Paralysis in Congress makes America a dysfunctional superpower
Editor’s note (October 12th): Steve Scalise, the Republican congressman who won his party’s nomination to be speaker of America’s House of Representatives, withdrew from the race after failing to secure broad Republican support.
ROBERT GATES, a former defence secretary who served Republican and Democratic presidents alike, recently issued a bleak warning. America faces an unholy alliance of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, yet cannot muster a coherent response. “Dysfunction has made American power erratic and unreliable, practically inviting risk-prone autocrats to place dangerous bets—with potentially catastrophic consequences,” he wrote in Foreign Affairs.
The next day, Congress seemed to prove him right. Having danced on the brink of a government shutdown, on September 30th lawmakers adopted a stopgap budget to keep the federal government open for another 45 days. The reprieve came at the cost of halting further military and economic aid to Ukraine, at least temporarily. And despite worries about war over Taiwan, new Pentagon programmes are also on hold. Now Israel, too, is asking for American help to fight back against Hamas, after a terrorist onslaught on October 7th killed more than 1,200 people. At least 22 Americans died, and an unknown number are held hostage.
2023-10-12 09:04:45
Post from www.economist.com
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