Washington – The presidential race, foreign trade and national security highlighted a Tuesday discussion by two members of Arizona’s congressional delegation.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon were featured on a panel at the East Valley Partnership statespersons’ lunch in Mesa.
U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said polls show national security is the No. 1 concern for Arizonans and a top concern for Americans.
She believes it’s a big issue because the administration doesn’t have an “effective strategy” to defeat ISIS. Sinema wants Congress to create a new strategy to do that and have the administration adopt it.
Ways to battle ISIS, she says, include closing the visa waiver loophole, reviewing social media accounts of visa applicants and strangling funding for ISIS.
“We’re using old-school strategies against a new-school threat,” Sinema said.
It seems the country can focus only on one big thing at a time, Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon said, and added,he thinks Iran is a bigger threat to the U.S. Iran is “using its newfound money to conduct terrorism,” he said. “They are a frightening group of folks.”
U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema spoke of the need to recognize that countries near Iran are preparing for the increased threat that Iran is expected to pose. Those countries are buying bombs for protection from Iran, she said.
“The continuing arms race creates unstable climates,” Sinema said. “As Iran gets money and power, there will be continued growth of terrorism.”
Other big threats to the U.S., Salmon said, are North Korea and Russia.
North Korea continues to improve “miniaturizing” nuclear weapons. And sanctions taken against North Korea simply haven’t worked he said. His suggestion? Convince China to flex its muscles against North Korea.
Source: East Valley Tribune, 13 May 2016
