For 29 years I’ve been a loyal viewer of the ABC Sunday morning news talk show, “This Week.”  From 1981 – 1996 it was “This Week with David Brinkley,” and I rarely missed a broadcast.  David Brinkley, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, and George Will were a great team.  For most of that period the Cold War was still ongoing so even Sam and Cokie were often times talking from a right of center perspective.

After Brinkley’s retirement in 1996, former Bill Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos took over the host seat.  While Stephanopoulos was a Democrat, his publically expressed dismay with many aspects of his time in the White House gave him a reasonable level of objectivity, and George Will was there to keep the conservative perspective in the forefront.  By the early 2000’s the show was clearly taking on a left leaning tone, and their version of “fair and balanced” always included more lefties than righties.  Increasingly, it became George Will taking on 2 to 3 moderates/liberals.  

Still, I kept watching.  Thankfully, once the DVR was here it became possible to fast forward by the blatant lefties who appeard on the show more frequently.

I was still watching, right up until August 1, 2010.  I don’t watch anymore.  ABC threw in the towel and went blatantly liberal with the often times anti-American, always muticultrualist, Christian Amanpour.  She belongs on CNN.

Good bye “This Week.”

There are two simple examples from the past few days that reveal how detached the Left is when it comes to understanding Americans who are to the Right of them on the ideological spectrum.

First, Nancy Pelosi.

Her response, to the majority of Americas response about the mosque, is to assume Americans can only be fighting against a mosque being built adjacent to Ground Zero in lower Manhattan because they’ve been prodded to do so by some deep pocketed, nefarious, right wing interest group.  She wants an investigation into who is doing this, for it can’t be otherwise.  How could Americans possibly be threatened by a mosque right next to the location where 3,000 people lost their life at the hands of Muslims?  She doesn’t get America anymore.  For so long she has been isolated and separated in Congress from the daily lives of most Americans, she can’t fathom that Americans can think on their own, react on their own, express concerns on their own, and desire to live a free and safe life within the confines of our national borders.

Second, CNN.

I dropped my car off for service this morning, and while waiting I was forced to watch and listen to CNN.  Something I haven’t voluntarily done since the late 1991.  Anyway, the host was talking about Time magazine’s new issue which proclaims America Islamophobic.  What else would you expect from that left-wing rag in the face of this mosque fiasco (it’s all part of the Obama narravtive)?  So, to discuss this cover story about American views of Muslims, they have on three guests.  Guess how many of the three guests were Muslims?  You’re right, all three. Not surprisingly, to differing degrees, they all agreed Americans are bad people and distrust Muslims without proper founding.

The Left plays a dangerous game.  It’s what they don’t say that is most dangerous.

There is a good deal of angst among ordinary Americans when it comes to China.  They’re hearing a lot about China financing the US government, the strength of the Chinese economy and impressive growth rates three times that of the US.  They hear about ongoing outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs, and an increasingly stronger military.

There is little doubt China does present a challenge for the American economy and America’s dominant role in the world.

We have legitimate concerns to address with China.

However, today I want to put two of these concerns in some perspective which should help my fellow patriotic Americans to sleep a bit better.  First, China financing the US government, and second, the size and strength of the Chinese economy.

If you’re only source of economic information is the television or USA today, by now you’ve been sufficiently convinced China funds the lions share of US government borrowing, and China’s economy is bigger and stronger than ours.

Without China-America collapses-is about the tone right now among the MSM.

It’s not true.  The data is available for all to look at.  Visit, www.treasury.gov/tic, www.census.gov, or www.whitehouse.gov for the Economic Report of the President.  You can see for yourself.

I’ll help you along.  Federal total treasury debt securities outstanding (including held by public and intergovernmental) is approximately $12.7 trillion.  China (including Hong Kong), is the largest foreign holder of US treasury securities at approximately $984.7 billion.  Doing some simple math, $984.7 billion is only 11 percent of US treasury securities held by the public ($8.825t), or an even smaller, 7.7 percent of total US federal treasury securities outstanding ($12.7t).

These are not small numbers to be sure.  But, they do not at all suggest the US government is uniquely dependent on China to finance our on going indebtedness.  Total foreign holdings account for 30 percent of debt outstanding.  The top ten foreign holders of treasury securities are China, Japan, United Kingdom, Oil exporters, Caribbean banking sectors (read tax dodgers), Brazil, Taiwan, Russia, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

Most US debt is held domestically, with the Federal Reserve being the largest holder.

If China unexpectedly decided to dump their holdings of US treasury securities tomorrow, assuming no exogenous event, there would be some panic, interest rates would spike, the media would go into a frenzy, but it would not come close to collapsing the US government.

Why do foreign nationals own our debt?  Because we are the United States of America.  While we have problems, and our system has flaws, it is still the best organizing system for a society compared to all others.  US treasury securities are the safest place to have big chunks of money, and will be for a long time to come.

As for the size of China’s economy, don’t believe the hype.  Last week it was announced China overcame Japan to become the 2nd largest economy in the world.  2nd quarter data for Chinese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in dollar terms was $1.3 trillion, just edging out Japan’s economic output for the quarter.  Some simple math, assuming constant growth rates, indicates Chinese economic output for 2010 could reach $5.35 trillion, just a third of total US output for 2010.  Assuming a constant growth rate of 2.5 percent per year for the US economy, and 9 percent per year for the Chinese economy, it will take China another 18 years to surpass the size of the US in economic output.  Of course, extrapolation is a dangerous science, and we can rest assured growth rates will not be constant for 18 years.  China could overtake the US, or perhaps not.  China has bigger internal problems than we do, not to mention they’re a COMMUNIST nation.

So, don’t worry about Chinese purchases of US debt, nor the size of the Chinese economy…for now.

You want to worry about China?

Worry about the daily manipulation of their currency to the detriment of the US exporter and worker.  Worry about the trade deal Bill Clinton signed with the Chinese in 2000 and the resulting trade deficit with the communist nation going from $83 billion in 2001 to $240 billion in 2010.  Worry about their “merchantilist” trading ways.  Worry about China’s ongoing military buildup across the Taiwan straights for the purpose of assuring Taiwan is brought back under control of China at the time of their choosing which will conflict with our pledge to protect Taiwan from attack.  Worry about China’s massive military buildup and its impact on the balance of power in the South China Sea in an effort to push America out.  Worry about China’s control of both ends of the Panama canal.  Worry about China’s lack of willingness to stop the shannigans of North Korea and Iran.  Worry about American elites who look to China as the model for how government can control a society–communism with a touch of market economics. Worry that China is a communist country and the likelihood the plan by American elites to coddle China and redistribute our wealth to her so Chinese citizens will throw off the shackles of communism is going to fail.

Without the access to the American consumer, China would still be stuck in the 1940’s.

As a country we need to get China in the proper perspective for she is rising up to challenge America.  With the right Americans making policy decisions in DC we can assure American dominance for generations to come.  It starts with hard geo-political decisions, trade renegotiation’s, and an end to manipulation of their currency.