John Sarbanes: “that is the question I wanted to put to my colleague. As I understand what is happening, we are becoming increasingly…”

“that is the question I wanted to put to my colleague. As I understand what is happening, we are becoming increasingly dependent economically on countries abroad. We are losing control over our own economic destiny. They say, well, they are still willing to lend us this money. That may be, but in the course of doing it, we become more and more dependent upon them. They can continue to give us the money, we get deeper and deeper into the hole, which then raises the prospect that if they shift their policy, we can take a very serious hit. There is no commentator I have read who believes we can continue on this path indefinitely. At some time there will be a reckoning. What has happened is the United States has become dependent on the kindness of strangers. We say we are No. 1, that we have the world's strongest economy. Yet we are in hock to everyone around the world. The Senator showed the figures of the holdings of other countries. The China figures, which are still well short of Japan, are going up on an ascending trend that is almost breathtaking in terms of how much deeper we get into hock. I ask the Senator, not only does that have serious economic implications, but doesn't it also reduce our ability to deal on important political and security issues when we are this indebted and this dependent on others in economic terms?…”