LAS VEGAS (Legal Newsline) - The United States needs to strengthen its defense rather than starve it in order to compete with China, according to a former Republican U.S. presidential candidate.
China has been bolstering its military by adding missile launch sites and an aircraft carrier to its fleet of navy ships, according to media reports.
“We need a strong military since China is in the midst of a major buildup,” businessman and former candidate Steve Forbes said last week at Freedom Fest. “We have to show the world that we're not going to let them bully other nations and little islands in the South China seas and elsewhere."
Forbes was a featured speaker on a panel,The Future of American Exceptionalism: What Policies Does America Need to Adopt to Stay Ahead of China, along with Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund, and Freedom Fest producer Mark Skousen.
“We need to start not only doing more military research and development but also building more aircraft and more sophisticated ships,” Forbes told Legal Newsline after the panel discussion. “We're reducing the size of our Navy instead of increasing it. We’ve got to increase our inventory of sophisticated weaponry training.”
Forbes argues that President Biden and his administration are undermining American exceptionalism.
“We need to feed the military,” he said. “The Biden administration is starving the military because they just don't take the world seriously.”
Forbes also accused leaders in the U.S. Defense Department under Biden of aiming for political correctness and woke culture rather than establishing an effective fighting force.
“They should get back to basics," he said. “Their duties are just to defend us, not to be advocates for a political point of view and the civilian economy.”
Forbes, who campaigned for the U.S. presidency in the 1996 and 2000 GOP primaries, also took issue with Biden traveling to Saudi Arabia last week seeking an increase in oil production.
“He should be going to North Dakota, Louisiana, and Texas, and saying please produce more,” he said. “Instead, he wants to bankrupt them and rely on the Saudis. It’s rather bizarre.”
Forbes stands by one of his most renowned but controversial presidential campaign talking points of simplifying taxation for all.
“There are ideas that the Republicans are coming up with on reducing the tax burden,” he added. “I prefer the flat tax where you have generous exemptions for adults, and families pay no federal income tax on their first $53,000 of salary. Make it simple so that people can focus on doing real things instead of filling out forms.”
Freedom Fest is an annual event focused on free thinking and is unaffiliated with any political party or think tank. Next year, Freedom Fest will gather in Memphis.