When it comes to military expenditure, Secretary of Defense Chase immediately became nervous. He had thought that if the government wants to reduce expenditure, it would first take military expenditure. After re-appointing Secretary of Defense, Chase had discussed this matter with several major arms dealers and finally reached a relatively unanimous opinion, which was to allow military expenditure to be cut, but the range should not be too large, at most 15%. If it is too much, it will affect the fundamentals of US industrial enterprises.

"I have also talked to several economic experts." Michael looked at Chase and continued: "The US military expenditure was 850 billion US dollars, but the actual military expenditure has reached 1100 billion US dollars, which is obviously a heavy burden for us. Now our relationship with China is in a relatively stable situation. In terms of conventional weapons, China is 15 to 20 years behind my country. We can take the initiative to improve state relations with Russia and jointly restrain China with Russia. This can buy us time. As long as there are five years, our economy will recover. At that time, we can shift the focus to the military."

Speaking of this, Michael actually laughed: "I learned this method from China. At the beginning of reform and opening up, they also implemented a strategy of sacrificing the interests of the army. For twenty years, the Chinese army did not change its equipment, and it had a half-century gap with the US team. This is unimaginable to us. But this is the cleverness of China. They cleverly maintained a balance between the former Soviet Union and us, and won time for them to develop. However, in the past decade, with its strong national strength, China has vigorously developed military-industrial enterprises and invested a lot of money into the military scientific research department. In just a short time, the gap with us has been shortened to fifteen years, and even passed us far in some aspects."

Michael felt a little thirsty, picked up a bottle of water and took a few mouthfuls, and said, "Since China can do this, why can't we be more low-key and learn from them, keeping a low profile for five to ten years. My opinion is to save at least 30 billion to reduce military spending."

Seeing that Chase was going to object, Michael hurriedly said, "Mr. Chase, please listen to me finish my words. Although these 300 billion is not much, if we can do this in other aspects, it will not be a small amount. My second suggestion is to lower the standard of universal insurance in society and cancel welfare measures for some wealthy people. In this way, a preliminary estimate can save another 400 billion. The third suggestion is to increase the taxes of the rich. If it can be approved by Congress, we can increase another 400 billion."

Orpheggs nodded. He knew that what Michael said was indeed the fundamental problem, but in this way, it would be fiercely opposed by the large conglomerates in China. The American people who have always enjoyed it will never agree, and it is unrealistic to increase taxes on the wealthy population. Without strong military support, how can we safeguard the interests of the United States overseas? You must know that oil is closely linked to the US dollar, and there are still many oil-producing countries that don’t listen to hello, which requires the United States to do some actions in their country from time to time, which requires even more money.

Orpheggs sighed softly. Politics and economy are always inseparable. Now the RMB is about to become the national currency. Although the US financial system is relatively complete, China's economic growth is very strong. It is still difficult to compete with the US dollar and the RMB. God knows what kind of situation will happen after the RMB becomes an international currency?

While Orpheus was thinking about it, Michael was still talking: "The second biggest item is the money the United States once lent to some large consortiums. This amount is about 500 billion yuan. Are we considering asking these large consortiums to formulate a repayment plan? According to my estimate, it should be no problem to recover 200 billion yuan. These items combined are enough to cope with the current difficulties."

Michael took another sip of water and continued: "As for the debts to be paid, in addition to the 200 billion yuan of China every year, the US debt held by other countries is about 700 billion yuan. We can exchange some interests to allow these countries to exchange the debts they buy into the long term, which is enough to give us a chance to breathe."

There was still no one of the cabinet members. Michael paused for a moment and said, "This method can only be said to temporarily deal with the current difficulties, but to get the US economy out of the predicament, more money is needed to stimulate the economy. My opinion is to increase the US debt by adding another 600 billion US dollars this year to convince the Federal Reserve to purchase 400 billion by injecting the US dollar. For the remaining 200 billion, we can let Congress pass a bill to buy by the rich in the United States. Although our politics is very poor, the rich have a lot of money."

Michael's words were finally finished, and the members of Orpheus' cabinet began to quarrel again. These people all represent the interests of the large consortium, and at this time, they naturally have to speak for their own interests. For a time, the cabinet meeting became a bargaining venue.

Orpheus was helpless. This was just arguing like this in the cabinet. If he really brought it to Congress, it would be possible that those politicians would fist.

In the Kremlin, Russian President Ivanov is also holding a cabinet meeting. They are not discussing economic issues, but how to deal with the new pattern of the world.

Now China and the United States have temporarily turned into battle. China no longer continues to sell US debts and allow the US military to continue to stay in Asia. The United States has made great concessions. They will no longer deal with Asian affairs and support China's sovereignty claims. The most important point is that the US government and Congress have surprisingly unified their opinions this time and all support the RMB to become the main international currency. These items cannot be considered favorable news for Russia in any case.

"Everyone talks about it if we deal with the current complex international situation."

The always strong Prime Minister Peter said: "The United States supports China's sovereignty claims this time, which is very unfavorable to our country. This means that the United States indirectly betrays Russia's interests."

The ministers all knew what Peter said. Historically, Russia invaded five million square kilometers of China's land through war means. Now that China has just become rich and strong, it has put forward such a strong sovereignty claim on the disputed territory. Once they become truly strong, will they ask Russia again? The answer will be yes.

Ivanov asked: "Is there any good way for Prime Minister Peter? The rise of China is now unstoppable, and even the Americans have not stopped their rise, let alone Russia."

The ministers couldn't help but nodded. Although their president was a little weak, he had a very sharp vision on major international issues.

"The inheritance we inherited has almost been fully earned. In recent years, our physical enterprises have been declining, and their weapons exports have been declining year by year. Now we rely mainly on energy exports to support our fragile economy. Under the current situation, we unilaterally do not have the ability to stop the rise of China. If we want to do this, we must unite with the United States. After all, China is not strong enough now. We must try our best to delay their pace of becoming the world's first-class power and gain time for Russia. At the same time, we will strengthen the industrial structure adjustment of domestic enterprises. Although we cannot imagine being on an equal footing with China in terms of economic strength, at least we must ensure the current territorial integrity of our country."

Although Russian politicians are not like American politics, there are some large consortiums behind each, but politics is so mysterious, and they also have their own forces behind them.
Chapter completed!