Senator Chuck Hagel Reflects on U.S. Role in the World Today at ACCF Policy Forum

July 10, 2008

“We shouldn’t kid ourselves about the challenges that lie ahead for the U.S.,” Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) told members of the ACCF Policy Forum at a meeting on July 10. “We have real and urgent problems and we can’t waste time. The U.S. deficit is growing at an unsustainable rate, our saving rate is low while our personal debt is high, and the value of the dollar is low. According to a recent Gallup poll, 84 percent of the American people, the highest this measure has ever been, say we’re going in the wrong direction. I think these problems can be turned around but we need to get started,” he said.

Senator Hagel thanked ACCF Policy Forum members for “staying focused on the important issues facing the country today.” Energy is the true underpinning of the U.S. economy, he noted, but added that energy concerns are only one dimension of the issues in play in the world today. “The United States is part of a global community of more than 6 billion people. Many areas in the world today are breeding grounds for terrorism and instability and from this instability comes every challenge we face,” Senator Hagel stressed. He added that he believes there are solutions to these problems and the U.S. is capable of addressing the challenges. “We have made the world more dangerous and more complicated. These are transformational times and it is up to the United States to make every effort to bring about stability in the world.”

Senator Hagel is the author of America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers (HarperCollins, 2008). He told ACCF members that his book tries to reflect global challenges and how these challenges can best be met. Other countries want the U.S. to take the lead, he said, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves about the seriousness of the issues. The new President must go to Congress to forge a partnership and reach out to the American people to bring consensus to the problems we face. The next President must also work hard to persuade the world to join in this consensus. Senator Hagel is a member of the Committees on Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; Intelligence; and Rules. A decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, he has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors.

ACCF Policy Forum members from manufacturing, energy, high tech, real estate, and financial services sectors discussed the challenges facing U.S. businesses as a result of the slowdown in the U.S. economy and how economic pressures are affecting different sectors of the U.S. economy and the rest of the world.

Paramount among Policy Forum members’ concerns were U.S. credit markets and the impact of the current credit crunch on the overall economy. The economy can only be healthy if credit markets are healthy but excesses in some parts of the markets will take time to work through. High energy prices are adding to the stress on the U.S. economy and pose serious problems for consumers as well as energy intensive industries. Tax reform could be on the table in the future, possibly through reform of the alternative minimum tax (AMT), Policy Forum members agreed.