LARRY KUDLOW: Chinese spy balloon is a huge breakdown in our national security

When my team started pitching me last night on a Chinese balloon story, I texted back, "We don't do UFOs on our show." Whoops! Kind of got that wrong, didn't I? This Chinese balloon story is dominating the news as it should. 

It's a huge embarrassment to the United States, it's a gigantic breakdown in our national security. Apparently, it was known ahead of time and so far, neither the White House nor the Defense Department knows what to do about it. This is first and foremost a China story. They are our principal adversary in the world. They sent this big balloon over 60,000 ft. in the air to spy on us. 

In particular, to spy on our nuclear missile silos in Montana, but also there are key military bases with active nuclear missile wings in nearby Wyoming and North Dakota, and there are top-secret military bases with deactivated missile wings also in North Dakota and nearby South Dakota and Missouri, so this is no coincidence. This Chinese spy balloon started over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska with other sensitive military bases to spy on there and so far, we haven't done a thing about any of this. The balloon is still up there. 

The semi-paralyzed Biden administration has pulled Secretary of State Blinken's China trip off the books, but that balloon is still up there spying on America. The Chinese communist government is telling us not to worry, it's really a "civilian weather" balloon doing some kind of research, kind of blown off course. This, of course, is utter nonsense. 

CHINA EXPERT SOUNDS ALARM ON SPY BALLOON HOVERING OVER US: 'IT’S VERY DANGEROUS WHAT THEY’RE DOING' 

First of all, all civilian aircraft in China is an oxymoron. It's all run by the government. It's all instrumentalities run by the Chinese Communist Party. Second of all, it has nothing to do with the weather, unless you're terribly worried about the February weather in Montana and not the secret military bases nearby.

But wait a minute: John Kerry, our climate czar, is terribly worried about China and its climate policies, which we know are virtually nonexistent, and he's been acting on his own to make some kind of climate deal with the Chinese communists that no one knows about and we will have Republican House Oversight Chair James Comer on to talk about this later in the show. Somebody's gotta corral Kerry.

Meanwhile, this Chinese spying balloon is checking up on our land-based nuclear defense missiles located in silos under the ground. Remember, America's triad defense against nuclear missiles is land, sea and air-based. You can't see the silos, but you might be able to see parking lots or little huts or gates, but it's mostly farmland, which is why I don't understand our Defense Department. It says it can't shoot the balloon down because the debris would land on people on the ground, but this is Montana.  

There isn't anyone on the ground. There's no speed limit, and you can drive for hours without seeing anybody at all, at least in the central and eastern parts of Montana where all of this is going on. The U.S has the capacity to just capture the balloon and bring it down, but they're not doing that either. Not for the first time, the Biden administration's paralyzed in its response to dictator-led enemies. 

I'm assuming the Republican House is going to start calling for retaliation against China ASAP and hopefully there will be some bipartisan support for this, but the Bidens, who started out relatively tough on China, more or less following Donald Trump's legacy, lately have been talking about lifting tariffs on Chinese imports even though the trade deficit is still close to $400 billion dollars a year. We are still allowing the purchases of some Chinese semiconductor chips and other so-called non-strategic products. 

Biden met with Xi and never talked about China's origination of killer COVID. We don't have a clear policy regarding Taiwan and in recent days a top general has suggested Beijing will invade Taiwan in just a few years. 

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Also in recent days, the radical greenies in the Biden administration have done China a big favor by ruling out the development of mining in Minnesota’s iron range where valuable resources like lithium, copper and nickel would be available for electric car batteries so we didn't have to buy everything from China, which has cornered the world's mineral supply. 

So, you tell me folks, we can't even knock out a lousy spy balloon? Do we look weak on the world stage? Do we have a serious China policy right now?