Arriving in Shanghai, Secretary Clinton said, “For trade to work in any economy and for it to produce the benefits we know it can, there must be a level playing field where domestic and international companies can compete freely and openly.” She wants China to rein in Pyongyang, which is completely dependent on Chinese aid to keep their people fed.

Tell me, Mrs. Clinton, do you really expect the Chinese will “level the playing field” so we can compete with them? That they will reverse course in relations with North Korea? Why should they do us any favors? What leverage do we have? Because negotiating without leverage isn’t negotiating, it’s begging.

The leverage is in the opposite direction. We need the Chinese to lend us money so we can continue our spending binge.

Rather than tighten our belts and cut back on government spending now that times are tough, the Obama administration has put it on steroids. The United States is spending money we don’t have, lots of it, and borrowing it from the Chinese. Just how much longer will the Chinese be willing to pay for Obamacare, Wall Street bailouts, and sweetheart labor union deals without expecting something in return?

It’s already started. Recently, a top assistant to Secretary Clinton apologized to the Chinese for Arizona’s immigration law. Last week a Chinese Finance Minister scolded us over our indebtedness saying, “the United States needs to take a hard look at its own fiscal situation in the light of what has happened in Europe.”


What’s next? President Obama, with his usual eloquence, gave us the answer in his commencement address at West Point last weekend. He acknowledged that “at no time in human history has a nation of diminished economic vitality maintained its military and political primacy.”

To quote columnist Charles Krauthammer, “decline is a choice.” Mr. President, is that where you’re taking us?

Wrong. Iran is shipping only part of its uranium — the rest is staying put at the covert enrichment plant at Qom, where it’s an integral part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

So why bother? Because Iran doesn’t want to give the U.S. or Israel an excuse to attack its nuclear sites. It doesn’t want the UN, especially U.N. Security Council members Russia and China, to impose severe economic and gasoline sanctions for being non-compliant on nuclear enrichment. Those trading partners don’t want to be dragged into sanctions either – they don’t see Iran’s nuclear weapons program presenting a threat to their security. So the deal announced today gives them all an excuse to ease off on sanctions, while allowing Iran to continue secretly enriching uranium to weapons grade quality.

The deal Iran has just announced is mostly a charade. The country is pretending to halt its nuclear enrichment program in hopes that we pretend to believe them. Meanwhile, the world is edging closer and closer to a nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the world.