© AFP Photo/Stan HondaChina's state media Tuesday blasted the United States over its "ticking debt bomb" and urged American lawmakers to be more responsible after they failed to agree on deficit-cutting measures.
China's state media Tuesday blasted the United States over its "ticking debt bomb" and urged American lawmakers to be more responsible after they failed to agree on deficit-cutting measures.
China is the world's largest foreign holder of US Treasuries with a portfolio of around $1.15 trillion, prompting Beijing's keen interest in the state of the US economy.
"Washington's political elites... are obligated to muster the courage to defuse the ticking debt bomb and start to show the world they have the wisdom and determination not to further jeopardize the fragile global economic recovery," Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.
A US Congress "supercommittee" Monday failed to reach a deal to rein in the government's galloping deficits due to angry partisan battles over how best to revive the nation's sluggish economy.
The move confirmed widespread expectations that the 12-member committee would miss its goal to cut US deficits by $1.2 trillion over 10 years amid political feuds over tax hikes on the rich and cuts to social spending.
Xinhua,
a mouthpiece for the Chinese government, blamed partisan in-fighting, saying both Democrats and Republicans were ignoring the impact of a possible US default on the global economy.
"
US politicians have never shied from lecturing other countries about global responsibility and now it is high time they showed a sense of true global leadership," Xinhua said.
The commentary made no specific reference to China.
Chinese state media have previously savaged the US over what they call its "addiction to debt" with one analyst going so far as to compare US debt to a "Ponzi scheme".
US President Barack Obama has held out hope lawmakers could reach a new deal and tried to reassure global markets, saying that despite
a ballooning national debt of more than $15 trillion, there was no imminent threat of a US default.
Comment: Just for reference: Lets have a look at U.S. Debt.
$114.5 trillion in "unfunded liabilities."
OK: It's big. But so is the United States.
From a "budget" point of view, it's unsustainable. But here's what I think is really dangerous about it: WHO WE BORROW FROM.
International banking interests, in their long history of making loans to governments, have proven that: 1) The principle is less important to them than the interest, and 2) They will treat failure to pay as full justification to wage economic war on the country involved, with the result that they will eventually hold title to most of the land and resources of that country, if not to the very people themselves.
The real problem with out-of-control borrowing is the resultant loss of freedom. To say nothing of human rights and basic dignity.
It's impressive to see how "big" the debt is. But debt can be caused by lots of things. And one of them is being stolen from.
We were conned out of vast portions of this debt. We were lied to to get us to commit funds to projects that later proved ruinous. Our government people have been leaned on, blackmailed, and even murdered to force them to agree to this much spending.
Do we, really, owe all this money to those we borrowed it from?
The only way I see to get through this is to blow this whole story sky high. Just like we are trying to do with all the other major lies being perpetrated on this planet. We have to blow them all sky high, and place responsibility were responsibility is due. Do "ordinary citizens" share the blame for some of what has happened? Yes.
Is a total debt of approximately $50,000 for every man, woman and child in the Unites States the correct amount that we really, honestly owe those we borrowed from? I don't think so.