By Amanda Reinecker, myheritage.org

As he did with Obamacare, the President is aiming to pass his most important foreign policy goal, the New START treaty with Russia, at any cost necessary. In this case, the cost of passage is the security of the American people and the sovereignty of the American government.

In April, President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed the treaty, which now requires Senate ratification. To pass, the treaty needs support from a two-thirds majority. And The Heritage Foundation has fought from the beginning of the debate to ensure lawmakers have the facts about how bad New START really is.

Congressional conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) have come out strongly against the treaty, stating that it is a throw-back to Cold War-era foreign policy, where America’s only enemy was the Soviet government. The treaty requires that America reduce its nuclear deterrent, without any verification that the Russians are keeping up their end of the bargain.

In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Examiner, Heritage’s James Carafano, a leading foreign policy expert, notes:

A deliberately self-weakened United States will exert little influence on the nuclear inventories and programs of other nations…Rather, potential competitors will feel emboldened. They’ll step up their programs. Allies will feel increasingly insecure and take matters more into their own hands.

Obama has told Senate conservatives that the new treaty will not weaken the American strategic position, and has promised increased funding ($100 billion over the next 10 years) for strategic systems. But we’ve seen a number of promises go stale under the President’s watch. And Senators should remember that as they contemplate signing away our national security.

Amanda Reinecker is a writer for MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Nathaniel Ward,  Bethany Murphy, and Stephen Congdon, a Heritage intern, contributed to this report.

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