Debt To Chinese A Threat?

This morning on Meet The Press, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, said we should not ask how much are we going to spend to rebuild after Katrina and Rita; we should ask "How much are we going to borrow from China?"

He pointed out that what we now owe the Chinese is approaching a TRILLION dollars and asks what kind of influence that amount of money will give the Chinese in our affairs.

Has our debt to the Chinese become a national security threat?

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Iraq Shoudn't Pay For Katrina

Some of the Sunday talk shows mentioned the Associated Press/Ipsos poll that asked:

If you had to choose, which of the following would you say would be the best way for the government to pay for the problems caused by Hurricane Katrina: increase the federal budget deficit, raise taxes, cut spending for the war in Iraq, or cut spending for domestic programs such as education and health care?

The response was (9/16-18/2005):

Cut Iraq Spending 54%
Raise Taxes 17%
Increase Deficit 15%
Cut Domestic Spending 6%
Other, Unsure 8%

We should not have gone into Iraq, but we now have moral obligations to the people of Iraq, just like we have moral obligations to the people devastated by Katrina and Rita. We cannot take money needed to pay our obligations in Iraq to pay our obligations to our fellow citizens.

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Does This Sound Familiar?

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

H. L. Mencken

Technorati Tags: Political