Rand Paul: “Financing the war is not as simple as it appears. It involves more than just passing a piece of legislation labeled as…”

“Financing the war is not as simple as it appears. It involves more than just passing a piece of legislation labeled as support for the troops. It has now been fashionable to bash France and Germany and other friends if they are less enthusiastic for the war than we think they should be. Yet foreign corporations provide millions of jobs for American citizens. French companies alone employ over 400,000. There is a practical reason why offending the French and others may backfire on us. In 2002 we earned $11.9 billion less from our investments overseas than foreigners did here. This is not a sign of financial strength. A negative balance on the income account contributes to the $500 billion annual current account deficit. Since 1985 when we became a deficit NATION, we have acquired a foreign debt of approximately $2.8 trillion, the world's largest. No nation can long sustain a debt that continues to expand at a rate greater than 5 percent of the GDP. This means we borrowed more than $1.4 billion every day to keep the borrowing binge going. Bashing the French and others will only hasten the day that sets off the train of economic events that will please no one.”