Politics - What Happens When You Owe

Far be it from me to say "I ... Oh, what the hell, I told you so. I told everybody within reach of my voice, my pen, and my keyboard. Year after year, since I first realized that the Clinton era of a trillion dollar surplus was rapidly melting into the hands of the Bush crooks and cronies, and China was buying up our debt, I said it.

I said, "You know what happens when you owe a lot of money to other people? They can call the tune and make you dance, that's what. You don't pay on time, they send Benny the Frog and Joey Goombah around, and those suckers take your knees off in lieu of payment." That's what I said. That's what a lot of other people said, too. Unfortunately, we were mostly saying it to each other, because the Founts of Wisdom that run our government and our mass mainstream media had their fingers firmly embedded in their ears, as they shrieked, "Lalalalala, can't hear you! Paris Hilton! Britney Spears! We're winning in Iraq!"

Well, who pays the piper calls the tune, and right now we don't have a penny left in the old tea canister to pay the piper with. So here's what China has to say about that. According to the Telegraph,

The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

[...]

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

So that's what happened to our trillion dollar surplus. We handed it over to China, along with our jobs, in exchange for a bunch of cheap plastic crap available at Mall-Wart, Target, and other such fine purveyors of schlock.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, as a result of our enormous debt to a nation that has absolutely no reason to be friendly towards us (read Joe Stillwell's memoirs if you don't already know why), thanks to Dear Leader we are in no position to make any demands of China. We can bully small, weak countries like Cuba and Iraq, but when it comes to China and Russia, all we can do is make noise and puffery and secret hand signals while they do whatever they goddamn well please.

Thank you, Chimpy McTardibus. You and your cronies have sold off what you could of this country, and ruined the rest. You have shat and spat and pissed on the common people way too long.

Action item, folks. Call your congresscritter and ask if they've signed on to H.R. 333, the bill to impeach Cheney. Ask if they've taken any action with regard to Russ Feingold's bill to censure the VP and the PeePee. Ask John Conyers when he plans to move on impeaching these goons and goombahs. Ask Nancy Pelosi when she's going to start listening to the people again, because it is surely time to IMPEACH!!!

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