IMO, America has grown soft precisely because we have been the top dog. We haven't had a need to be on our toes and looking out at the horizon for threats. This hasn't always been the case, however.

When America was founded, Britain and France were the major powers and we were in a rush to beef up in order not to be trampled on by them. In the early 20th century, several more powers emerged to make the world a multi-polar place. Germany, Japan, and the USSR raised the stakes even higher. China's rise should help the US regain our sense of national worth.

We should get our government spending under control and begin paying down the national debt. The debt is the single largest liability our economy faces today. How can the dollar remain strong when the one thing which backs up its worth, the US government, is bankrupting itself?

Then we need to begin rebuilding our industrial base. I propose doing this by making the majority of our power grid nuclear based. Build 400-500 1000 MW reactors and require that all the components be manufactured here in the US. This would require a massive retooling of our steel industry which would create hundreds of thousands of high paying high tech jobs.

Secondly, I'd rebuild North America's defenses to Cold War levels to defend this hemisphere from any sort of attack. The Air Force would purchase at least 2,000 F-22s and many of the air bases that have been closed down over the past 20 years would be reactivated. I'd begin expanding the Navy back to 600 ships as well.

China's economy is based almost soley on cheap exports, and I'd let them know loud and clear that we had the power to shut their trade lanes down at any time.