Britt Combs: China tightens the screws on U.S.

The term "backroom deal" refers to powerful people betraying the interests of those they represent in favor of themselves and hidden patrons. The backroom deal our federal government has made with China has impoverished millions of Americans. It will ultimately reduce us all to utter dependence on the People's Republic, as the federals have shown no interest in extricating us from that "compact with hell."
It's that bad right now, friends. China has a foreign currency reserve of at least $1.4 trillion in U.S. treasury securities. This is what financial experts are referring to when they say the Chinese are financing our government's endless spending spree.
In exchange for financing our debt the Chinese got access to U.S. markets through what the government calls "most-favored nation trading status." How quaint.
Pundits argued for Chinese access to our market for years. They said we could force China's government to grant their subjects human rights by making them dependant on our business. Allegedly "conservative" think-tankers like the CATO Institute's James Dorn argued that by allowing China to dump their goods into Wal-Marts, we could "use the leverage of trade to open China to competitive forces and let the rule of law and democratic values evolve spontaneously."
That was back in 1996, when a few old farts in Congress were concerned about the fairness of allowing slave labor to compete against American workers. By restricting the importation of slave-made products, Dorn argued, we were restricting the American people's right to trade. Yes, he actually said that nonsense. President Clinton insisted that trade policy and human rights policy should be separated. Congress agreed.
The limited trade with China, which had already crippled America's textile industry, became a raging torrent. The Chinese government figured out quickly that their slaves need not be limited to producing cheap socks and tee shirts. They could be forced to make computers, stereos, televisions, car parts, you name it.
American workers, with competitive wages and generous benefits -- sick leave, vacation health insurance and workplace safety regulations -- were directly competing with more than 1 billion slaves whose benefits included pennies a day and a veritable "bowl of rice." The best Chinese workers could hope for was that if they did their jobs their families might not be murdered or sent to work in the coal mines.
American workers, both the newly laid off and the soon to be laid off, showed no compunction about buying their products. When it came time to order manufactured goods, the businesses willing to buy the slave-made products prospered. Those who insisted on "buying American" were soon out of business. It's not just the "evil corporations" who "shipped jobs overseas," it was each of us that saved a few dollars by buying Chinese.
Last summer China began selling off their investments in U.S. debt, meaning they dumped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the market, which ties in neatly with the collapse of the mortgage industry, banking industry and pretty much the whole U.S. economy. Clearly, they have decided the time is right to turn the screws. The artistry, if they can pull it off, will be to allow the U.S. just enough financial strength to keep buying wide screen TVs, thus funding China's military and commercial expansion while making a U.S. recovery limited or impossible.
Our Republican and Democratic leaders have bought your loyalty through endless spending and give-away programs. They have financed it by placing you and me into hopeless debt to foreign nations, a communist superpower among them -- the classic backroom deal. Feel the knife yet?
By claiming we could force China to do our bidding by throwing money at them, our government has put us in an untenable position. Now China is further attacking the dollar by demanding a global currency to replace the dollar on the world market, to which Obama's bungling treasury secretary Tim Geithner responded "Good idea!" How reassuring.
What's really sad about all this is that the American people will keep right on voting for Democrats and Republicans. Pathetic, isn't it?