decided I cannot support the treaty," said McConnell on CNN’s "State of the Union" Sunday morning. "I think the verification provisions are inadequate, and I do worry about missile defense implications."
On Saturday, the Senate defeated an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another opponent of the agreement, to amend the treaty’s preamble by separating the issue of missile defense from efforts to reduce American and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Ma.) strongly objected to McCain’s move, pointing out that the preamble is not a binding part of the document and such changes would slow down the approval process by months.
The amendment "requires us to go back to the Russians and renegotiate," said Kerry. "That’s a treaty-killer."
On Saturday, President Obama issued a letter clarifying the treaty’s stance on missile defense, saying it "places no limitations on the development or deployment of our missile defense programs." He promised to "take every action available to me to support the deployment of all four phases" of a missile defense system in Europe.
On CNN, McConnell said the letter wasn’t adequate, because "an equally important question is how do the Russians view missile defense and how do our European allies view missile defense, and I’m concerned about it."
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