Foreign Holdings of U.S. Debt Top $6 Trillion
“For the first time in the nation’s history, foreign interests now own more than $6 trillion in U.S. government debt, according to the most recent Treasury Department report on major foreign holders of the debt,” reports CNSNews. China tops the list with more than $1,268,400,000,000 in federal debt holdings, a figure that excludes Hong Kong which owns an additional $158,200,000,000. Japan takes second place with $1,219,500,000,000 in total holdings. According to CNS, “Thirteen years ago, at the end of June 2001, the foreign-held U.S. government debt was $983,300,000,000 – and had been trending downward for four months. Since then, it has grown more than six-fold.” In 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama said, “[T]he way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt… That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” With two years to go, Obama has already surpassed George W. Bush in deficit spending. Would Senator Obama call President Obama “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic”? More…
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