Among the first orders of business when Congress returns from summer vacation will be President Bush's request for another $50 billion for the Iraq war, pushing the war total well past $500 billion. Remember when Bush claimed the "cakewalk" war would cost no more than $60 billion, then fired economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey in 2002 for saying it would cost as much as $200 billion?
To finance the new $50 billion, the U.S. Treasury will borrow more money and issue more IOUs.
The most likely lender will be communist Mainland China, now the largest U.S. creditor, holding some $420.2 billion in U.S. Treasury notes by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
How ironic.
China's 10,000 unregulated toy factories have been dumping poisonous, lead-loaded toys on the U.S. market while President Bush has chopped funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which now has only one toy-tester at work.
In addition, the Food and Drug Administration is so short of inspectors it failed to spot the lethal dog food and toothpaste products being made like witches brew in makeshift Chinese factories and imported to American consumers.
China already has virtual veto power over U.S. policy toward pro-American Taiwan. Will the Bush White House now be shackled by demanding China improve its product safety at the very time the Bush White House may need more money from China to bankroll the Iraq war?
As Founding Father Benjamin Franklin warned, "creditors have better memories than debtors."
