Obama Sells US
To China Inc
By Cliff Kincaid
AIM Column
2-23-9

 

With Hillary Clinton having signaled to the Chinese dictators that we will beg for their money and ignore unfair trade practices and even human rights violations, it will be left up to President Obama to seal the deal.   The truth is starting to seep out. Because of the need for more money to finance the latest bailout-the Obama economic stimulus plan-America is going further in debt to the Chinese Communists. Our country is officially being sold to the highest bidder. And we have striking confirmation of this fact from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.   The good news is that a correspondent for the mainstream media-Wyatt Andrews of CBS News-has figured this out and has managed to get on the air with his terrifying findings. Andrews' report on the Friday CBS Evening News with Katie Couric was direct and to the point. Clinton is in China to beg for a handout.   "The truth is the Administration needs China's help. America's stimulus is very expensive and the U.S. wants China to help finance it," Andrews reported. This is what America has become-a country that sends its Secretary of State abroad to beg for money from foreigners. In this case, it's a communist dictatorship that forces women to have abortions, tortures Christians, and threatens the freedom and democratic government of Taiwan.    So the cost of the "stimulus" is more sacrifice of American independence and sovereignty, as well as our own values, ideals, and commitment to human freedom. It is a sad day both for America and China.    Clinton was shown saying, "We are relying on the Chinese government to continue to buy our debt." The almighty dollar takes precedence over everything else, even as it falls in value and the dangers of hyperinflation and national bankruptcy loom. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that pandering to the Chinese will not solve anything. This policy, set in motion by big banks and corporations and pursued by Democratic and Republican Administrations, is what got us into this predicament in the first place.   Clinton's comments, which concern the overall economic policy of the new administration, are far more significant than the Obama mortgage plan. Clinton is getting to the heart of the issue-how the mortgage plan and the stimulus are being financed.   White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed irritation last week that CNBC commentator Rick Santelli went into a rant over the prospect of forcing American taxpayers to underwrite the bad mortgages of deadbeats and others who are unable to pay their mortgages. But Santelli only touched on one small part of the problem.   Where's the outrage over the pro-China policy that spans several administrations, and which has benefited his corporate bosses at General Electric, of permitting the communist dictatorship in Beijing to have the upper hand in global trade relations? All that Santelli has to do to understand this problem is attend a GE annual meeting and listen to the complaints of the GE workers losing their jobs to China. But don't expect to see anything about that on CNBC, NBC, or MSNBC.     If you want more information on this travesty, please go to the website <http://www.screwthatbulb.org>www.screwthatbulb.org and learn how GE is going "green," which has the effect of shipping American jobs to China. If Santelli did a rant about that, you can bet he wouldn't be on the air again.   We were already in terrible shape under the Bush Administration because of a mysterious financial collapse apparently caused by illegal manipulation of our markets, but now the communists have us completely over a barrel because the Obama Administration, with the acquiescence of Congress, recklessly decided to spend even more money that we don't have. Under the circumstances, this is criminal negligence.   Mrs. Clinton is officially stating what everyone should know is the truth. She deserves credit for being brutally honest. America has become a subsidiary of China Inc. In order for the U.S. to stay afloat, we have to depend on Beijing to finance a bailout. But the other major problem, of course, is that the stimulus is not a bailout in any real sense of the word. It depends on more government debt and borrowing at a huge cost of being more indebted to the Chinese. So the bailout is really digging our nation's grave deeper.   To make matters even worse, as the Andrews report made clear, the cost will include the jobs that the Obama Administration says will be created by the stimulus. He interviewed an American manufacturer about the loss of American jobs caused by China's trade practices, who said that the "cheating" in global trade has cost millions of American manufacturing jobs.   In the end, the only "jobs" that will be created or "saved," as Obama likes to say, will likely be those benefiting from spending the federal money that the federal government doesn't have. Most of them work for government at all levels.   Productive private sector manufacturing jobs will not be created-and cannot be-because despite their campaign promises, neither Obama nor Hillary will do anything about those unfair Chinese trade practices, such as the currency manipulation, that make Chinese goods artificially cheap and American goods more expensive.   The Andrews report, which caught me completely by surprise on a newscast that tends to portray the new Administration in completely flattering tones, was absolutely blistering in contrasting what Obama and Clinton had said during the campaign and what they are doing now.   "Both the man who became the President and his future Secretary of State told the voters they would make the [trade] cheating go away," Andrews reported. He showed candidate Obama saying that he would do everything in his power to stop China from manipulating its currency and Hillary saying that she would "aggressively crack down on China's unfair trade practices." These claims were shown to be empty and abandoned campaign promises. We should have assumed that would be the case.   Andrews asked Secretary of State Clinton about this and "she explained that times have changed." Clinton said, "That was at a different time when we weren't facing the kind of difficult situations we face today." Translation: we need their money and we are in no position to demand or criticize anything. These Clinton comments preceded Andrews' remarks about the cost of the stimulus and the perceived need to get China to help finance it.   As we had noted in a previous column about the Administration's so-called economic program, Clinton was going to China for the purpose of getting Chinese money to finance the stimulus. Now we have it all on the record. Her trip was designed to reinforce Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's private conversations on this topic with Chinese officials.   The land of the free and the home of the brave has now become the land of the quivering milquetoast, in awe of an emerging Communist giant that our big banks and corporations, as well as our government, have built into an economic superpower.   President Obama apparently sees nothing wrong with this. Indeed, during the campaign he praised China's staging of the Olympic Games, saying their infrastructure was impressive and was something the U.S. might consider emulating.   Now, with Hillary Clinton having signaled to the Chinese dictators that we will beg for their money and ignore unfair trade practices and even human rights violations, it will be left up to President Obama to seal the deal. When he gives his State of the Union-like speech to Congress and the American people on Tuesday night, he will in reality be auditioning for a front-row seat on the board of directors of China Inc. Don't expect to hear anything critical of the butchers in Beijing.    Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at cliff.kincaid@aim.org     © 2007 Accuracy in Media. All Rights Reserved