A top Clinton administration official Friday defended the president's Mexican economic rescue effort against the "forces of retreat" while the Treasury announced it had intervened for a second day in support of the dollar.
"A strong dollar is in our national interest," Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said in a statement. "That is why we have acted in the markets in concert with others" in the dollar's support."The administration is continuing its work on strengthening economic fundamentals, including bringing down the budget deficit further," Rubin added.
Treasury Undersecretary Lawrence Summers said criticism of the administration's $20 billion rescue plan was coming from a growing chorus of isolationists.
"The United States response to Mexico and the voices of criticism seeking to destroy that effort point up a deeper struggle that is underway for the minds and hearts of Americans as we face a new international era," Summers said in a speech delivered at the Brookings Institution.
He said the critics wanted to place restrictions on America's participation in the United Nations and force an American withdrawal from the world stage in other ways.
"They seek, like sirens from an America that never was, to lure us onto the rocks of a false past, halting our voyage to the new land on the horizon," Summers said. "Mexico was a victory against these forces of retreat."
Summers said that while the United States was offering $20 billion in loans and loan guarantees to Mexico, it would be up to that country to adopt sufficiently stringent economic reforms to stabilize its currency.
"The challenge now is Mexico's. It is up to Mexico to address its future squarely, to move on from its present difficulties, to continue to build on the foundation for strength painstakingly laid over the past six years," Summers said.
Mexico is America's third largest foreign market.
Both the House and the Senate are now seeking Treasury documents to shed light on the administration's decision-making process.