
In the last Presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle, both President Obama and Governor Romney referred to the U.S. national debt as a growing threat to security. These claims echo the 2011 remarks of Admiral Michael Mullin
First, economic weakness constrains the U.S. in its ability to play a leading role in the international community. As the U.S. pays its debt, the amount of money used to pursue U.S. foreign policy objectives must, by necessity, be reduced. Experts and military leaders
Second, the pressure to pay back debts as opposed to investing in building infrastructure and providing services within U.S. borders has the potential to increase human security issues associated with poverty and economic hardship. Greece provides an example of the possible hardships and human security threats: violent protests, appearance of hard-liner and extremist groups possessing views against foreigners or ethnic groups, and the inability of the police to control violence and crime. Should the U.S. be unable to provide a sustainable and functioning safety net, the already growing number of poor will accelerate, simultaneously raising the crime rate around the country.
Finally, the U.S. may be inhibited in pursuing its foreign policy objectives because of pressure from foreign debt holders. Foreign countries own nearly half of the U.S. debt
Currently, divisive partisan politics seem to block every path toward reducing the national debt, thus addressing the security issues associated with it. However, one possible step to reduce the national debt is to reduce military spending in the short term. U.S. defense spending in 2011 was about $711 billion, more than the combined $695 billion spent by the next 13 highest defense budgets