April 20, 2011
In a front page article the Washington Post included an uncorrected comment from a random constituent of Representative David Schweikert asserting that if the government doesn’t curb its borrowing that, “pretty soon foreign countries will be owning us.”
Of course borrowing from abroad is determined by the trade deficit, not the budget deficit. The trade deficit is in turn determined largely by the value of the dollar. People who are concerned about foreign countries “owning us” should be yelling about the over-valued dollar, not the budget deficit.
The Post should not have printed this comment without correction. Many politicians and demagogues have attempted to exploit nationalistic and racist sentiments to push their agenda for deficit reduction. A responsible newspaper would not encourage this behavior.
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