The Obama Watch
Obama’s Off-Shore Banking
In Asia, he plays pander bear and last emperor.
The White House tells reporters that America’s relationship with China “is at an all-time high.” Why? Are the Chinese impressed that Obama hires Marxists like Van Jones and admirers of Chairman Mao like Anita Dunn? No, the reason for the cozy relations is that America’s debt to China has reached an all-time high, and so Obama had no choice but to play the pander bear in Asia though he would prefer to emulate its old emperors.
He offered gaudy praise of China’s economy, “an accomplishment unparalleled in human history,” and soft-pedaled its record on human rights. The same moral relativism which excuses the human rights abuse of abortion at home crept into his remarks abroad: “It’s very important for the United States not to assume that what is good for us is automatically good for somebody else. We have to have some modesty about our attitudes towards other countries.”
America needs to make “progress” too, he reassured the Chinese, asserting that “old-fashioned ideas about the role of women in society” continue to bedevil the U.S. Suddenly, female feticide in China and reluctant housekeeping by American males were on the same moral plane.
Of much more interest to the Chinese than his musings on sexism is whether or not Obama can pay their loans back. While it may impress them in the abstract that his recently departed communications director counted Chairman Mao as one of her two favorite political philosophers, they would rather lend to reliable capitalists than aspiring Maoists.
According to Reuters, Chinese officials fear that Obama’s socialist-style health care could cause their massive loans to go up in smoke.
“It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions,” wrote James Pethokoukis. “Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade.”
During the trip Obama crowned himself the “first Pacific” president, having taken his first steps as a tot in Hawaii and spent quality time in Indonesia. But “First Pacific” sounds more appropriate as a name for his off-shore debt program.
George Bush Senior’s trip to Asia is remembered for his episode of vomiting on its leaders at a state meal; Obama’s will be remembered for bowing to them. His posturing took physical and moral form: bowing to the emperor of Japan, pandering to the bankers and tyrants of China.
The more undemocratic the ruler, the more deeply this self-described egalitarian president bows before them. Obama is committed to “equality” and forming a new world in its image, but almost literally trips over himself before Saudi princes and Asian emperors of ancient lineage.
The paradox is perhaps explained by his own taste for the trappings of power and the autocracy that lurks behind his egalitarianism. Grasping that his version of “equality” would require absolute power to achieve, Obama is easily awed before displays of it, even if only faded ones. He seems to envy the power of those unencumbered by democracy, a foreshadowing that the glorious new world he anticipates will more likely mirror the grimness of the old one.
His totalitarian hosts in China ludicrously serenaded him at a state dinner with the song, “We are the World.” But Obama isn’t interested in world democracy; he prefers to play its Caesar.
One of the photos used on the White House website from the trip captures his sense of self: Cleared of any one who might spoil the shot, he appears alone on the Great Wall, striding it solemnly in majestic solitude as the weight of the world rests on his shoulders.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
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Pingback| 11.19.09 @ 6:32AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Obama's Off-Shore Banking [spectator links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
bluecollarbytes| 11.19.09 @ 6:51AM
More than any president I remember, Obama is governed by his personal prejudices and bias. He knows that when he spews this stuff he's 'putting America in its place', offending those who actually make the country work (clue- it ain't govt). But after a life as an anti-American, Barack is to old and ideologically-entrenched to change stripes or his genuinely heart-felt disdain for this, the United States, which is the real "accomplishment unparalleled in human history".
Michael J Kubat| 11.19.09 @ 7:28AM
The first Pacific president, or the first putz president?
L. Ross| 11.19.09 @ 11:28AM
Nah, we've had plenty of putz presidents.
Howard| 11.19.09 @ 7:39AM
I enjoy the irony of the Chinese Communists worried that the apparently Capitalistic USA defaulting on its debt due to the imposition of Socialist health care. It doesn't get much better!
Pingback| 11.19.09 @ 7:39AM
The American Spectator : Obama's Off-Shore Banking links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.19.09 @ 8:12AM
The Language of Liberty | FortPatriot.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Plutocracy Buster | 11.19.09 @ 8:58AM
Yes Master! I won't charge you any import tax, just send all those toys ASAP. Look how all my banker friends destroyed the world economies so you could by America property a fire sale prices, HE, HE , HE, Ha. Excuse me Master I must go back to America to herd those dumb buffalo citizens. OK, OK you can keep all manufacturing by tax free imports just please let our Military Industrial Complex keep making and selling weapons, tee he.
Oreally| 11.19.09 @ 9:17AM
Interesting. So it's Obama's fault that we accumulated massive deficits under the W presidency by pouring trillions of dollars into that sand dumpster in the Middle East for no good reason? It's his fault that our companies' CEOs and our bankers got fat by drinking the blood of our citizens? Obama won't necessarily be a good president, but he's only been in there for a year. I'm more interested in HOW WE GOT HERE.
defeated pigs| 11.19.09 @ 10:34AM
How quick people forget that BUsh turned a surplus into the biggest deficit in US history. Mission Accomplished baby.
JimE| 11.19.09 @ 5:55PM
Moron Alert!
Shizzle| 11.19.09 @ 9:20AM
Of course we are bowing to the rest of the world. Just like the Brits before us, our betters overreached and then sold us into white slavery. And you want to blame Obama for that? Learn your history, young man.
louis tully| 11.19.09 @ 9:26AM
snort! even the Chicoms would take a pass on Pelosicare. Earth to Bowbama, Earth to Bowbama!
JT| 11.19.09 @ 9:37AM
Oreally and Shizzle, it would be nice if you would post cogent commentaries instead of inane tripe!!
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.19.09 @ 9:54AM
Ignore the children here. They will go away.
Adults, Let me 'splain something to you, heh, or perhaps remind you.
Remember the joke about the dentist assuring his patient that he wouldn't hurt him?
The rather canny patient then reached and firmly grasped the dentist's reproductive paraphernalia and replied: "Of course we won't hurt each other will we?"
We are China's biggest customer by far....and believe me they have their own problems if we quit buying their stuff even for a month.
We will continue paying the interest, and they will keep shipping their stuff here.
Tim| 11.19.09 @ 10:54AM
Massive inflation is the only way out from under this debt. The Chinese know this, and they are getting out of the dollar business.
Don | 11.19.09 @ 11:31AM
Mr Hu, tear down this wall!
Richard Baker| 11.19.09 @ 12:55PM
Kubat:
That's Emperor Putz I. Now that's different.
Jim Hlavac| 11.19.09 @ 1:03PM
We have absolutely no earthly idea as to whether any numbers issued by the Chinese government concerning economics is true or false. They are closely guarded state secrets and communist-feel good numbers. Sort of like we have no earthly idea as to whether any numbers issued by the Democrats on Health Care are true -- the legislation itself is apparently a state secret. Legislation that is unparalleled human achievement in pettifogging rapscallionhood.
France was mighty indeed, what with all those cathedrals and palaces, but then the king's head fell off. So much for outwards signs of wealth. And Versailles is unparalleled human achievement, for the price of a few millions starving frenchmen, not a bad price I suppose, from Louis and Marie's viewpoint, until those last moments I'd imagine it wasn't so bad.
One could also argue that slaughtering 70,000,000 and enslaving the rest of the billion or so folks there in such a short time was also an accomplishment unparalleled in human history. Not even Stalin could do that, and lord knows he tried.
And Obama, of all people, should be wary of extolling the wealth of plantation owners as individual or even societal achievements -- after all, per capita, black slaves in the south on a rich plantation were "per capita" better off than their free white counterparts -- and all that cotton picking was also an unparalleled human achievement.
Marc Jeric| 11.19.09 @ 2:55PM
We have an American Julius Caesar - Abu Hussein from Kenya, our Community Organizer-in-Chief, with His nose in the air and a smirk on His face when coming out to address His subjects.
Flee| 11.19.09 @ 3:53PM
I'm happy it's not just me that sees his arrogant posture and look when supposedly listening to someone. I don't think he knows how offputting it is to anyone with a sense of themself. He is so enamored of hearing his own speech that he has no real interest in what anyone else says. Standing there with his nose held high in true emperor fashion. It makes me wonder if he realizes there will always come a day when the other side is back in power. All his cronies should try to remember that when they implement his grand schemes.
Jake| 11.19.09 @ 5:35PM
We hope that time is soon. That is why the Lord says stand firm until the end. We Christians know how the story ends, the devil is defeated.
Brian| 11.19.09 @ 9:36PM
The leftists in this country hate bankers unless they are communists bankers. Thus they love the bank of China. (Proverbs 22:7 ..the borrower is servant to the lender)
free realms coins | 11.20.09 @ 8:23AM
That's Emperor Putz I. Now that's different.
bobc| 11.20.09 @ 10:29AM
For the first time in my lifetime, I have cried at what is happening to our country, our sovereignty and our land of opportunity!
I am at a loss, as to what to do to stop this.
JAKE| 11.20.09 @ 10:49PM
As the bible says, stand firm til the end. You realize now is the time not to waiver your beliefs. The Lord will take care of this. It may not be our way but the LORD will prevail.
www.us-bapeoutlet.com | 4.2.10 @ 10:04PM
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Trackback| 4.10.10 @ 4:57PM
Asian Women Info, on Asian Women Info, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt: