Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Top Democrat Questions Ballooning China Debt

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that he is concerned about the fact that much of the money that will be used for the $800-billion-plus stimulus bill under consideration in Congress must be borrowed from foreign sources, including the Peoples Republic of China.


Although I have been following the story closely this is really the first I have heard any Democrat questioning the source of the money. Obama certainly has not breathed a word of it.


Emanuel, White House chief of staff, Treasury Secretary Geithner, Office of Management and Budget chief, Peter Orszag, and Obama’s economic counselor, Larry Summers, have been mum as well.


As of November 2008, the People’s Republic of China was the largest single holder of U.S. debt at $681.9 billion, according to figures released by the U.S. Treasury Department. China, in fact, holds 10.8 percent of all publicly held federal debt.


The communist nation has increased its share of U.S. federal debt by $223 billion since November 2007 and by $95 billion since September of 2008.


If China loaned the U.S. 10 percent of the money for the stimulus bill, the U.S. debt it held would climb another $80 billion to $90 billion, depending on the size of the final bill.


House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is still in denial: Frank told CNSNews.com, “I don’t think it would give them any undue influence over us."