Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley took a dig on Saturday at two former presidents of her party, George W Bush and Donald Trump, for massive spending and adding USD 10 trillion to America's national debt as she slammed President Joe Biden for his record-breaking spending, which she said would add USD 20 trillion in the national debt in 10 years.
Haley said when she was elected governor of North Carolina in 2010, the national debt stood at USD 13 trillion.
"Thirteen years later, we are at more than USD 31 trillion. And because of Joe Biden, we will add USD 20 trillion more to the national debt in the next 10 years," said the former governor, who on February 14 declared her decision to enter the race to the White House.
Addressing the Club for Growth, a conservative group, retreat in Miami, Florida, Haley alleged that Biden's platform for 2024 can basically be summed up as "spend even more, tax even more and let the children figure out how to deal with it".
"The only thing Joe Biden should be allowed to spend is more time in retirement. Every dollar we take out of the economy makes our people poorer," she said.
Haley went on to criticise the two previous Republican presidents -- Bush and Trump -- without naming them. "Lots of Republican politicians love spending and wasting taxpayer money almost as much as Democrats," she said.
"The last two Republican presidents added more than USD 10 trillion to the national debt. Think about that. A third of our debt happened under just two Republicans," she said.
The Congress is not far behind, she noted. "Republicans got the ball rolling on the trillion-dollar pandemic blowouts, with all the bailouts and fraud and abuse that followed. In one bill alone, they spent USD 2.2 trillion, and the vote was 419-6 in the House and 96-0 in the Senate," she said.
"Do not let the media tell you Republicans and Democrats cannot work together. They always seem to work just fine when they are spending your money. And then there are earmarks. Do not even get me started on earmarks," she said.
Haley, 51, told the conservative group that she announced her presidential run the moment she decided about it.
"It has been just over two weeks since I announced I am running for president. I know there is a Republican candidate out there who you did not invite to this conference," she said referring to Trump, who has not been invited to the conference.
"I appreciate being the one you did invite. Others are hemming and hawing on the sidelines, waiting to decide what to do. I have always been a decisive person. Once I decided I was going to run, I did not see the point in waiting. When it comes to saving America, being decisive matters," she said, making her case.
"I am running for president to stop socialism in its tracks. Importantly, I am also running to restore respect for capitalism. Obviously, the socialist left hates economic freedom. But so do some of our fellow Republicans," she said.
Arguing that a strong economy is essential to national security, Haley said the United States will never stay ahead of communist China with socialist spending sprees.
"We will lose our place in the world if we continue to devalue our own currency. Economic freedom is the only way to protect our people and preserve peace through strength," she said.
"There is one more reason we need a booming economy. It will help us pull out of this spiral of self-loathing. We need growth to defeat the woke. I firmly believe that one of the reasons our country is so divided and distracted is because our economy is stuck in neutral," she said.
This was Haley's second major speech in two days. On Friday, she addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference -- the top annual event of the Republican Party and its support base.
PTI
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
