Barbara Boxer: “what I was going to ask the Senator--but it is more a rhetorical question--is, Why does China need this money anyway? We…”

“what I was going to ask the Senator--but it is more a rhetorical question--is, Why does China need this money anyway? We already owe China $230 billion they have loaned us buying our Treasury bills. We pay them now billions of dollars of interest-- billions, multibillions. I was going to ask my friend a question, but it was a rhetorical question. The Chinese do not need any more dollars. They have dollars all right. They have so many dollars it is unbelievable: dollars from the trade deficit that is huge and climbing. They have the interest payments that we pay them. Now they need another $5 billion? This is the most outrageous thing I have seen come across my desk. I will tell you this: If we cannot win this amendment, I say to my friend, I do not know who we are here fighting for. It does not make any sense. Set aside our differences on nuclear power, that does not even have to come into it. My friend from Pennsylvania says there is not a risk? Give me a break. Talk to any American businessman who has done business in China. I meet them all the time in California. Oh, everything is promised. Oh, it is all going to be great. Somehow it does not happen, and they are left holding the bag. I wish I could protect my California businesspeople. I cannot. But I sure can protect my California taxpayers. For 5,000 jobs in Pennsylvania--which, by the way, the Chinese Government admits they are going to take the technology. They admit it. I will give them that.…”