China roundly condemned the United States for its "debt addiction" and "short sighted" political wrangling and said the world needed a new stable global reserve currency.
In a harshly-worded commentary by the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday, China gave its first official comments on the United States losing its gilded AAA long-term credit rating from Standard & Poor's.
"China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets," Xinhua said.
Tell ya what. How about we stop buying cheap crap from the Chinese, restore our manufacturing base and return to our position as the world's leading producer of quality goods, let the Bush tax cuts expire to fix our debt problem, and start detaching ourselves from "friends" like this.
Oh, and be sure and thank the GOP for all of it. The following is S & P talking:
The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year’s wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.
Due to the Republicans continuing to insist that we coddle the wealthy and cut from the poor, I'm guessing that we will see an even stronger push now to take this out on America's most vulnerable citizens. The Republicans have already said "no" to taxes and Cantor is running around telling people that programs will not be there for them in the future - so we know where they are going to dig in their heels.
All signs are now pointing to a major showdown this fall. The President said he would fight.
I’ve said it before; I will say it again: We can’t balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the biggest brunt of this recession. We can’t make it tougher for young people to go to college, or ask seniors to pay more for health care, or ask scientists to give up on promising medical research because we couldn’t close a tax shelter for the most fortunate among us. Everyone is going to have to chip in. It’s only fair. That’s the principle I’ll be fighting for during the next phase of this process.
OK. But actions speak louder than words, and that's especially true in political realm. The only way he can do this is to have a unified and committed team behind him - and that means the Democrats are going to have to get on the same page and stand strong in the face of a propaganda war like you've never seen before.
We are coming to the crossroads. Which way will we turn?