Congressman: Health and climate bills could threaten our national security

Enacting climate change and healthcare legislation could threaten America’s status as the predominant military leader in the world, one Republican congressman asserted Wednesday.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told a conservative news radio show that the debate over healthcare and cap-and-trade bills would implicate the national security of the U.S.

“The thing that scares me is, the way the world operates, the economic leader is the military leader,” Jordan said. “Right now, that’s one country: The United States. And the world is a safer and better place because of that fact.”

Jordan explained that he fears those two pieces of legislation, signature issues for President Obama and congressional Democrats, would harm the economy to an extent that it would take the nation’s military standing down a notch.

“If in the future, some other country steps and assumes that role because we’ve enacted policies that make it tough for us to compete, make it tough for us to remain the top economy — that’s a dangerous concept out there,” he said. “And that’s why this is so important. It has bigger implications than just our pocketbook and our economy; it has national security implications.”

If the bills pass, Jordan said he feared they would “diminish the potential for America to continue to be the greatest country in the world.”

Listen to the entire interview here.